Just read Nosey Parkers story of a 'breakthrough' on the stadium front for Wakefield. In it he mentions Balne Lane which has been doing the rounds for a few weeks now so hardly a scoop. But what finally made me consign it to the bin marked 'Nonsense' was when he described the site as being, "Just a mile from the city's[i thriving[/i shopping centre ".

Now I'm all for talking things up, but 'thriving' is not a word I'd use when talking about our shopping centre.

Trinity Walk is just as `thriving` as any other shopping centre I have been to, I don`t think there is an empty unit there and is always packed come the weekend.

I'm sure Donald Trump has a suitable word to describe Wakefield City centre.

Trinity Walk alone is a small part of the city centre and to be honest does nothing for me.

But NP`s comment was not about the city centre as a whole, it may not do anything for you but does not mean its not thriving - The amount of people through its doors and attraction of the big retailers proves it is.

Granted the introduction of TW was the last nail in the coffin for the Ridings centre but it was on it`s way out anyway. As a whole there is no denying Trinity Walk attracts more visitors to Wakefield.

FWIW it is not for me either, I am gutted there is no longer the market in the city which leaves me going to Huddersfield on a Saturday morning.

I can never get over the loss of The Mitre to accommodate The Ridings Centre.

The City Centre is not thriving.

Trinity walk looks good and is generally pretty busy BUT, it killed the Ridings / Cathederal side of the city stone dead.
The Council then made a right royal mess of the outdoor and indoor market, trying to turn it into something that it never was and was never going to be and so we now have a "white elephant shopping centre and market stallls littered up and down the precinct and these are the idiots who we are hoping can sort out the community stadium.
Dont mention the fountain which is just embarrassing and the old Pinderfields and Clayton hospital sites, which have been in decay for far too many years." P1$$ up in a brewery" and "couldn't organise" spring to mind.

Wakefield used to be a decent town centre but, there is no cohesive planning around the area.

We have the Hepworth which is an excellent gallery but, at a substantial cost and the new West Yorkshire History Centre which look great but, at what cost to the ratepayers of the city ??

This was my point, I was talking solely about Trinity Walk not the City Centre as the original comments from Nosey Parker were.

Agree with the rest of your post - The most frustrating for me has to be spending £5 mil on a nice new shiny market hall that has been a complete failure right from the very off and now a few years later they are tearing it down to build a cinema!

Why the Ridings got rid of the food court down at the bottom and filled in the first-floor balcony I'll never know. That along with when Trinity opened a fair number of businesses went up there, has left it struggling.

As for the City , with the obvious advent of people preferring to use online stores being the biggest hit on bricks and mortar shops. Plus in Wakefield, we have places just out of the with free parking, like along Ings road where Sainsbury's is and the Ings road retails park, plus to some extent, the new one near the 41 Ind. Estate. Add all the above to some questionable decisions from the Council over the years as a whole, is maybe a reason why Kirkgate being run down as well. Which will hopefully get sorted, as they are meant to be doing it up in stages> It just needs some real investment in the old Cinema area.

The above has changed Wakefield no end from say the 80's & 90's.

Definitely agree about the Clayton site but I'm not sure where you get that about Pinderfields, where is it in decay? Stanley Royd all got converted into a housing estate (which they're still extending atm) and they built a new Pinderfields and new Eye Clinic with a huge car park on the site. There literally is no spare land or anything in decay at Pinderfields.
You can't have been in past in a fair few years WC.

That literally is one of the craziest things this lot in charge have done to this City and that's saying something. It's not like we haven't got a perfectly good Multiplex just down the road that's perfectly adequate for a City of our size.

Referring to a previous post from you there is one empty unit on Trinity Walk with another one shortly, Timpsons are relicating their shop.

There’s some good things happening to the City Centre. The way we use City centres are changing it’s becoming more leisure/shopping mix not just 9-5, the way we shop has changed and the City Centre needs to change with it. Trinity Walk is a massive success, Northgate is becoming a pleasant night out with all the restaurants and a cinema will compliment that part of town. Merchant gateway is getting there and decent bars popping up all over the City Centre. The new market Hall was a disaster and losing BHS has affected the precinct with lots of closed shops but you’ll see the same in most City/town Centres. Watching the mighty Trin at the new community stadium on Balne Lane then short walk to a nice eatery on Northgate what a perfect leisure time experience. The council has held this City back and the way they’ve handled the community stadium is disgusting but the City Centre is a lot better than it was.