Bradford Live

Surely the bigger question is what the hell are NEC playing at?
The work on the venue has been done and, by all accounts, it’s terrific. It’s now down to NEC to secure the acts and get the place up and running. Why aren’t they doing so and why won’t they tell us what’s happening?

 

Ross Shaw is a director of Bradford Live and also responsible for the huge input of taxpayers money on the massively over budget project. How about he pulls his finger out of his arse and start chasing up some answers.

 

My guess is the Council will stay quiet until NEC have actually either given official notice on the contract or broken the contract some how. I'm guessing currently neither of those things have happened

 

I see Bradford Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe has claimed she is too busy to either sit down with the T&A or have a phone call to answer some questions on Bradford Live, instead opting with a prepared statement that avoids the difficult questions that are being asked, such as when will it open and are the NEC still taking it on?

When responses are limited it usually means bad news, look back at the initial stories regarding the interchange or go back to the saga over Westfield mothballing the shopping centre in the past. Susan Hinchcliffe was all over the news the other day when it was news about a potential tram from Leeds to Bradford as that was good news.

 

Factory International Manchester.

Original budget: £110m
Actual cost: About £240m
Capacity: 5,000

In a city awash with music and theatre venues.

The relationship between public sector capital spending and private business cost overruns should be subject to a national enquiry. It is obscene.

 

It's almost as if there is a collection of people making a lot of money from building these pleasure domes.

Or is just me, my cynical self, and my doubts that make me lack confidence in the varacity of local councils.

 

My guess is that NEC have got cold feet, decided they won’t make enough money from Bradford Live and are trying to welsh on the deal they signed up to.
I reckon there are legal discussions between the council and NEC going on in the background and neither side wants to bring the details out in the open in the hope that it can be settled without an acrimonious and very expensive court battle.

 

alternatively whoever budgets them puts in low budgets knowing that way it will get agreed but also knowing it will overspend whereas if a true figure was put in the building wouldn’t happen

 

If Bradford Council have some concrete in writing then why not just say. Just throw it out there and say a contract is in place with NEC and our part of the deal has been done, it is now up to the NEC to run the show.

If there is nothing concrete then I fear we have another Westfield on our hands when because there were no penalties in place to get something done, the site just stood empty for years.

Based on recent history and the competence of those running Bradford Council, I have little faith in them.

 

Isn’t that exactly what they have said? When questioned recently about why it hasn’t opened the council spokesperson said ‘these are questions you should be asking NEC’.

 

Council spokesman? The same 'spokesman' who is a director of Bradford Live. I mean know the likes of Hinchcliffe and Ross-Shaw are out of their depth but even then they should be able to communicate with the Bradford public.

 

So what do you want them to say? “NEC have fecked us over and left us in the shite by refusing to run the venue in the way they’re legally contracted to do”?
I’m sure they would be saying words to that effect if they’d reached a total impasse, relations had completely broken down, they’d accepted that Bradford Live will not be operational any time soon and they were preparing to sue NEC for breach of contract and massive compensation.

But, with Capital of Culture fast approaching, the stakes are massively high and I’m sure they are still hoping to resolve things behind the scene to get this venue working as a centrepiece for CoC. If that’s correct, then it’s a case of ‘least said, soonest mended’. Which will be why they aren’t making any definitive statements that could potentially undermine negotiations.

 

As a blunt Yorkshireman i'd like them to be bloody honest with us. How the hell has it got to this point that the building is pretty much finished bar a final fit out yet the venue hasn't started booking acts or entertainment yet? Why exactly do we have what seems an impasse with the two parties yet over £40 million of taxpayers money has gone into the scheme and as it stands right now we ain't seeing a date for when the venue actually starts to pay that money back. Its an absolute shambles but nothing surprises me where Bradford Council are concerned.
There's clearly a reason NEC aren't saying anything, i agree with your summary that they are looking for a way out. But why? Surely this should have been sorted out before now, acts will have already pencilled in a lot of their tour dates for next year, are we now looking at 2026 before the debt to the taxpayer starts getting paid back?

 

Until NEC have actually broken the contract the Council will not want to make any public statement that makes NEC look bad otherwise it could be held against them in any court case later. It is obvious that it is going tits up as we all can see as no acts have been announced, or they have and then cancelled, nothing is on sale and no offical opening date has been set.,

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24535843.camra-winter-beer-festival-held-magna-rotherham/

 

That's a real shame.

 

Exactly.
The burning question is, what the hell are NEC playing at?

 

The new Darley Street Market...

Our amazing council have come out today with news that yet another £2.4m is needed to progress, and still with no completion date in sight...

Initial plan - open in Autumn 2023 at a cost of £23.5m

This later increased by a huge £3.5m to £27m with the bots in charge simply blaming it on inflation (wow)

Then another £1.4m was required earlier this year to "fit out the food and drinks hall" (sorry surely this would have been in the original scope of supply...???)

Now another £2.4m is required for help towards "complexities of construction" - basically to prop up neighbouring properties. Where are the structural engineers who originally advised on this catastrophe, and why are their heads not on the chopping block?!?

So just suppose it eventually comes in at £31m (which I seriously doubt it will do) that would be a 32% increase on the original figure. Imagine if you were having a house built and the builders turned around and said you owed them another third of the cost...! Not to mention over a year late

Has this atrocious idiotic council - headed by Hinchliffe - ever actually delivered a project on time and within budget?? NO. In any other profession they would have been sacked within the first few weeks. In fact they wouldn't have even been considered for the roles. I have worked in project/contract management for most of my adult life and this absolutely infuriates me. And then when you realise it is taxpayers money being spaffed continuously whilst those "in charge" keep rewarding themselves, the anger could easily give you a coronary

 

In the absence of Bradford Live...

 

https://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/24550770.piece-hall-big-name-headliners-signed-2025/

The local rag sticking the boot it by promoting the good work done by near by venue. The Piece Hall already booking acts for 2025, the Odeon might be lucky to get acts booked for 2026 by this rate.