Most liked posts in thread: Bradford

Nope, wrong again, I have worked around that area for over 30 years, after a rough time in the 80's Barnsley has found its feet again, great people despite that they keep voting red when they are not like that at all when you talk to them....

 

Yes residential and office(I work there).. but many residents are unemployed and many of them are into criminal activities.. never a day goes by without a police visit or two.

 

This "dodgy at night" thing is just summat I rarely see. Certainly no more than in other places.

 

Aye, fair enough.

The more I read about the BID stuff - businesses being responsible for a kitty of money to make improvements in the centre - the more it seems the best way forward.

Taking some power and decisions away from the council, basically.

 

I think you had to pay to get in. The fact the council could not organise the big screen in town for such an event when they had years to do it speaks volumes for their incompetence. Why have a big screen and an area specifically designed for large public gatherings?

 

A supposed major city that can't handle an event such as this, questions need to be asked of the council and whether it is fit for purpose? The money a fan zone would have generated in centenary square, especially with the favourable kick off times, would have more than paid for itself and the policing costs. Excuse after excuse from a governing body that continuously shows its completely incapable of running this metropolitan district.

 

They did it the first time after the screen went up and there was trouble and fighting. So they decided not to do it again as they would need to police it and probably stop all the bars serving booze which the owners wouldn’t be happy about

 

Could make a cracking "Museum of Bradford/Yorkshire".

 

Good luck to them, I hope it is a success.

 

This looks brill and is permanent

 

Took a trip to the Leeds Arena last night for a concert. A rare outing for myself as i'm not a lover of busy places but have to say i was very impressed with the place. Great venue and the whole area ridiculously busy. The city centre was pretty much everything Bradford wasn't, vibrant and full, all the bars and restaurants packed out. Building work going on everywhere, its very impressive. Which leads me to whats being built in Bradford? Yup, nothing. No reason for people to come to a city dying on its arse. The one reason, and i stated this years back was to get the Odeon back up and running as an entertainment venue. And does anyone have any idea if anything at all has actually been done or are the developers still living in dream land? You can bet your arse that if Leeds city council had been in charge of the Odeon project it would have been up and running now and giving a return on its investment.
Why anyone would ever feel the need to go into Bradford city centre on a night when you have Leeds about 15 minutes away on a train? I'd rather go to Halifax or somewhere like Hebden Bridge for a meal than traipse into the cesspit of our city centre.

Rant over.

 

Bradford as a city is dead. It died a long time ago. The world moves on but Bradford hasn't. Thats because it can't. I've discussed this many times with people and on this forum. In truth Bradford was a city that should never have been built, for future expansion purposes its in the completely wrong area geographical wise. Hell, even Hitler couldn't be bothered trying to destroy it in WW2. Eventually we will get swallowed up in the Leeds city area, its called progression. My whole annoyance in this whole thing is the way Bradford councils past and present have wasted millions of tax payers money trying to delay the inevitable with hair brained schemes and pie in the sky projects trying to resuscitate a terminally ill patient. This cities whole reason for being in the first place died off decades ago, to see it become the slum that its becoming is disappointing. But time moves on and the sooner we realise that we don't really need the likes of Hinchcliffe and her mob of brainless sycophants squandering millions that could be better spent building a better transport infrastructure to get to Leeds.
I was born and raised here, will probably drop dead here but realise there is nothing here for my lad. Told him the best thing he can do is get as far away from here as possible when he leaves school and goes to university. I wish i had done the same, just wasn't clever enough.

 

Had a rare night out in Bradford town centre last weekend. Took some work colleagues who live in Halifax and Leeds and to be fair they were pleasantly surprised, especially the young girls surprisingly who loved the Sunbridge Wells in particular.
I know it doesnt compare with Leeds overall, but we had a good night actually.

 

Think this is sadly the case for most. Every now and again you'll have a night in Bradford rather than going to Leeds/Salatire/Guiseley etc and enjoy it but it might be 3/6 months before you do it again.

 

I'd agree with that........generally.........but Leeds centre has zapped off into the distance now, with Bradfordians spending a leisure day there, shopping, food, drinks, they can't do that in Bradford. So Bradford earners will continue to spend in Leeds, it's not just Bradfordians, trains churn out 1000's of people from all over the North every weekend every hour. We cannot compete.

I'd agree with downsizing the retail centre, but concentrating on the "bottom of town" largely favours a semi-permanent, very second class (non-Bradford) mall, I wish it had never been built but what can you do now?

 

Yeah i get Broadway is little more than a McMall, but i think it is marginally better than the offerings in Wakefield and Huddersfield.
The point i was making is that the centre is too fragmented and that Broadway is the closest we have to a 'anchor' destination. To be fair the immediate vicinity looks smarter than it did pre Broadway and hopefully this will gradually spread towards Ivegate/ Tyrell St in due course.
The council has plans to move the market to Darley street so it will be interesting to see how this plays out in terms of footfall.

We need to forget 'competing' with Leeds and devise our own strategy.
The writing was on the wall in the 90s. The moment the government chose to build the new NHS executive on the site of the old Quarry Hill council estate it was clear who the regional 'winner' was going to be.

One thing i think Bradford suffers from is the chronic lack of investment in public transport in relation to the size of its population. The city feels choked at the best of times.

 

No they won't.

They will be regional retail winners where people go to shop, eat and drink. Locally Leeds will thrive, York will be fine and Hull ok because if you live there where else would you shop?