Bradford

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

 

This looks brill and is permanent

 

Must admit I did think the city centre looked a lot better this year and a lot brighter than previous years.

 

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.

 

I was there yesterday, 2-6pm, I don't have any qualms about spending all my money there and we are lucky it's right next door. The buzz is incredible, it's left Manchester & Liverpool well behind, right now Leeds feels like it's going to explode.

The Arena was a concert specific build, no fannying about with multi-purpose this and that, just the best view possible for the customer. Think of the money that place bring into Leeds, hotels, taxis, restaurants, bars, 13500 customers a show!

 

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.

 

I don't think you can promote something that isn't there. And there's a reason they didn't link the stations like they proposed at the start of the century, even then it was just too costly and the investment would never had been recouped. Going back 30 years or so Leeds was just as run down as any other major city in England, Bradford included. But just look where Leeds is situated, flat areas of prime building land, potential to extend and develop major road and rail links. Bradford just doesn't have that potential. Take the Sunbridge Wells for instance. A decent development but its built on sales of alcohol and who in this city is going to use it? We have no one from outside the city coming in to visit, most of the people who live in the inner city don't drink for various reasons and the ones who do are more likely to drink at home due to low income. Pains me to say it because its my home town, but just like the football and rugby team of its name, Bradford as a city will never go anywhere. There are other areas like Bradford in terms of industrial decline, but a lot of them don't have the geographical problems that Bradford do.

 

We have racial problems too, probably the biggest reason why the centre is dying on it's arse with hardly any "spenders" to be seen.

My sons have gone, neither will ettle back in Bradford, other places open their eyes. One child to go then Mrs Abbo and I are off.

 

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.

 

I've had a similar experience - the folk I've taken out have really enjoyed it. (Sunbridge Wells, Lord Clyde, Fighting C0ck was the last crawl.)

Thing is they're unlikely to do it regularly, unfortunately.

 

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 went today taking my daughter to Waterstones. It was poor weather but the centre was astonishingly quiet, it was just so depressing, no life. We got the book and tomorrow it's Xmas shopping in Leeds.

 

It is the draconian policies of the councils planning dept who seem to have a default position of saying no or micro managing any proposal, Compare this with Leeds planning who seem to have a default position of saying yes unless blindingly obvious it is a detriment to the area, Leeds Arena and such as the new Kirkstall shopping area would never be given permission in Bradford

 

Of course it's all the council's fault. Because mega companies are just queuing up to pile money into Bradford and the council keeps knocking them back.
Seriously, which planet are you on?

 

I know Leeds quite well and, believe me, many of the inner city areas/ suburban council estates are just as run down as anywhere in Bradford. The center seems to exist in a gentrified bubble by virtue of being the biggest center in the w.yorks conurbation/ core city status it seems to attract the bulk of both public and private sector investment.
Bradford is in a kind of limbo, being too small to compete with Leeds but too big to become a ‘niche’ town. The center needs to downsize, concentrate on the ‘bottom of town’ area while the top should be residential/ light industrial.
Bradford still has a desent economy despite what the doomongers say. My sister works in London and still says Bradford is the place for fabric/ textlie specialists.
The key is to get those earning their brass in Bradford to spend it in Bradford

 

You keep your head in the sand its comfy there, The fact is that years of refusal of business plans and investment has meant that company's just do not even consider Bradford as an opportunity anymore, And why should they? It costs an enormous amount of money drawing up plans and applying for schemes only for it to be wasted when refused, Why would you do that when less than 10 miles away a business friendly planning dept will almost certainly help and pass your plans without hindrance

 

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?

 

Bradford cannot compete with Leeds on the mass retail front, However a change of plan where we develop and build a garden city, A clean attractive place to visit with good seating and eating and more niche shopping in the centre and promotions and street entertainment etc is an option that may bring more footfall