My speech on Bradford City centre to Politics in the Pub

For those of you who missed last night's Bradford Politics in the Pub event, here is my short speech about the regeneration of our City centre and the Council's current proposals. We were asked "how do we solve a problem like Darley Street?"

"Forgive me for not answering your question. I really do think it’s the wrong question for all that we’re rightly concerned about the future of that street.

It’s more important, I feel, that we think about the longer term, about the future of the high street and the role of City Centres like Bradford.

When big and successful centres like Leeds and Manchester are starting to question the size of their retail footprint – about shrinking the centre, as it were – it seems silly of Bradford to think in a different direction.

The idea that retail alone – or even in large part – can deliver a future city centre is, I fear, delusional. Those things in your pockets and handbags ensure you can buy stuff at the flip of a finger and have it delivered to your door – city centres will never compete with this shopping offer.

We need a different answer. One that works for Bradford.

14 years ago, Bradford asked Will Alsop to provide a city centre master plan. I posted the result – or at least the video that accompanied the plan – on the Politics in the Pub facebook page – if you’ve not seen it, it is easily googled.

Once you got past the teddy bears and blobby architecture, Alsop’s plan was genuinely radical.

So genuinely radical that we ignored it.

Alsop proposed an anti-development masterplan. A completely different take on a city centre. One that played to the uniqueness of Bradford as a place and to the city’s challenges with land values and investment.

Alsop said ‘knock down the ugly stuff, the results of Wardley’s 1960s redesign of the City Centre, and replace it with a park.’

That was pretty much it. For sure there were bits of detail. Some debate about whether there should be no planned new development or just very little.

It’s time for us to look again.

What are centres for?

Here’s a list from American ethnographers Susie Pryor and Sanford Grossbart:

“…dining; window shopping; strolling for relaxation; jogging for health reasons; pub crawls; wine tastings; book clubs; language clubs; craft guilds; charity events; art events; parades; demonstrations; mass celebrations following major sports victories; and meeting friends.”

You might care to add to this list but I do know that, when Bradford City are promoted to the Premiership it won’t be celebrated by buying stuff on Amazon – the flags, parades, banners and beer will be here in the city.

Imagine that in a place that’s like a park? For a fleeting moment Bradford has a glimpse of that dream.

But we put it away. Searched instead for “high value demographics”, “enhanced land values”, and “new investment profiles”. Development bollocks.

Bradford doesn’t have the values right now to deliver shiny retail, grade ‘A’ office space or high quality market housing. So simply moving bits of the city about – fixing Darley Street by shutting down the main generator of footfall in the ‘top of town’ seems to be simply robbing Peter to pay Paul.

So let’s do to the top of town what Alsop told us to do – turn it into a park. A destination. That might just work. It seems right now a better bet than waiting for millions of private investment in housing that probably isn’t going to arrive in Bradford city centre any time soon."

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Westfield - a response to a commenter

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An anonymous commentor (why the need to hide - I'm not going to eat you for heaven's sake) has a bit of an ill-informed go at me. I've fisked the comment - not a regular habit here but I thought worthwhile on this occasion:

"I've just read your piece in issue 7 of Bradford Howdo? magazine, headed with this quote 'Sometimes I sits and thinks, and sometimes I just sits'"

The original piece on this blog was titled:

...and sometimes I sits and thinks (this time about Westfield and Bradford)

Quite apt really, because you haven't actually ever done anything to help the regeneration in Bradford.

Here’s a selected few things (from memory) I've had a hand in:

• Secured the restoration of Manningham Mills
• Improvements to Manningham Park
• The rescuing of Eastbrook Hall
• Robert’s Park, Saltaire
• Bradford International Markets Festival
• City Park
• Impressions Gallery & Gallery One
• Refurbishment of John Street Market
• Airedale greenways project
• Airedale Partnership
• Broadband enablement of the whole District
• Improvements to Keighley market

I find the disdain and apathy which oozes through in your piece, along with your derogatory use off the word 'agitators' to describe people who are sick to death of inept politicians and corporations who have destroyed a section of Bradford, deeply offensive.

While I suspect the “offence” here is pretty false, I’ll take the sentiment as honest. But “disdain” and “apathy” aren’t sentiments I recognise from my thoughts – do people really think we are less frustrated, less concerned, more unbothered about the prospects of development at Westfield?

But you're a councillor aren't you, so we shouldn't expect anything else.

Understand that people who have lived in Bradford are utterly disgusted with you, the councillors and the corporations who have decimated Bradford. And your snide use of descriptive language against people with a valid repulsion at what's happened is a disgrace.

I used the term “agitator” as an accurate description – it isn’t remotely snide. Here’s what I said:

I’m going to start with the unpopular bit – throughout the development the council has acted in good faith and has delivered on the promises it made to developers, Yorkshire Forward, the Department for Communities and Local Government, and through them the European Commission. Occupiers, agitators and those riding the bandwagon of local annoyance may wish it to be otherwise but councils are in the business of running local services not developing shopping centres.

 

How long has that hole has been there? Why is it taking so long?

Broadway was demolished in 2006 which makes the ‘hole’ about six now – far too long as we’re oft reminded. But, as I tried to explain, development is down to the developer. I guess we could discuss a “compulsory purchase” of the site – on what grounds I have no idea – which would be opposed, would cost a couple of million in legal fees and would leave Bradford Council owning the “hole”. Perhaps the agitators and occupiers have the £200 million needed to build a shopping centre and know lots of retailers who want to set up shop in the new centre?

Whole cities get rebuilt after the tragedy of war in a fraction of the time it takes to build a bloody shopping center (sic).

With billions in public investment. Bradford Council has quite significant reserves – around £180 million – but not enough to build a shopping centre.

You should be ashamed of yourself, but you're not are you? Like the council and Westfield you simply don't care.

When I became Executive Portfolio Holder for Regeneration in 2000, a friend remarked that Bradford was beyond redemption and I was wasting my time. I said then and still believe that we are better being condemned for trying to do something to improve our City than doing nothing. I’m proud of the efforts we made – including the hundreds of hours trying to get Broadway out of the ground. We might have been mistaken but it wasn’t because we didn’t care. I don’t think anyone holding the Regeneration Portfolio holder’s role before or since showed more passion or commitment to bettering the City than I did.

Obviously I can’t comment about Westfield. I hope they care but they may not – go ask them.

 (I won't be accepting any more Anonymous comments on this subject - if you've something to say, be honest about it and give your name)

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