“Our city is in real danger of having a collection of white elephants dotted around a city centre that continues to decline.”
Brendan Stubbs, Lib Dem Cllr, Bradford.
A strange feeling overcame me this week; I actually agreed with a Lib Dem councillor.
Regular readers will not be surprised to note sympathy for the councillor’s criticisms of the plans to turn much of Bradford city centre into a “village”. Let the well-heeled punters flood in.
If you missed this have a look at the attached article.
Whilst Stubbs offers no real alternative – it is hard to think of quick fixes for decades of decline – the notion of a vibrant, resurgent city centre based on shoe-box apartments is fantasy.
People have been moving out of city centres since the evolution of the motor car. Of course, several cities do have large city centre populations, notably Leeds and Manchester; they also have huge commercial and retail sectors.
Those of us able to recall previous grand designs will shudder at the mention of Bradford’s 2003 Masterplan. Architect Will Alsop was commissioned to articulate a new look for Bradford and came up with a Northern Thunderbirds.
Viewing a scale model, I wondered what they had been smoking in the conception of it all. Of course, nothing happened; nor did it in Barnsley where the same Alsop declared the town to be the Tuscany of the North..probably for a fat fee too.
And here we are again.
Wapping Puddle
Amongst many fine old buildings left to rot in Bradford is the old Wapping School featured last week in this article. The reality is there is no way back for buildings like this; where would the millions needed come from and to what end?
For many, it will have sentimental value. As my primary school did not have a swimming pool our weekly bus ride to have swimming lessons, barely a mile down the hill, was full of excitement.
Rich for barely ten minutes with my extra spending money having not survived Mr Patel’s VG shop and the weekly order of Tudor crisps and Barrs cream soda, we strode to school.
The clamber for the best seats on the bus – the back – was survival of the fittest. And then the magic of Wapping Puddle as we called it. The boys and girls changing rooms were at opposite ends of the small bath and teachers guarded any attempts to wiggle out like deranged worms.
If we laid on the cold tiles – and we did – we could see the girls’ feet and ankles – and that was all we needed back then. Once let loose we were all Tarzans and bedlam ensued despite valiant attempts to teach us something useful.
I lost a tooth there, my puny biceps failing to launch me out of the waters like I’d seen Tarzan. It was a magical old place and so sad to see it rot away, even if Mother Nature does her best to shield the decaying old beauty.
Odsal…Again
As my Mum rocked in her chair close to needing a visit across the landing, herself the victim of endless stories suggesting all manner of wild plans re Odsal stadium over decades, I steeled myself to read the latest.
Councils can apply for pots of government money – £20m per constituency with two £50m pots nationally – and Bradford has already submitted five constituency bids. Having had time to consider a bid for the jackpot what have the dopes come up with?
A 25,000 covered all-seater stadium to house a third-rate rugby team that can barely get four thousand spectators each game.
“Analysis shows the new complex would attract more than 1.25 million visitors a year and lead to £625 million visitor spend and more than £1bn of socio-economic benefits for Bradford district. So said somebody not brave enough to put their name to this garbage.
Here are some more cold hard facts for Hapless and her brainless cronies.
1 – this assumes that each visitor will spend £500 per visit.
2 – the total cost of the roof alone over Wimbledon Centre Court was estimated at £80–£100 million (Wikipedia)
3 – Leeds Rhinos rank at the top for average attendance in 2022 with an official figure of 12,940.
4 – The figures equate to a full house every week but to watch what bearing in mind the Bulls play fourteen home games?
Time for a beer!
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