“There are four kinds of people to avoid in the world: the assholes, the asswipes, the ass-kissers, and those that just will shit all over you.” Anthony Liccione
I have pointed out many times the propensity of the local rag to trumpet announcements from Muppet Hall without any questioning journalism.
Here is the latest offering.
Projects that could see over £100 million spent on transforming Bradford city centre are about to take the next step forward. Suspend disbelief; imagine if these projects actually do amount to more than architects and consultants fees. Here they are:
-Transforming Access to Bradford Interchange. Expected to cost between £15.6m and £19.3m…project will involve the demolition of the existing car park to create a new entrance to the station.
Having already spent several million purchasing the car park they now intend to knock it down. Why? So the throngs of visitors to Bradford get a view of the back of City Hall instead of the side of St George’s Hall.
-Active and Sustainable Transport Across Bradford City Centre. This project will cost between £27.1m and £33.2m and involve the pedestrianisation of part of Hall Ings (and) Market Street. A small area of green space between City Hall and Hall Ings, will also be expanded.
Great news for cyclists and tumbleweed then. As for the green space, they have a “shovel ready” site on which instead they intend to build a new office block, One City Park.
-South Bradford Park and Ride and Expressway…will create a 1,000 space car park near the M606…costing between £26.7m and £32.7m, it will involve the creation of a two lane bus expressway on the busy corridor as well as a separate cycle lane.
If you were in South Bradford i.e. near the new Low Moor train why not hop on a train? They have also spent millions on guided buses down Manchester Road. Plus, surely this is not the intended future use for the Richard Dunn site?
-West Bradford Cycle Superhighway will see the creation of a seven kilometre, £17.5m segregated cycleway and improved pedestrian facilities from the city centre, down Thornton Road.
Who in their right mind would consider cycling this route every day; you would be safer in Baghdad.
Post Covid cities will have one chance to get it right. Leaving this in the control of the buffoons at City Hall will ensure Bradford remains in the slow lane.
Finally, all these projects have to be completed by March 2023 which would be a stretch even in China. Given this, why is it that the cost variances are circa 23%? That is some cock-up fund.
Money Pit
That shining light of community harmony Naz Shah, MP, offered a contribution to the local rag this week: ‘Protecting Bradford’s green spaces is vital in fight against obesity’ It was a well-written piece and I hope she thanked her intern for it.
She focuses on the Manningham Mills area where millions were poured in here a few decades ago. On cue she refers to support from Hapless Hinchcliffe; cue the shaking of the money tree.
She explained that that local ward councillors were raising similar issues and that as lockdown measures ease, the Council will be looking to progress plans to ensure the space is developed for more suitable use.
Across town, investment in local sports facilities in BD10 generally amounts to no more than the grass being periodically cut on Idle Rec. Evermore, ordinary kids find sport either simply unavailable or too expensive.
With inimitable hypocrisy, Hapless and co prefer to sell off green space in these parts to the developers. Whenever the money tree shakes. it tends only to do so in certain postcodes.
When We Were Kings And Queens
This week I gave blood again at the centre on Manor Row in Bradford. It was a nostalgic walk as I dodged the tumbleweed, dreaming of several decades ago when the buildings teemed with nightlife and nobody ever countenanced getting on a train to Leeds.
Cloud Nine, Manor Bar, JB’s, The Courthouse…hell, I even got a bit nostalgic for the sticky carpets of VIPs. And what now but a ghost town as magnificent old buildings sport cheap, tacky signage or simply lie abandoned forever.
Shipwrecked?
Watching Deadliest Catch the other night, there was a tense moment and nothing to do with crabs. A boat began to list heavily and the crew raced against time to pump water out to save their skins. This was real life and real work.
Meanwhile, in the House of Commons, not one Labour MP turned up to vote on the latest amendment to a bill designed to protect our post-Brexit fisheries.
I am sure the other lot do just the same so maybe they ought to spend a day on a trawler seeing how ordinary people have to make a living whilst they toss it off.
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