A CITY shopping centre is celebrating a six figure increase in visitors in only its third year of business.

The Broadway, Bradford, announced that over 1.5 million more members of the public visited the flagship location this year, than they did in 2017.

Several new shops have opened in units in and around the shopping centre this year including footwear giant Footlocker and and clothing store Apricot.

2018 also saw independent cinema chain, The Light, open a location in The Broadway area.

Ian Ward, General Manager of the shopping centre, said: "2018 has been a fantastic year for The Broadway but also for Bradford in general.

"Across the city, we’re seeing this positive trend with the Science Media Museum annual visitor numbers up by 25 per cent and major city events such as the Literary Festival now attracting over 70,000 people."

In the coming months a number of new stores are set to open in and around The Broadway complex.

This includes Trespass, Superdrug and Frankie's Burgers.

Specsavers will also be relocating from a smaller unit in Darley Street to a new store in the shopping centre, this weekend.

Pete Rooke at Specsavers, said: “As a team we are excited to become part of the Broadway, and see this as a great move for our store.

"We’re looking forward to getting involved with what we consider one of the best shopping and leisure complexes in the region”

This comes alongside the news that Debenhams is to close 50 of its stores with 4000 staff redundancies.

The Debenhams in The Broadway is one of the shopping centre's larger units and it also hosts coffee franchise Insomnia.

A spokesperson for the retailer said: “We have identified up to 50 stores, accounting for under 15 per cent of total sales, which are currently profitable, but where we do not see a long term future and which we intend to exit over the next three to five years.

"This is an ongoing five year programme and we are not disclosing a list of these stores.”

But, The Broadway will begin its festive calendar soon in the run-up to Christmas.

Mr Ward said: "We’ve got plenty more coming up on the horizon and Christmas 2018 looks like it will be our best yet.

"Our festive calendar kicks off on November 10, with over 15 events planned across 6 weeks and St Georges Hall theatre re-opens in early Jan 2019."