ALL four of Bradford’s multi-million pound 'Levelling Up' bids have progressed to the next stage, Council bosses have been told.

But there is still an anxious wait to see if Government approve all, or any, of the schemes.

Bradford Council is waiting to hear the outcome of over £100m worth of bids for four constituencies in Bradford.

Members of Bradford Council’s Executive were given an update on the plans at a meeting on Tuesday.

The four bids made for Bradford in round 2 of the Levelling Up fund are

  • Bradford South – a £50m bid to transform the Odsal stadium area, creating a roof over a refurbished stadium and a new rugby league training ground
  • Bradford East – a £20m bid to transform three community centres into wellbeing hubs.
  • Keighley – a £20m bid to unlock Brownfield sites for industrial development, make improvements to Keighley and Worth Valley Railway and create a new advanced robotics training centre
  • Shipley – a £14.4m bid to re-open Bingley swimming pool, creating a modern leisure facility, and improving the town’s Market Square

A £20m bid to create a new wellbeing centre at Squire Lane was approved in the first round of Levelling Up bids last year.

The Council hopes that the Odsal bid is one of just two £50m bids in the country to be successful.

At the Executive meeting members heard that there were around seven bids from councils across the country for this £50m pot.

These include bids to develop the “Eden Project North” in Morecambe and a series of public transport, walking and cycling projects in Lancashire.  

At Tuesday’s meeting Jason Longhurst, Strategic Director of Place, said: “The latest update is that all four bids have moved onto the second review stage.

“It is not clear how many rounds of review stages there are. Last time there were four reviewing rounds.”

Members heard that Government had said the successful bids would be announced in the Autumn.

Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said: “It is really exciting to see these projects. It they have all gone through to the second round then it shows the importance of that extra work that has gone into them.

“But it is a beauty parade – we are competing against bids from every other area of the country.”

Leader of the Conservative opposition Councillor Rebecca Poulsen (Worth Valley) said she had been disappointed that the Council “didn’t have the foresight” to submit more bids in the first round of funding last year.

Mr Longhurst said from the announcement of the first round last year to the deadline Councils only had a six week period to prepare a bid. He said very few Councils had bids prepared for the first round.