A NEW City Village will “repurpose” part of Bradford that has suffered from the decline of the textile industry and the rise of retail parks – Council bosses have been told.
The planned 1,000 home development is expected to begin in the coming years, and will see areas of the city move from retail to a sustainable community.
At a meeting of Bradford Council’s Executive on Tuesday, members voted to move ahead with huge scheme – which the Council’s Leader said would bring the city centre “into the 22nd Century.”
One of the officers behind the scheme said a rise in people living in the centre would support existing city centre businesses, and encourage new businesses to cater to these new residents.
The homes will be built over three main areas in the centre – the Oastler Market site, the site of the Kirkgate Shopping Centre and on a number of Council owned car parks off Westgate.
Oastler Market is due to close when the new Darley Street Market opens. The building will be demolished and replaced with homes under the City Village plan.
Last year, Bradford Council announced it had bought the Kirkgate Shopping Centre. Anchor tenant Primark will move to the former Debenhams in Broadway, and Kirkgate demolished.
New city centre green space and homes would be built on this site.
And the car parks off Westgate would become an extension to the award-winning Chain Street housing scheme.
In recent years, other city centres such as Liverpool and Leeds have seen a huge amount of residential development.
At the Executive Simon Woodhurst, Regeneration Development Manager at the Council, explained why such a drastic change was needed.
He said the decline in areas of the city centre dated back further than the re-opening of the Broadway Shopping Centre – something many residents attribute the city’s many empty units to.
He said : “City Village is targeted at part of the city that was the traditional retail and commercial heart of the city dating back to Edwardian times.
“The area has suffered from various impacts over the decades, and it began with the decline of the textile industry.
“This meant a lot of city centre businesses associated with the industry, including accountants, architects and legal services, decided to close their city centre offices and move elsewhere.
“Because the number of businesses was shrinking this had an impact on retail. Along with the competition from the growth of supermarkets and retail parks, a lot of the shops moved out of the centre.
“The area now needs to be repurposed to complement the city’s economy. We’re going to repurpose the area as residential with the aim to create 1,000 homes.”
Referring to the name, he said: “We don’t want to get caught up on the term village. It is not an attempt to create a traditional chocolate box village.
“It will be a sustainable community that will ensure the vitality of the city centre.”
He said the housing would be the “missing link” in the city centre’s regeneration, and that the Council was working with organisations like Homes England to draw up plans for the site.
Referring to the existing housing in the city centre, he said: “The residential market in the centre started in the early 2000s but is still emerging. It is still a far way off from creating the critical mass needed to support a city centre.”
The development would take between five and 10 years to complete.
Council Leader Susan Hinchcliffe said the development was an “exciting opportunity” that would “take the city centre into the 22nd Century.”
Councillor Alex Ross Shaw, Executive for Regeneration, Planning and Transport, said the plans were first developed when Morrisons pulled out of its large unit in the Oastler Centre. He said: “We had to either take the decision to refurbish the site or take a bold new direction.
“The city centre provides jobs for the whole District. If we get this right, it will help the whole District.”
He said the work would tie in with other city centre schemes, such as the redevelopment of the long empty High Point building, which is currently being repurposed into flats, and One City Park, described as “the first grade A office development in the city centre in 25 years.”
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