A KEBAB shop in central Coventry is not an immediately obvious place to point to as an exemplar of high street regeneration, but is a good indication of what Bradford can expect as part of our fledgling Heritage Action Zone.

Last month it was announced that the city would benefit from a £2 million funding boost courtesy of national body Historic England, and the City Council has recently been recruiting a project officer to lead on this crucial piece of the regeneration jigsaw.

But back to Coventry. The West Midlands city is one of a number of places to have previously benefited from HAZ funding (alongside the likes of Wakefield and Leeds incidentally), which saw a once shabby street transformed into a row of beautiful redbrick shops that wouldn’t look out of place in a John Lewis advert. But given that most of the stores in question were representative of the so-called ‘sin industries’ - think fast food, vaping, and gambling - it strikes me as a good example of how heritage and good design can help improve the image of a high street when consumer trends are battling against you.

This is where most towns and cities have to be brutally honest with themselves. The Ivegates and Cavendish Streets of yesteryear are unlikely to be thriving retail hubs again - the haberdashers and fine china shops are not coming back anytime soon. Instead, with the right conditions, there can be culture, cafes, perhaps the odd independent shop, but also there will be takeaways, vaping, and pawnbroking.

Instead of attempting the futile task of controlling consumer habits, a properly targeted investment in heritage and built environment can at least create better conditions for everyone, and promote local character and civic pride.

Nobody seems to notice, or care, that the Leeds Heritage Action Zone isn’t exactly short of phone shops or burger joints, because wider improvements to the street have attracted new cafes and bars and created a much stronger sense of place.

In Bradford, visitors will often remark on how surprisingly beautiful the city centre is, but particularly its grand domes, exquisite towers and intricate stone carvings. “Always look up in Bradford” we tell people, as if acknowledging that the eye level bit is letting the side down. Similarly, the recent investment in our ‘public realm’ (or ‘pavements’ as they used to be called) represents an outstanding piece of civic design, using high quality materials and prioritising pedestrians over speeding cars. This now means that a significant chunk of old central Bradford can be classed as the ‘messy middle’ - making it ripe for shopfront and facade improvements to join it all together.

Of course a Heritage Action Zone is about much more than some new timber frames and a lick of Farrow and Ball paint. Historic England are keen to use it as a platform for bringing an area’s stories to life, and promoting an interest in local history as well as careers in design, architecture, and conservation. Their work in Hull, to use another success story, has helped shine a national spotlight on what is arguably one of the UK’s finest ‘Old Town’ quarters, which is now quietly making a name for itself as a thriving destination in which to live, visit, and do business. Perhaps a ‘Bradford Old Town’ - the small area famed for the Wool Exchange and its numerous grand 19th Century commercial buildings - can have a similar standalone identity in the coming years.

But irrespective of funding and grand plans, the success of any heritage-led regeneration project will require significant buy-in from local people and businesses too. On the part of business - regardless of what they’re selling - this means respecting local character and sticking to the rules when it comes to planning law.

More and more in the city centre conservation area, we are seeing new businesses ask for forgiveness rather than permission when it comes to the preference for tacky shopfronts and garish design - a way of working which is ultimately more costly for them and the wider business community in the long-term. A more proactive approach and clarity on design guidance must be an essential component of Bradford’s new Heritage Action Zone.

Similarly, the people of Bradford should celebrate success stories more and reward loyalty when we see it. The historic Rimmington’s Pharmacy in the shadow of City Hall, for example, has shown how an independent business can take pride in their heritage and use it to thrive on the modern high street. They should be commended for their efforts and supported as a local independent business that is backing their home city.

I look forward to Bradford’s Heritage Action Zone taking shape over the coming months, and I hope that it will soon make bad design - the city’s ‘messy middle’ - a thing of the past.

* Si Cunningham is chair of Bradford Civic Society.