Seven years have passed since Will Alsop produced a city centre masterplan setting out the need for high-quality public realm as a catalyst for regeneration.

The manifestation of that vision is the improvement scheme taking place in Bank Street, Hustlergate and Tyrrel Street in the heart of the City Centre Conservation Area. Several parts of the Heritage Streets project have been completed in recent months, including the new public square in front of the Co-operative Bank.

The new public space, to be known as Tyrrel Square, now contains contemporary street furniture along with newly-planted trees and shrubs.

Much of the current work is focused on Hustlergate, with contractors hard at work repaving the street outside the Wool Exchange.

In Tyrrel Street, the only remaining work includes small areas of paving, sign installation and removal and completion of electrical cabling.

In Bank Street, street furniture has been installed and trees have been planted.

Meanwhile, the paving work in New Market Place is virtually complete and the proposed seating plinth around the lighting column is being installed.

As expected, the scheme has created an element of disruption, with several road closures in recent weeks preventing vehicles accessing the top end of Ivegate and parts of Upper Millergate, Hustlergate and Kirkgate.

Bradford Council said businesses had been consulted in advance of these closures so alternative delivery arrangements could be made.

Mary Frame, of the Chamber of Trade, said: “It has caused disruption, but at the end of the day you have got to have disruption to get improvement.

“It’s a means to an end. If it’s going to update the city centre and make it more pleasant for people to shop, then it’s very welcome.

“The work that has already been done looks very good and is a great improvement. It’s just a matter of getting it finished as quickly as possible.”

A spokesman for the Council said: “We are committed to keeping businesses and the general public informed of how the works are progressing, timescales for future works and other relevant issues.

“One of the main aims of the team is to ensure that access to shops and amenities is maintained throughout the construction period and that the impact on trading is kept to a minimum. We will also endeavour to keep noise levels to a minimum.”

The creation of a high-quality public realm was a central principle of the city centre masterplan produced by Alsop in 2003.

The document explained that ‘investing in the public realm’ had a core role to play in changing people’s perception of living, working and playing in the city centre, thus changing the city’s fortunes.

The City Centre Design Guide took that approach a step further by outlining a strategy for improving the public realm in the city centre.

A Streetscape Design Manual has also been developed to show how the vision of the regeneration plans should be applied to the city’s streets.

The manual aims to create high-quality streets that are pleasurable places to be in, provide a setting for the fine buildings of the city, attract new visitors to the city centre and increase residents’ sense of pride in Bradford.

Phase one of the Heritage Streets project, costing £1.6m, is being run as a partnership between Bradford Council and its contractor, Birse Civils from Tadcaster.

There are still a number of large empty shop units in the area where the work is taking place, including the Zavvi music store, which closed in February 2009.

Regeneration chiefs are mindful of the need to attract as much investment as possible into Bradford and hope the ongoing public-realm work will encourage people to start using the shopping thoroughfares more than they have in the past.

The design approach is based on decluttering the area, rationalisation of street furniture and high-quality natural surfacing materials.

The Council said environmental sustainability was a key consideration, with the re-use of existing Yorkstone paving in the footways and the renovation of existing lighting columns.

The scheme is within an existing ‘shared space’ pedestrian zone, where no kerb exists between the footway and the carriageway, enabling pedestrians to use the full width of the street.

New Traffic Regulation Orders are being introduced to rationalise city-wide pedestrian zone times along with the installation of automatic bollards to control traffic entering the streets, making the streets more people-friendly.

New, high-quality seating and litter bins are being introduced to complement the existing lighting columns.

Trees are also included both for amenity value and to soften the urban landscape.

The Council added that the design would incorporate suitable infrastructure for outdoor events such as street markets.