Bradford needs to be brave and bold as it faces the challenges of the future. In particular it needs to be courageous and forward-thinking as to how the city centre is to be developed under the Urban Regeneration Company's forthcoming master plan

It also needs to have the conviction and strength of mind to take decisions which will support powerful and dramatic architectural designs to prove that the city is moving forward and to get it talked about for its own sake.

The T&A has long put forward the view that we need a development of the quality of the Guggenheim Museum to enhance the very heart of the city and attract visitors in its own right. The winning theoretical design for City Hall is indeed bold and striking and on that score might be worthy of further consideration.

However, it is at the same time both impractical and misguided. Much of the interior of City Hall is of less stunning quality than its fabulous exterior but the notion of gutting it to create a giant conservatory seems wholly inappropriate.

Neither has the architect explained how the council meetings are to take place in a giant goldfish bowl on the edge of Centenary Square which is likely to be the source of great merriment and mischief for evening drinkers pouring out of the bars which it is intended to create in the concrete banana proposed on the former Provincial House site.

The last thing we want to do is discourage dramatic and exciting new design, but it has to be in its place - and that place is not the magnificent Victorian City Hall.