A developer's plan for a pubs and restaurant complex opposite grade one listed Bradford City Hall was today the target for growing criticism.

There have been further calls for a landmark building to be constructed on the prime site of towering Provincial House, which is set to be demolished.

One objector says the proposed two-storey, crescent-shaped complex would look more at home beside bars in Tenerife.

Calls for the site to be used for a more significant building will be considered at a meeting of the Council's Area Planning Panel in ten days' time, when it considers a planning application for the development. The application has been submitted by St James Securities on behalf of the Asda St James Ventures, developer of the successful Forster Square Retail Park in Bradford.

The firm aims to buy Provincial House from its owners Abbey National if it receives planning permission.

It wants to demolish the office block and replace it with restaurants, bars and possibly a book shop in a complex of five units. Each unit will have 2,700 square metres of ground level floor space and high roofs which would allow occupants to build mezzanine floors and balconies at first floor level.

But Bradford's Arts Forum, one of the main objectors to the plans, says the development is too small and will reveal ugly buildings behind. It argues the development would do nothing to regenerate the city and today urged people to voice their concerns and contact their councillors.

Bradford's Council for Voluntary Services has already lodged a protest, and the Council has received six letters from individuals about the scheme.

CVS administrator Dave Collins said it wanted better provision for people with disabilities to be included in the scheme.

He said: "The development needs to take account of much more than the young pub and club scene."

Asda St James said it was already in talks with Council officers over providing such facilities. Its director Ian Barraclough said the scheme complied with a development brief for the site which had been drawn up by the Council.

He said the Council wanted a smaller building, which would show views from Centenary Square of Sunbridge Road and beyond.

Conservation body English Heritage has told the Council it is broadly supportive of the scheme, which uses a "striking palette of materials".

But historic areas advisor for the northern region Alison Fisher says it would have preferred "a tall and more substantial building on the site".

One objector Mark Carroll, of Merlin Close, Morley, has written to the Council: "I consider the plans to be totally inadequate for such a unique site. If any building is to replace Provincial House, it should be the same size and stature, not some bar structure which wouldn't look out of place with 'Veronica's' in Tenerife."

Another city centre resident Paul King, of Piccadilly Chambers, says he believes it contradicts the district's recently launched 2020 Vision which proposes a broader and richer cultural provision in the city.

Mary Hamilton, of St George's Square, Cullingworth, says she believes the development is a fait accompli and there has been insufficient consultation.

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