Calls to flatten a row of vandalised shops will be made at a meeting on a Bradford estate tomorrow.

Residents in Bradford Moor are angry at only having one shop on their estate and have called a meeting with Council bosses, police and representatives of the Newlands Executive to demand action to improve facilities.

Chairman of Bradford Moor Residents' Association Shane McLoughlin said pride in the estate had hit rock bottom after the closure of five shops and a library in Mortimer Avenue.

He said: "The whole lot needs pulling down so we can start again. We've got nothing on this estate. The place has been left and forgotten about.

"We read in the paper about money being spent elsewhere but never here.

"I hope the meeting will give residents the chance to get answers to their questions."

Mr McLoughlin, who has lived on the estate for more than ten years, said the parade of shops had been hit hard by vandalism.

The estate, which only has one small convenience store, lost its greengrocer's, launderette, library, sandwich shop, fish and chip takeaway and hair salon.

Mr McLoughlin, who helps run the estate's community centre, said he believed the key to improving the estate was to replace the shops and provide youngsters with facilities.

"The shops are wrecked and the parade is used as a play area by kids.

"We need a new purpose-built community centre with a play area to give the youth somewhere to go."

Councillor Ghazanfar Khaliq (Lab, Bradford Moor) said the community needed to pull together to ensure any new shopkeepers would be supported. He said: "It was crime and vandalism that drove the traders away.

"People need to get together and make sure any new traders would be looked after."

A spokesman for Bradford Council's housing office said several options for the shops were already being considered.

"We will be developing a strategy after hearing what the residents have to say", he said.

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