Restaurants with views of St Peter's House and Bradford Cathedral are proposed by developers of the £300 million Broadway shopping scheme.

The location of ten units on the upper floor of the scheme at Forster Square is among variations which developers, Westfield, want to the original scheme which was given planning consent 18 months ago.

Planning manager Dave Preece, who is dealing with the planning application, said the company had applied for restaurants which would have seats for their own customers rather than the communal areas like other shopping centres.

They are likely to have large glass areas to allow customers to enjoy the views as they take a break from shopping in the area of the new Forster Square.

Westfield also wants to increase the number of apartments in the scheme by ten to 181 - with 82 at Well Street, 76 on Hall Ings and 23 at Charles Street.

The amount of office space has also gone up and comes as businesses complain there is a shortage of quality offices in the city.

Westfield operations director John Burton has already said he is in talks with restaurants about moving into the scheme, and wants people to eat and enjoy a full day out, rather than leave when they have finished their shopping.

The changes being examined by the planning department this week are part of a larger application for variations submitted to the Council in June.

There are also proposals to widen the streets and put all vehicles, apart from those needed to supply the stores, in a 1,800-space multi-storey car park above the shopping scheme.

Other important issues still to considered by the Council are the timetable for the massive demolition programme and materials to be used on the scheme.

But Mr Preece stress-ed the "footprint" of the scheme had not changed since Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott fast-tracked the original planning application from former developers Stannifer.

Contractors DSM moved on site last week to start stripping the interior of existing buildings which will be demolished to make way for the scheme in a programme beginning early next year.

Westfield, the world's biggest shopping centre operator, expects the new Broadway complex to open in 2008.