It's an Ill Wind...

...that does nobody any good. Or something like that. Now that the dust has settled on the election, and a government has been formed, the powers-that-be can get back to the business of running the country. I was reading somewhere that 150 MPs stood down this time, a product of a long running Labour government and the expenses scandal this time last year. One of the new MPs will be the new Conservative MP for Keighley, Kris Hopkins. Now he's a favourite piñata in these parts - for his part as leader of the council - in the buffoonery that goes on behind the doors of Bradford City Hall.

If having a Tory government means that he's not in charge any more, then it might be a small price to pay.

Progress?

So the inevitable happened. In what was called a 'landmark decision' - presumably because a landmark is being demolished - the planning committee of Bradford Council voted by a 5-2 margin to demolish the former New Victoria/Gaumont/Odeon building. So, coming very soon, despite many hundreds of objections, there is to be yet another hole in the ground in the city centre. That the opportunity to have a medium sized concert hall that could be adapted to many community uses should be completely overlooked by Bradford Council should serve as no surprise; City Hall is about the last place in the known universe where you'd find any joined up thinking. Or anyone with a brain, really.

The thing that really winds me up is not the Council but our (though given I've not lived there in more than six years, the term 'our' seems a bit odd) local evening 'newspaper'. It has, from day one, been a servile cheerleader for Bradford Centre Regeneration, a quango not elected by you, the Bradford voter. The demolition of the Odeon building was explicitly not included in the Council's Urban Development plan, but is/was the brainchild of Yorkshire Forward and BCR. One of the various 'steering groups' in all of this was in regard to the concept of a concert hall in the City Centre. St. George's Hall is not the biggest venue, and so there were two obvious sites; renovate the Odeon or extend St George's.

Now here's the interesting bit. One floated idea to improve capacity is to extend St George's Hall by demolishing the Telegraph and Argus 'newspaper' building behind it. Therefore it's likely the owners of the T&A would profit handsomely for having to move. So who sat on both the board of BCR, and was also present as a member of the concert hall steering group? Yes, your very own T&A editor, Perry Austin-Clarke, apparently not at all of the notion that it's a conflict of interest in writing editorials demanding the demolition of the 'dilapidated' building, while his paymasters could potentially profit handsomely from policy shaped by committees that he himself sat on. The stream of negative stories in the build up to this week's decision is like having their cake and eating it.

It's a sad state of affairs that it's the Leeds based Yorkshire Post that is the only source of non 'spun' stories on the regeneration of Bradford. But I'll gladly give the T&A a bit of free advice. If they need a site for a new building, there's one just up the road, here. You know, that one that they have just as obsequiously cheered for, and haven't written one remotely critical piece on. Ever. Despite it now being five years since demolition. A bit of free advice to T&A readers: think about cancelling this third rate rag.

News Just In...

...Bradford City Council have finally admitted the huge, ground-zero-esque hole in the ground that is the middle of Bradford city centre is not likely to be filled in anytime soon. If there's a more incompetent city council in the UK (and possibly the known universe) then I'm not aware of them.

This story begins in the early 1960s when the city engineer, Stanley Wardley decided "to heck with all these fine, Victorian buildings, lets pull them all down and build 1960s-brutalist concrete and glass buildings everywhere", turning the city centre into something resembling the middle of Milton Keynes (see here for a less than happy visit). Amazing to think that the city could emerge from World War II relatively unscathed, only for several buildings of architectural note to fall to the whims of a city engineer. Mention the Swan Arcade or the original Kirkgate Market to any Bradfordian over the age of 50 and there may be the odd reminiscence. Similarly, the two railway stations were demolished in the same era, among many other buildings. The development of the city centre continued in such a fashion even into the 2000's with the construction of the hideous, golf-driving range lookalike building opposite City Hall.

The buildings erected in place of these much loved places did not wear very well, and by the 1990s had become something of an eyesore. It was also hard to find tenants to rent out the retail and office space. The council thus decided they would demolish them all, barely 40 years old. Only what has followed since is barely believable, as one delay has followed another, such that the site has now stood vacant for more than four years. The Australian developer has now put the complex on hold citing the credit crunch and a loss of A$2.2 billion for the financial year. Reports of the halt in work in a national Sunday newspaper a month ago were denied outright before the news linked above. It seems that the contract to develop the site is open ended and that no deadline and/or penalty clauses for the development's completion were ever set. I find that staggering.

Equally surprising is the comment from the council redevelopment leader saying "maybe next year when the economy improves". So you think a company loses A$2.2 billion one year and then immediately starts turning a profit again? Naive in the extreme. All the while, ten miles up the road the city of Leeds continues to thrive (though not on the football field, heh) as a financial, legal and shopping centre for the north of england; one which retained most of the same type of historic buildings of note that Bradford demolished. Leeds City Council builds new buildings worthy of comment, for example the building known as 'the Dalek'.

Bradford and Leeds were not so different 20 years ago, both former cities of the industrial revolution that had fallen on hard times due to the collapse of the wool/textile industries that they were founded upon. Why the difference now? Leadership, joined-up thinking and strategic planning taken 20 years ago which is now bearing fruit. The local Bradford newspaper should start holding the people in City Hall to account instead of propagating the spin of the councillors.

As a final demonstration of the bizarre thinking that goes on in the corridor of power, the continuing saga of the old Bradford Odeon. Originally built in the 1930s, there is, in the voids behind false internal walls and suspended ceilings, a concert hall once upon a time capable of holding 3300 people. The building closed in its final guise of a three-screen cinema in 2000. It is one of the few remaining architecturally distinct buildings in the city centre. Here's what it looked like in the 1930s, a venue for concerts, theatre and so on before the shell was divided up in the late 60s. The local community overwhelmingly wants it restored. Does the council? I'll leave you to guess....

Would the last person out please turn off the lights?

You Know You've Been Away from Home Too Long When...

...you set off for PC World to buy a modem cable and when you drive to where you think it is, it's now a furniture shop. And then drive to Staples for the same thing instead and find it is now a PC World. And when there are traffic lights at the end of your street when residents have been petitioning for them for 20 years. And when Sheila from Shameless is in EastEnders. And when driving on the left makes you stop and hesitate. It's all a bit confusing. At least Bradford City Council are still on the scene to keep some things familiar; a large part of the city centre is still an undeveloped crater. It's been there five years!

They couldn't run a bath.