Bradford & District | Archive | 2005 | September | 28
From the archive, first published Wednesday 28th Sep 2005.
Let's not repeat past mistakes
SIR - Are we repeating the mistakes of Bradford's first regeneration attempts in the Sixties?
Drunk on the possibility (and possibly the money) of regeneration, we appear to be on course to commit the same mistakes again.
Regeneration is about engendering a sense of pride in ones' community and surroundings. Redevelopment is about making a profit. We appear to be confusing the two.
The kind of identikit designs for Broadway shows a lack of inspiration or imagination. Buildings like City Hall or the Wool Exchange were constructed with the identity of Bradford woven into their brickwork. Can we say the same of any new building in Bradford in the last 20 years?
Thirty or 40 years from now, will these new developments be as loathed as the ones from the Sixties are today? Will we be going through the same cycle of `purging' these new developments to begin another regeneration effort?
The Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao shows that regeneration through striking modern architecture is possible, but regeneration through anonymous redevelopment schemes is misguided.
I'm all for regeneration, but let's not confuse it with simple redevelopment. They are different things, with different aims and different outcomes.
Simon Frost, Ashfield Terrace, Wyke.
Tower of hope
SIR - With reference to your wonderful front page (T&A, September 22), does it not answer the article of September 12; that Bradford needed a bigger "symbol of hope"?
Fancy holding a celebration, about Bradford being valued at £1.5 billion in the shadow of the biggest symbol of hope in West Yorkshire?
Call it the Bradford Tower, floodlight it, build a viewing deck, put restaurants, a textile museum (hands-on working looms etc), flog fancy textiles.
Come on! It makes the Angel of the North and Blackpool Tower, look pathetic. It doesn't need an artist either.
Jack Mawson, Grove House Crescent, Bradford.
Show leadership
SIR - Prompted by all those storks on the advertising hoardings I had a look at the website of the Bradford Centre Regeneration Company and it's a bit thin on the important issues.
There is a lot on what areas will look like and what folk will be doing but nowhere is there any mention of the opportunity to make the new Bradford a low carbon producing city using widespread renewable energy.
Indeed the fact that the `eco' building up Thornton Road is specially picked out to be an `environmentally friendly building' suggests that the others won't be.
I had expected to see more leadership from this company and its council partner.
Keith Thomson, Heights Lane, Bradford.
Worth saving
SIR - £1.5 billion for regeneration! (T&A, September 22), but not enough to rescue the Odeon building, just one of those "cherished examples of fine architecture" which "have lain dormant for years" and needs to be "scrubbed up and restored".
That's disgraceful! Save the Odeon!
Kenneth A Webster, Abb Scott Lane, Bradford.
Business as usual
SIR - It is significant that despite the publicity given to Bradford's regeneration, there remains a realisation of a lost opportunity that Cross-rail had not been included within the design parameters of the Broadway development (T&A, September 22).
A tenable regeneration of the city would require improvements to its infrastructure, including transport, but little provision has been made for this.
On the contrary the Broadway development is accommodating extensive car parking, which will exacerbate existing congested roads in the city centre.
The so-called Masterplan of lakes, wetlands and re-opening the canal has given an impression of something farcical, and the manner in which Bradford Regeneration has disregarded calls for the Odeon to be saved is indicative of an organisation full of its own self-importance.
Bradford Rail User's Group would advise both Bradford Council and Bradford Regeneration that a Cross-rail link remains a long term objective and aspiration, despite a temporary setback.
The campaign will continue: business as usual!
Alec Suchi, Secretary, Bradford Rail User's Group, Allerton Road, Bradford.
The missing link
SIR - I must applaud Bradford Council for their somewhat predictable decision to once again rule out the possibility of a cross-city rail link.
As advised recently, the rail link would be the last thing £200 million would be spent on by the council, which implies there are dubious long-term solutions to combat road congestion and overcrowding on trains.
If the rail link was implemented, rail services need not to terminate at Forster Square but continue onto the Calderdale line and when fully electrified would allow the electric trains, which are preferred by commuters, to make this continuous journey.
It seems now that the next option would be the slightly more costly option of a tunnel between the two stations thus appeasing those who object to a so-called conspicuous viaduct dissecting the city centre.
To all those sceptics who advise that Bradford does not need a cross-city rail link, why is it that more prosperous cities have rail links leading to the north, south, east and west from a centralised location?
Dhermesh Kalyan, Naseby Rise, Queensbury.
Failing families
SIR - Ms O'Sullivan, Director of Bradford Social Services, accuses you of reinforcing a `misconception' that Social Services are `separating children from their families' and informs that in Bradford `the number of children... in care has been falling' (T&A Letters, September 15).
The Commission for Social Services Inspectorate (January February 2004) Inspection Report documents: Bradford to have a disproportionately high number of children `in care' - and reports inadequate plans for these children and found serious shortcomings; services operated egocentrically and were not child/family orientated; record-keeping was inadequate/inappropriate; parental access to files difficult; and complaints procedures not promoted/ exercised...
Ms O'Sullivan's opinion of the family courts is not shared by families or professionals.
www.fassit.co.uk and www.parents4protest.co.uk are support groups; the common theme in the heart-wrenching stories is that the system is failing families and that Family Courts should adhere to the standards of criminal courts - juries and `real' witnesses.
The General Social Care Council requires compulsory registration of all social workers. The GSCC website allows for registration to be checked.
Children in `care' have an uphill lifelong struggle. Professionals entrusted with their lives must be willing to be seen to be earning that trust.
Shaynel G Glyn, Woodroyd Road, Bradford.
Turning a blind eye
SIR - Walking along Market Street towards the square in Shipley and the bus stops, I witnessed two vehicles ignoring the `no entry' signs, clearly displayed.
The following day! Witnessed another four-wheel vehicle committing the same offence while a police officer walking towards me not only ignored the law-breaking, but stated: "I could not run after it," while clearly being incapable of jotting down the registration of the vehicle, which I pointed out was on the front and rear of the car.
Low priority or not, it seems pointless having extra officers on the beat if they simply turn a blind eye to law-breaking.
Gordon Steff, Wharncliffe Road, Shipley.
Time to switch
SIR - When are we going to get electric cars? Then we can tell the petrol giants what to do.
B Scott, Star Street, Great Horton.
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