Did we really expect anything more?

"Construction work on Bradford’s £320 million shopping centre will definitely not start this year, its owner has revealed. "

Yep, that huge crater in the centre of our city is DEFINATELY NOT going to be worked on this year according to the T&A and Westfield.

I've lost count about how many years its been since the bulldozers came in, i think I've been to university (with a year out) in the time it's taken to get things moving. (and in fact i think it maybe longer!)

If the Council had not been so incompetent with the building contracts, we would have had this shopping up and running well before the recession which would have come as a relief to everyone and providing much needed jobs for the area, AND actually bringing in new businesses.

As it says in the report, it is no surprise that Westfield are not going to crack on with the expensive building work, especially with the recession worsening.

But what can the Council do to bring businesses back to Bradford to provide jobs? It would be UKIPs policy to return control of business rates to local councils, handing back some of the power from central government, which would allow us to control direct taxation on businesses.

Bradford is going to close down unless we get new businesses to move in, but there is little the council can do to encourage this. Bradford is losing custom to Leeds and Halifax and winning it back is going to be hard, especially in a recession.

The Broadway Crater

Why do we still have a massive hole in the middle of the city?

There still dosn't seem to be a date that we can expect to see the grand plan come good.
The Westfield development site are still trying to contact businesses in the hope they will jump on board, but as we move into a recession, this maybe rather difficult. How many years have they had with which to get these comittments?

Also there are serious hints at staff cutts, again thanks to the recession. The T&A reported an industrial magazine; "The magazine said it “understood” Westfield had put back the start date of three UK schemes, including the £320m Bradford development"

Even if it's not true, it's still bad news for Bradford and not exactley inspiring confidence in the project.

The Tory council have messed this entire project up from the begining, it's cost 100's of millions, an eyesore and a waste of our taxes, with no discernable progress for years.

The fiasco continues.........

T&A Report http://www.thetelegraphandargus.co.uk/news/3976733.Broadway__delay__rumours_denied/