Bradford Broadway Development Abandoned

The depressing sight of a huge hole in the city centre is too much for the people of Bradford.

The Westfield shopping centre development on Broadway in Bradford city centre has been officially put on hold until 2010 due to the recession.

Local people have taken to decorating the site with graffiti and starting a petition to Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

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The depressing sight of a huge hole in the city centre is too much for the people of Bradford.

The Westfield shopping centre development on Broadway, Bradford has been officially put on hold until 2010 due to the recession. Australian multinational company Westfield Group took on the site in 2004 with an agreed plan to open the new shopping complex for the end of 2007 but have failed to deliver. It would house some 100 shops and other leisure facilities over two floors but the city of Bradford is yet to see any meaningful progress.

Much to the annoyance of local people the 51,096 metre square (550,000 square foot) site has been left with only foundation work and a large hole. Yet there are no labourers to be seen. Westfield contractors have been working on another project in Derby which has lead to fewer people being available to work on the Bradford project. Yet one of the supposed benefits of the project was that it would bring employment to the area.

After more than 3 years of looking at a boarded up abandoned city centre some residents felt they had to try and make their voices heard. The near constant stream of graffiti on the perimeter fence of the site has ranged from short statements of annoyance to full poetic verse. Slogans such as 'Green Space not Grey Waste', 'Reclaim BD1', and 'Give It Back To the People' have been painted with the intention of not only getting an opinion across but also bringing the public's attention back to the situation. And the 17-line poem certainly did that, gaining coverage over several days in local press.

A group of local people said they felt the site would be better off if it was handed back to the people and turned into a park for everyone to enjoy. They went down to 'The Hole', as it has become known, to try and get their point across by painting a scene of sunshine and trees. The Bradford weather doesn't particularly enhance their work but this act of defiance against a passive multinational company was seen by many people in the city centre over the following weeks.

Since this a petition has been set up to request that the area is returned to the council and made into park, a great opportunity for employment of local people in the area. You can sign the petition online or find it by going to www.petitiononline.com and searching for 'a park for the people'. Chatter about the generally abismal situation has also reached the world of internet forums, you can see what's being said on skyscrapercity.