Latest news with #BradfordCivicSociety
BBC News
21-03-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Bradford Council refuses 'crude' signage on listed building
A council has refused retrospective planning permission for "strident and crude" shop signage on a city centre listed Cash Generator last year opened a Bradford branch in the ground floor of Grade II listed Pearl Assurance House, on the corner of Kirkgate and Bank criticism of the store frontage from Bradford Civic Society, Cash Generator applied for retrospective Bradford Council refused permission, with officers saying the signage "harmed the character and significance" of the building. The council's conservation officer Jon Ackroyd said: "The size, projecting form, colour and internal illumination of the signs all combine to create a very strident and crude appearance which conflicts with the listed building."The effect has been further compounded by the painting of boarded pilasters, shopfronts and external shutter boxes in the same strident colour."The implemented signage causes immediate visual harm to the listed building and city centre conservation area environment."Si Cunningham, chair of Bradford Civic Society, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: "I'm amazed that a company with a national profile and a number of branches would find it so difficult to accept that occupying a listed building within a conservation area brings certain responsibilities with it."People who I've spoken to in Bradford don't have an issue with any business trying to make a go of it, but they would like to see the city's unique heritage and character preserved."With our new Heritage Action Zone getting started, it's a good time to be reminding building owners and occupiers about their planning obligations."Getting it right first time is much cheaper, and is of great benefit to everyone who uses the city centre."Cash Generator has been approached for comment.
BBC News
28-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Bradford: Blue plaque unveiled for women's rights campaigner
A blue plaque is set to be unveiled in tribute to "one of Bradford's most forward-thinking women".Florence White has been described as a "committed" women's rights and pensions campaigner who helped lower the pension age for unmarried women.A plaque for her previously stood at the entrance to the Bradford Mechanics Institute Library from 2007 to December 2023, but the front of the building was damaged when a car crashed into it."Like a lot of great Bradfordians, Florence White was doing things way ahead of her time," said Bradford Civic Society chair Si Cunningham. The plaque - the twelfth of its kind in the city - was due to be unveiled in the same location on Kirkgate as its original on Friday plaque will be unveiled by a representative from the West Yorkshire Pension in Bradford in 1866, Ms White went on to become secretary of the South Bradford Liberal Lauren Padgett, assistant collections curator at Bradford Museums and Galleries, described her as a "committed women's rights and pension campaigner".According to Dr Padgett, Ms White, who was never married, held an inaugural meeting which resulted in the founding of the National Spinsters' Pensions Association at the old Mechanics' Institute on Bridge Street in April 1935."As Secretary for the South Bradford Liberal Party, her eyes were opened to the impoverished plight and financial precarity of unmarried older Bradford women."They faced fewer and lower paid job opportunities and were often unpaid carers for others. The few that could make health insurance contributions often died before they could receive their benefit of a pension at the age of 65."After several years of campaigning, the government lowered the pensionable age for all women to 60 in Cunningham said the pension reform "was probably a pre-cursor to a lot of the privileges enjoyed by many women today". Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
BBC News
20-02-2025
- General
- BBC News
Work completed on Bradford Forster Square railway arches gates
Work to close off ten archways next to Bradford Forster Square station by installing metal gates with artistic designs has been arches, which were once used by rough sleepers, were cleared by the council in charities branded the decision to move a group of people living in tents on from the area as "heartless" but Bradford Civic Society welcomed artworks on the metal gates include a poem written by a former Bradford schoolgirl. Commuter Michael O'Brien, 64, from Bradford, said the new gates were an improvement."I've got nothing against homeless people, but it was the first thing you saw when you came in and also it just felt dangerous," he said."If anybody is going to come into Bradford, especially women, and you need people to come for a night out, it really was the most uninviting entrance to the city." However, he said it would have been "great" if the archways could have been used for shops and cafes. Hannah Al, who has lived in Bradford all her life, said the gates were "just another hit to homeless people". "It was one of the only places where they could have a little bit of shelter and even that's been taken away," she said."I've lived her all my life and people have always taken shelter there." Jordan Payton, 26, is a joiner from Bradford and said he felt it was "disgusting" that the gates had been put in."At least they knew where the homeless people were and what they were doing," he said."If they're there in a tent they can be checked on, can't they?"He said rough sleepers had moved on to other areas along the who did not want to give her surname, was also unimpressed. "It doesn't look that pretty, to be honest, they look quite old and rusty already," she said."I know the homeless used to sit in the arches and it would protect them from the elements. I've never had an issue walking down here." A Bradford Council spokesperson said the project aimed to improve the area around the station and the work was paid for by Network council's homeless outreach partnership team visited the arches on a daily basis to speak to rough sleepers ahead of access to the area being withdrawn, the spokesperson previously metal panel features three intertwining strands to represent Bradford Beck, a fibre from the city's mill heritage and the railway tracks. The strands also reflect the Fibre sculptures near the station at St Blaise Square, so named after the patron saint of wool Alex Ross-Shaw said: "This artwork literally threads together the history of our incredible district, with words of hope which take us into the future."People of Bradford are proud of our heritage and at the same time hopeful for what is to come, and rightly so."It's fitting that we are welcoming people to the city at the station with beautiful words which reflect that pride and hope."Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.
