Latest news with #BradfordCouncil
BBC News
2 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Bradford Council urges residents to clear fly-tipped waste
Persistent fly-tipping outside homes is caused by residents in some areas of Bradford and should be cleaned up by them, Bradford Council has was being dumped in some areas by the people living there, rather than people from outside the neighbourhood, council officers told a said that the authority was not obliged to keep clearing up rubbish from back streets that are not public roads and that it did not have the budget to continue doing Riaz Ahmed told the meeting: "In a lot of cases it is the public who has to make a change, not the council." A report by council officers said the repeated clean ups had put "pressure on the service"."The council assesses each site on its own merit and cannot always have a blanket approach to removal of this waste," they case should be investigated to establish any leads, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service."Resident participation in catching perpetrators of waste crime is essential, such as sharing information or assisting in the deployment of cameras," officers Hussain, Bradford East area co-ordinator, told the meeting that litter was "not people coming from outside to dump this waste"."It is sad to say but it is residents," she carrying out litter picks will be given council equipment, she council report said the fly tipping would be investigated and followed up to catch the "perpetrators of waste crime". Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE The ghost town centre with more abandoned shops than nearly every city in the UK as locals blame drug addicts, high rents... and EACH OTHER
Bradford may have been crowned City of Culture but its shopping streets have been devastated by a slump which has led to stores being boarded up across the town. The West Yorkshire district has more empty shops than nearly every other city in the UK and double those in London and Cambridge, according to a new think tank study. Bradford Council is now gambling the town's retail future on a multi million pound strategy to reverse the decline. The idea is to replace the city's Oestler and Kirkgate Markets with the new Darley Street market which opened this week creating 1,000 new homes in the process. The two markets closed last month as part of a scheme which will also see the demotion of the Oestler Centre and eventually the Kirkgate Shopping Centre. With Darley Street Market welcoming its first customers this week Mail Online visited the town to see if optimism is in the air. We found a city centre that is a real Curate's Egg of a retail experience. Some shopping streets are swarming with shoppers and the atmosphere seems vibrant. But around every corner is a boarded up shop. The Oeastler Centre stands derelict amid a maze of deserted streets. Across town, traders at the Kirkgate Centre reckon it will not be long before it also becomes a concrete shell to be flattened by the bulldozers. Many areas are now wall to wall betting shops, vape stores, and nail bars, squeezing out local cafes, corner shops and even designer jewellery stores. Several shops are reduced to selling tat for pittance to survive including bunches of fake flowers for £1. Last year, the city centre suffered another blow when Marks and Spencer closed its branch in the Broadway shopping centre. Debenhams also closed its store in the Broadway in 2021 when the stores closed nationwide and the brand was snapped up by Boohoo for online sales. Meanwhile, High Street names have continued to disappear from the city, possibly for good. One the latest casualties of the slump has been Dunkin' Donuts, near the entrance to the Broadway. It closed without warning this week, leaving customers stunned including Sophie Webster, 29. She said: 'There are so many shops closing. I am born and bred here but I normally shop in Keighley town centre. I am only here now because I am at work. 'My favourite coffee shop Dunkin' Donuts closed on Tuesday. There was no warning. it just shut so I don't know what that was about. 'Most shops in Broadway will only be open for a few months or a year and then close and become something else. 'Taco Bell has shut as well and I have no idea why. They didn't put anything where Burger king used to be and all the food places are going. 'Some places are not getting enough customers to pay the rent. Dunkin' Donuts was never that busy. But Taco Bell was, I don't know what happened there. But it seems something will open and then close again so its all a bit rubbish.' John Henry Brown, 69, said: 'I was born in Bradford in 1956 and I have not been out of Bradford in the 69 years since. 'The state of the place now is atrocious. They have blocked so many roads off it has stopped a lot of disabled people getting into town on the bus. 'Yet they are calling it the City of Culture. Where is the culture? It is just crap. 'The new market is very expensive. If you want a chocolate eclair it is going to cost you a fiver. 'They are supposed to be pulling a lot of the shops down to turn into houses but they already have so many empty properties they could turn into flats. 'Demolishing the empty shopping centres is going to cost millions and it is just a waste of money.' Josephine Eastwood said: 'You will be surprised how many people who live in Bradford will say to you "Oh, we don't go to Bradford to shop". 'We go to Leeds for our shopping and a lot of people go to Harrogate as well, like we do. It is not just the shortage of shops it is the smell of the drugs people are smoking. 'That's put me off as well. Then, you can guarantee someone will stop you and ask you if you have any money. 'It is not just a one off, and that's what puts people off coming here as well. 'Me and my husband shop in Harrogate all the time and never once have we had the problems we have here in Bradford.' The store is on the historic site of the A Fattorini The Jewellers, which made the FA Cup Trophy won by the Bantams but closed for good in 2021 after 190 years in Yorkshire A former Gold Connection Rolex dealers is now a pop-up shop selling cushions for £3 and head scarves for £1. The store is on the historic site of the A Fattorini The Jewellers, which made the FA Cup Trophy won by the Bantams but closed for good in 2021 after 190 years in Yorkshire. A man browsing the £3 cushions, who refused to be named, said: 'This used to be the best jeweller's shop in Bradford. Now it has all gone downhill. 'I blame people with cars travelling to out of town shopping centres That's why all the corner shops have closed down.' Many shoppers were in town to check out the city's new Darley Street market which opened this week. The much trumpeted state-of-the-art complex is being hailed by council bosses as a major boost to the flagging retail sector. Catherine Bagnall, 76, added: 'The shops around here are rubbish. Marks and Spencers closed down because of all the shoplifters. 'We are lost without Marks and Spencers. That was the only thing worth coming into town for. We are only here today to see what the new market is like. 'Bradford is not what it used to be. There are too many people high on spice. Your heart is in your mouth every time you hear someone behind you.' Among the first visitors to the new market were Jordan Fry, 29, and Rowan Tordoff, 27, and neither was impressed. Jordan said: 'The new market is not too bad. But there are not a lot of shops in there either. It is the first time I have been in the city centre in ages. 'We have only come to see the new market. When I was a younger I used to love going up and down the high streets. 'The new market is nice. But I don't know if there are more shops that are going to open up. Inside, there are three or four butchers, a fruit place and the rest is fabrics. 'We walked in five minutes ago, had a quick look, and came straight back out again.' Nodding in agreement, Rowan added: 'The new market looks a lot better than the rest of Bradford does. 'But I would rather go shopping in Leeds because there is more there. The shops in Bradford are all the same shops. 'I only came in for a spot of breakfast and to see the new market but it has been a bit of waste of time. 'The Kirkgate Centre is still open there is just not a lot in there now. Most of them have moved to Broadway or into the new market.' Abdul Pandor, 70, has been selling watches in the Kirkgate Centre for 15 years. He said: 'We had a really good business. 'Then over time things changed. Covid did not help but shopping has changed over time. 'They are selling stuff online cheaper than I can buy wholesale and I cannot beat that and survive when I have to pay rent and wages. 'We are keeping going for as long as I can then I will head away into the sunset. 'Fifteen years ago we were always busy but we are so quiet now. 'Young kids nowadays don't want watches anymore so we repair more than we sell.' Alec Janow, 63, was one of the only people window shopping in the nearly deserted streets leading to the city's former Oastler Centre. After decades of trading it closed on June 28 along with the Kirkgate Market. Both are facing demolition to make way for the Darley Street market. Mr Janow said: 'The whole place has gone to cock. I was born and bred around here and it has all gone downhill. 'The shops have been driven out by high rents and all the shoplifters. The new market is all very well but I think the place is too far gone.'
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Daily Mail
Man at war with council over plans for seven-bedroom mansion after SIX protected trees were mysteriously axed... but he claims it was not his fault
A property developer has had plans for a sprawling seven-bedroom mansion blocked after six protected trees were mysteriously felled - but he insists he is not to blame. Mohammed Tayyab bought a derelict care home in Bradford, West Yorkshire, for £355,000 in August 2021, with plans to bulldoze the eyesore building and replace it with a lavish detached home. But his dream development has now been blocked by councillors, after it emerged that protected lime and horse chestnut trees were illegally felled from the site, which sits in a conservation area. Town hall officials discovered that the trees had been deliberately uprooted and damaged during unauthorised excavation work at the site. Councillors refused planning permission, claiming that doing so would effectively mean 'rewarding criminal activity', and open the floodgates to other developers cutting corners. Mr Tayyab, described by backers as a 'pillar of the community', claims he had no knowledge that the trees were chopped down and insisted it happened before he purchased the site. Bradford Council said the six trees were uprooted without consent between 2012 and November 2021, 'around the same time that the property was last purchased.' It said that regardless of whether Mr Tayyab was involved in lopping down the mature trees, he was responsible for replacing them as the landowner - making his housebuild impossible. Town hall officials concluded: 'It would be inappropriate to grant a planning permission which in effect rewards the unlawful removal of protected trees.' Despite offering to plant varied tree species on the land in Oak Mount, the council has applied for a legal order against Mr Tayyab to replace the trees in exactly the same location. At a heated council meeting, Cllr Sinead Engel said: 'I can't bring myself to sanction a plan that rewards criminal activity. 'Regardless of who committed the crimes - the person who did it has benefitted if it has increased the value of the land. 'Before this building shut it was a 10-bedroom property. I'm struggling to understand why, with a bit of imagination, someone could not just create an amazing family home without trampling over mature trees.' Councillor Paul Sullivan added: 'If we allow this then everyone is just going to rip trees down for their own benefit and let the site look like a wreck before they put plans in. 'We can't set that precedent.' The former care home has stood derelict for nearly a decade and has become a hotspot for fly-tipping and antisocial behaviour, with evidence of deliberate fire damage. Mr Tayyab had wanted to build a 'substantial' two-storey home boasting ensuites, open-plan living, a study, utility room and even a disabled-access ground floor bedroom. His three previous planning applications were also rebuffed, council papers show. The planning application, which generated just one objection, stated: 'The existing site is vacant as a former registered group home and harms the appearance of the conservation area through its redundant appearance without maintenance and upkeep. 'The proposed development provides an important opportunity to improve the appearance of the site and secure its optimum viable use.' Councillor Safina Kause said the site had been derelict for eight years before the applicants bought it. Voting in favour of granting planning permission, she said: 'It is almost like planning officers don't want to bring this property back into life. Why are they making it so difficult? 'The applicants are being penalised for something they haven't done. If this plan is refused, they will have no choice but to sell the property. I implore you to approve this application.' A council report states: 'The site has been altered over the years due to unauthorised works, excavation and tree removal, taking place which has detrimentally harmed the appearance of the site and the wider conservation area due to the loss and damaged caused to the boundary trees which collectively had significant amenity value. 'The engineering works which have been carried out have destabilised the remaining mature trees. These works have resulted in the significant damage and loss of mature trees which has harmed the character and appearance of the conservation area.' Under planning laws, chopping down trees in a conservation area without permission is a criminal offence, punishable by potentially unlimited fines.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Free school holiday events for children planned
Free fun days and lunches for eligible children are planned across Bradford throughout the school holidays. Bradford Council said the days would help keep children, aged between five and 14, entertained and enable families to spend time together. The events will be held at 12 different locations in parks and green spaces and offer a range of free activities. Free packed lunches will be available for children who are eligible for benefit-related free school meals. The events are funded by the Department for Education's Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF). Each day will run between 11:00 and 15:00 and there is no need for families to book in advance, though children will be asked to register their name and school on arrival. Councillor Imran Khan, Bradford Council's executive member for education, employment and skills, said: "They're a great opportunity for children to get active and enjoy some free outdoor fun – and for families to spend time together in a relaxed and welcoming environment at no cost. "Children on free school meals can also get a free packed lunch, which we know is a big help to many who struggle with the costs of keeping children entertained during the long summer break from school." Details of when the events are taking place can be found on the council's website. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North. Related internet links Bradford Council
BBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Free school holiday events for children planned in Bradford
Free fun days and lunches for eligible children are planned across Bradford throughout the school Council said the days would help keep children, aged between five and 14, entertained and enable families to spend time events will be held at 12 different locations in parks and green spaces and offer a range of free activities. Free packed lunches will be available for children who are eligible for benefit-related free school events are funded by the Department for Education's Holiday Activities and Food Programme (HAF). Each day will run between 11:00 and 15:00 and there is no need for families to book in advance, though children will be asked to register their name and school on Imran Khan, Bradford Council's executive member for education, employment and skills, said: "They're a great opportunity for children to get active and enjoy some free outdoor fun – and for families to spend time together in a relaxed and welcoming environment at no cost."Children on free school meals can also get a free packed lunch, which we know is a big help to many who struggle with the costs of keeping children entertained during the long summer break from school." Details of when the events are taking place can be found on the council's website. Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
