A PLAN to turn City Park's empty Pavilion building into a new cafe has won planners' approval.

Bradford entrepreneur Zulfi Hussain is hoping to plough a quarter of a million pounds into the Council-owned building, just feet from the Mirror Pool, creating at least 12 jobs.

Dr Hussain, the co-owner of Indian restaurant Deeva in Farsley, Leeds, said he had found out about the Pavilion building at the Taste of Bradford event organised by Bradford Breakthrough in March.

He said the organisation had been a big help as he developed his plan.

Bradford Breakthrough chief executive Colin Philpott said the wider Taste of Bradford project had also played a part in the opening of halal Italian restaurant Cona in Little Germany, which opened this spring, creating 10 jobs, and the Chinese Buffet, which opened in the former Dragon Thai premises in Centenary Square in April, creating 40 jobs.

He said they had also been involved in plans by Menston’s multi-award winning 1875 Restaurant to open a sister restaurant in Albion Court, off Kirkgate, the expansion of fusion restaurant My Lahore in Great Horton Road, a plan to set up a new brewery called the Bradford Brewery in an empty building off Westgate and a bid to develop a Victorian-style underground market in tunnels under the Ivegate area into shops, two bars and a restaurant.