Bradford Council has unveiled its plans for a £17 million lottery bid to build a city centre park, incorporating the proposed mirror pool, in Centenary Square. Here, City Hall reporter JO WINROW meets Councillor Andrew Mallinson, the man spearheading the campaign.

It is just over six months since Andrew Mallinson took over as head of the district's regeneration.

It's a massive task by any standards, but the councillor finally feels he has got to grips with it.

"It's been an incredibly steep learning curve," he said. "And much of it is led by what opportunities there are. The biggest challenge is connecting skills, employment and housing needs as well as the commercial aspect."

There is plenty to keep Coun Mallinson busy as Bradford Council's executive member for regeneration and economy, what with the £2bn regeneration of Bradford city centre, numerous masterplans and blueprints Just yesterday he was instrumental in launching a lottery bid and Park At The Heart campaign to bring a unique city park and versatile mirror pool to the centre of Bradford. The scheme has been born out of an idea in Will Alsop's 2003 masterplan and Coun Mallinson is keeping his fingers crossed for £17m in lottery funding. But what else has been keeping him on his toes?

He has instigated a fresh look at plans to ensure local people get jobs from the regeneration projects, both construction and retail.

Westfield - the company behind the delayed Broadway shopping scheme - and Bradford Channel Limited, which is behind a £350 million office and residential project near Forster Square, have pledged to use local labour where they can.

"Initially, the idea was for people living in the BD3 area to be skilled up to play their part in the regeneration of the city," said the councillor. "But that was a mistake. There hasn't been a huge take-up from local residents of the college courses in building skills. It should be for anybody in the district as a whole."

He also spoke of keeping an eye on the impact on the remaining retailers in the city centre of the Broadway development - which is not likely to be open until late 2009 at the earliest. Small businesses could benefit from a mobile skills service giving staff extra training in things such as customer service.

Another innovative idea Coun Mallinson is researching is a way of bringing some of the district's 11,000 empty homes back into use and giving vital training to would-be workers.

"One of the key things I am working on is around the housing strategy to make sure we do have affordable family accommodation available," he said.

"We are investigating the possibility of the Council having a partnership whereby we could compulsorily purchase an abandoned property and hand it over to a private developer who can train local people to do the work to restore it. These people may then be eligible for funding to set up on their own. Once finished, the house could be put back on the market and sold to leave the Council with a nil cost."

On top of this, he has made it his business to visit companies in the district - in the city centre before Christmas and Keighley last week. Tours of Shipley and Bingley are planned soon.

"When I visited businesses in Bradford the feedback was very good," he said. "It is important we communicate closely with traders and make them feel part of the massive regeneration programme the district is going through."