PAUL Kerfoot is going nuts about today's opening of Bradford's new The Broadway shopping centre - doughnuts.

The marketing man wants to celebrate the opening with an annual Bradford Doughnut Day every November 5.

He said the £260 million development represented providing the 'jam' in a hollow doughnut - to which Bradford was once compared by critics before the start of city centre regeneration schemes .

Mr Kerfoot, creative director at Bulletpoint Design in Little Germany, was inspired by previous criticism of the city in a 2012 book which said it had much around the outside but nothing in the middle and resembled 'a Detroit doughnut'.

Mr Kerfoot said: "That book described Bradford as the pits.

"If we cast our minds back to the days when Bradford had its infamous hole in the ground and before City Park , it did resemble a doughnut.

"There was the likes of Saltaire, Haworth, Ilkley and other memorable places on the outskirts of the city and nothing much in the centre from what I can remember.

"Yet this is the past, now we must celebrate the present and look ahead to a new, positive future for Bradford.

"City Park was a brilliant and risky strategic move by Bradford Council, yet Westfield’s Broadway development is the game-changer we have all been waiting for.

"It occurred to me that this doughnut ‘label’ no longer applies now - so there is another reason to celebrate today, a day to also celebrate and embrace filling the doughnut.

"The jam? The Broadway, of course. Not only does it include 70 retail units, it will also create new public spaces, restaurants, cafes and 2,500 retail jobs. The Broadway is also predicted to increase retail spend by 78 per cent and footfall by 40 per cent across Bradford city centre . It also provides the final tasty ingredient in Bradford’s exciting new retail offer."

He has also thrown out a challenge to author Bill Bryson to revisit Bradford, which he criticised in his 1995 book Notes from the Small Island in which he wrote: "Bradford's role in life is to make every place else in the world look better in comparison, and it does this very well.”

Mr Kerfoot said: "I'm sure if Mr Bryson came back here, even he would be impressed at the progress we have made in the past 20 years, I would like him to return and see for himself."

He is urging people to promote his Bradford Doughnut Day idea on social media by tweeting @thebulletman ; #BigUpBradford and #BradfordDonutDay 2015.