A £1.5 MILLION cash injection aims to breathe new life into key city-centre shopping streets in danger of being left behind by the opening of The Broadway shopping centre.

The new scheme offers grants of up to £141,000 to traders willing to take on an empty shop in five key streets: Darley Street, Kirkgate, Ivegate, Rawson Square and Rawson Place.

These traditional shopping streets have felt the knock-on effect of big names like Marks & Spencer, Boots and WH Smith moving down to Bradford's new £260 million Broadway shopping centre.

In Darley Street alone, there are now at least six empty shops, with the closed M&S unit sitting in a row of four vacant premises.

The new initiative by Bradford Council will help new traders set up shop in these empty units.

It will fund up to half of the cost of setting up shop, such as buying equipment or specialist machinery, or improving the property.

The initiative has been warmly welcomed by the Bradford and District Chamber of Trade.

Secretary Val Summerscales said: "It is extremely good. We are very pleased that is happening.

"Everybody can't fail to notice there's a void where the shops have moved out and moved into Broadway.

"Darley Street, in particular, is the main link street from the top to the bottom end of town.

"While we are absolutely thrilled that The Broadway has opened, there has to be the link between the existing shopping centre that was there before and Broadway.

"You can't swap one shopping area for another.

"In Kirkgate, Darley Street and as far as Ivegate, it is crucial that what is happening includes them. That is something we have always said."

The council-funded Priority Streets Scheme forms a new strand of the successful City Centre Growth Zone scheme, which helped a host of new businesses open across the city centre and was credited with helping to turn North Parade into a thriving independent quarter.

The scheme was unveiled yesterday, but council bosses have already briefed landlords about the opportunity and have had about four applications, with one already approved for a new eatery called Gustosa being set up in Kirkgate.

Successful applicants can also take advantage of an existing rate rebate scheme, which offers business rates breaks of up to £16,000 for every job created.

Councillor David Green, the leader of Bradford Council, said: "Bradford is booming now and it's a good time for businesses and investors to move into the city centre.

"Footfall has increased massively throughout the city centre since The Broadway opened and I'm sure this feelgood factor will spread through the whole town."

Traders in the Priority Streets Scheme area admitted that takings were down since The Broadway opened earlier this month.

But there was a mixed reaction to the Priority Streets Scheme.

Arif Mehmood, owner of Smorgasbord coffee bar in Rawson Place, said it was a "fantastic" idea but he believes much more needs to be done to entice shoppers to the top end of town.

He wants to see covered walkways to protect pedestrians from the elements, similar to Victoria Quarter in Leeds.

However, he claims Bradford Council planners are too caught up in "red tape" to consider radical ideas.

He said: "They have got to stop with the red tape and ease up and let go of old schools of thought."

Jeff Frankel, owner of Sydneys The Jewellers in Rawson Road, said existing business owners also needed help.

He said: "This only helps new people coming in – what about people like us who have been in Bradford since 1947? Do we get any help?"

Mr Frankel, a former chairman of the now defunct Bradford Retail Action Group, said his shop had been busier in recent weeks but the last decade had been difficult.

He said: "I want to know what the council is going to do for existing businesses who have put up with hard, lean times over the past 10 years."

Paul James, owner of a jewellery shop of the same name in Rawson Square, was critical of Bradford Council’s regeneration priorities and expressed doubts over the effectiveness of the latest scheme.

He said: "Bradford has gone about it wrong; they need to sort out the middle area rather than dispersing people everywhere. Ivegate used to be the best street in Bradford but it’s now the worst."