REGENERATION chiefs have unveiled a host of plans to try to revitalise struggling areas of Bradford city centre.

Footfall in Darley Street - for decades regarded as the city’s main shopping drag - has fallen by a quarter in the past year, new figures show.

And the number of people visiting the nearby street of Kirkgate is down by a fifth.

There was more bad news for Darley Street over the weekend as a section of roof crashed to the floor, seemingly from a three-storey building formerly occupied by the Discount Appliance Store and Textiles Direct. No one was injured but the street was still strewn with rubble and wood yesterday evening following the incident just after 6pm on Saturday. 

Meanwhile, footfall in the lower end of town is on the up, boosted by the opening of The Broadway.

There were more than 2 million visitors counted by footfall cameras in the street of Broadway from April to June, compared to less than 1m in Darley Street.

Now Bradford Council has set out the ways it hopes to help the ailing middle and top of town.

Councillor Alex Ross-Shaw, whose portfolio includes regeneration, said the top of town was one of the council’s biggest priorities.

EDITOR'S COMMENT: THE FALL IN FOOT TRAFFIC POINTS THE WAY AHEAD

He said: “There’s a number of ways we can help businesses in the top of town. We want to support our existing businesses and we want to attract new businesses.”

Regeneration bosses hope to replicate a £2.7m scheme which restored shops to their Victorian glory in Keighley.

The Keighley Townscape Heritage Initiative has seen the transformation of several high-profile town centre buildings, including Jean Junction and North Street Arcade.

Cllr Ross-Shaw said: “That fund has helped us work wonders in Keighley and now we want to replicate that.”

Within the past few weeks, the council has put in a bid for Heritage Lottery money, which would be used to start a similar scheme breathing new life into empty historic buildings in the top of town.

Work would focus on the restoration and improvement of building frontages, including shop fronts and architectural detailing.

There would also be improvements to pedestrian areas.

The council is running a grant scheme to try to encourage new tenants into its ‘priority streets’ of Darley Street, Ivegate, Kirkgate, Rawson Square and Rawson Place, but it was revealed last month that take-up hasn’t been as high as expected.

The authority, which doesn’t own buildings in any of these streets, now wants to work more closely with landlords to get vacant shops filled.

The council plans to employ an experienced commercial property agent to work with individual property owners and agents to attract “quality retail and leisure uses into the wide range of vacant units”, according to a new report by regeneration director Mike Cowlam.

There is also a programme of support for market traders in the council-run Oastler Centre, in the wake of the recent closure of the adjoining Morrisons supermarket in Westgate.

Indoor traders are being given 10 per cent off rent for a limited period and there is also a £27,500 marketing fund and £120,000 business improvement fund offering interest-free loans for stall improvements.

Val Summerscales, secretary of the Bradford District Chamber of Trade, welcomed the Lottery bid, the moves to employ a property agent and the support for Oastler tenants.

She said: “All three of these things are definitely positive moves to try to redress the changes to footfall. We would obviously be 100 per cent supportive of those.

“It’s good that the council are looking at ways they can help. We all know Darley Street has suffered more than most streets, with a key retailer like Marks and Spencer moving.”

Mrs Summerscales particularly welcomed plans to get a specialist agent in to work with the landlords of empty shops.

She said: “That’s the difficulty. Everybody says the council should do something, but they can’t when they don’t own the properties.

“The fact they are wanting to create a post where somebody can liaise with them - all that should really establish a uniformity and continuity in negotiations regarding the empty properties.”

The latest plans for Bradford’s city centre will be looked over by the authority’s regeneration and economy overview and scrutiny committee when it next meets, on Thursday at 6pm at City Hall.

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