AN URBAN park which forms part of the multi-million pound redevelopment of a rundown Bradford neighbourhood has officially opened to the public.

The Chain Street Linear Park, part of the regeneration of an area once dubbed ‘Death Row’ because of its decaying state, is a new urban space created for residents.

It features grass mounds and oak cubed seating and can be used by residents of both the new development and city centre visitors.

It is part of the wider regeneration of the Goitside area on the outskirts of the city centre and follows the completion of 32 high-quality homes, built at nearby Baptist Court, as part of the scheme’s second phase.

The urban park was officially opened yesterday with residents enjoying a picnic at the site and children playing street games including football and tug of war.

Representatives from charities and community groups also attended to give residents information on how they can take part in neighbourhood watch groups, classes and leisure activities.

Zinat Shafiq, who has lived in Chain Street for the last four years, attended yesterday’s urban park event with her daughters Yasmina, eight ,and Suhayla, four, and son Ibrahim, five, and was impressed by the improvements.

Mrs Shafiq said: “Where the urban park is now used to be a car park and derelict land. We have waited a long time for this. It is much better.

“The children are out here daily. They had nowhere else to go before.

“They have used the space well.”

Cllr Val Slater, Bradford Council’s deputy leader and executive member for health and well-being, said the area will be boosted by the opening of the linear park, which is the final stage of the Chain Street regeneration project.

She said: “It has really lifted this area. It has breathed a bit of life into a very rundown part of the city.

“Before this, the children here did not have anything to play on. You would not think you were in the middle of the city. There’s no doubt that this area was really rundown before, which led to anti-social behaviour. People did not want to live here.”

The Goitside project’s first phase, built in 2013 through Incommunities, Bradford Council and the Homes and Communities Agency, saw 36 outdated flats off Chain Street and Roundhill Place remodelled into 16 larger homes.

The homes are being managed by the Bradford-based social housing group, Incommunities, for QSH, the affordable housing developer behind Chain Street’s regeneration.

For this stage of the project, Incommunities converted two blocks of these hard-to-let bedsits.

The former eyesore area had once become the haunt of prostitutes, drunks and drug users.

In 2011, Incommunities secured a £960,000 grant from the Government’s Homes and Communities Agency for the Roundhill Place and Chain Street development, as well as an additional £100,000 from the Council’s Empty Properties Programme. The cash funded the demolition of the derelict U-shaped block of flats, which took four weeks to complete in 2012, the refurbishment of two blocks and contributed to the building of the first ten affordable homes.

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