BRADFORD has finished bottom of a poll for most walker-friendly cities in UK.

The survey asked asked more than 2,000 people living in the UK’s ten largest cities, including Bradford, how safe they feel when walking in the city, how close shops and amenities are, the convenience of public transport and proximity to parks and green spaces.

Almost half of those living in Bradford said they do not feel safe walking in their city and more than half said they rated the quality of the streets as poor, or very poor.

It also found almost 60 per cent of Bradford residents find it easy to walk to shops and services and 50 per cent said public transport was generally easy to use.

More than 80 per cent of Bradford residents said they support measures to encourage walking in the city.

Councillor Val Slater, deputy leader of Bradford Council, disagreed with the findings of the survey, by UK everyday walking charity Living Streets.

She said: “I am disappointed.

“People are entitled to their own opinions, but I feel safe walking in Bradford. But if there are concerns over safety, we need to take a look at that.

“As a Council, we are encouraging walking for people to keep fit and get more people healthy.

“We have spent a lot of money on improving the situation for pedestrians.”

She said the city has made great strides over recent years to make it more walker-friendly.

A £1.6 million programme to improve streets in Bradford city centre was completed in 2010. The Heritage Streets Project, included Tyrrel Street, Bank Street and Hustlergate.

The scheme has involved the resurfacing of streets with natural stone paving, the installation of new street furniture and the creation of three new public squares for shoppers.

A nine-mile-long running route designed to help people get active was opened in Bradford in 2015 and was the first of its kind in the UK.

The GreenLine Mile sees people follow a series of green floor markers placed every two metres along the route.

The mile starts and ends in City Park and takes in Thornton Road and the area around The University of Bradford.

England Athletics invested £30,000 to develop four GreenLines across the city, working in partnership with the Bradford Athletics Network and Bradford Council.

The other three GreenLines in Bradford took in Little Germany, Valley Parade and Lister Park, and Barkerend and Myra Shay.

Joe Irvin, Living Streets chief executive, said: “Like many UK cities, Bradford has a legacy of being designed around cars rather than people.

“However in recent years they have taken some positive steps to improve streets for walking.

“We’ve worked with them to encourage walking to help beat feelings of isolation, improve mental health and physical health and create better places to walk through West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s go:walking project.”