Developer to start survey of Odeon site (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Developer to start survey of Odeon site

12:02am Tuesday 6th May 2008 in News By Jo Winrow

Survey work begins this week on Bradford's Odeon cinema building, ahead of a planning application to develop the site.

The plans for the 77-year-old building by developer Langtree Artisan had been put on hold while a bid for the building to be listed was being considered.

Six weeks ago, English Heritage confirmed the former theatre and bingo hall, which opened in 1930, was not of sufficient architectural interest to warrant saving.

It was the sixth failed application to get the building listed in just over a decade and is likely to spell the end of the campaign to save the Odeon.

Yorkshire Forward bought the building for £2m in 2003 and a design competition was run in 2006 by Bradford Centre Regeneration. The winner was Langtree Artisan and its £55m New Victoria Place scheme - a mixed-use development of offices, apartments and a hotel - which means demolition for the former cinema.

Yorkshire Forward now has a legal agreement with the developer.

The work that begins this week includes an asbestos survey and a structural survey. It follows initial independent reports commissioned by BCR and Yorkshire Forward in 2004 which stated there was a "significant risk of asbestos" in 37 areas within the building.

A spokesman for Yorkshire Forward said: "Following the decision by the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport and English Heritage not to list the Odeon building in Bradford, Langtree Artisan will be undertaking survey work on the site, including an asbestos survey and structural survey. Work will commence this week and is anticipated to take up to three months."

Bradford Odeon Rescue Group (BORG) came up with its own scheme, retaining the towers and creating a third. Their plans would have seen a 132-bed hotel, car park, a nightclub and auditorium.

BORG member John Pennington said there was asbestos, but only in the fabric of the building and that it was approximately 0.03 per cent.

"There is no more asbestos in that building than there is in City Hall," he said. "We've been told it was all taken out in the 1980s."

e-mail: jo.winrow@telegraphandargus.co.uk

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