Bradford has just over 21 months to finalise its Millennium celebrations. What, if anything, is being considered? Jim Greenhalf reports.

On Monday, January 1, 1900, the Bradford Daily Telegraph (price a half-penny) welcomed its readers to the Twentieth Century with a short but complacent summary of current affairs.

Trade was good, the country showed every sign of extricating itself from the Second South African War (that wasn't to happen until 1902), the Empire was otherwise in good shape. Citizens could, justifiably, shake each other by the hand and look forward to the future.

The fragile fragment of crumbling newsprint - all that's left of that historic issue in the T&A's archives - bears no reference to how the Telegraph's readers bade farewell to the old century, which had seen Bradford's astonishing growth from a muddy village to an international manufacturing and trading city, and welcomed in the new one.

Perhaps celebrations were inhibited somewhat by the last day of year falling on a Sunday: religious observance was taken more seriously then; opportunities for revelry were restricted.

No such inhibition will cast a shadow on January 1, 2000, because New Year's Day falls on a Saturday. Bradford will be saying hello not only to a new century but to the start of the third Millennium - 2,000 years on from the birth of Christ.

The occasion, if justice is to be done to it, ought to be a mixture of the secular and the religious, a party and a celebration. The final Friday night of the century should be one to remember, whether or not David Hockney helps to paint the city centre with light - Bradford's Millennium organisers have come up with the idea of asking Hockney to help create permanent illuminations to mark the symbolic importance of light to all the major religions in Bradford.

Had Bradford Council bestowed the Freedom of the City on its most famous son last year, to commemorate Bradford's Centenary and the artist's 60th birthday, the authority might be better placed to make a request for his time and attention.

In the circumstances, a civic begging letter might get a better reception if it came from another body, the Cathedral say. Not that Hockney and I discussed this when I rang him at his California home to gauge his response to such a request.

He listened and said he'd let me know when he received the letter from the Council. He didn't say 'no'.

Incidentally, Hockney turned down the request from Peter Mandelson, Minister without Portfolio, to paint the inside of London's Millennium Dome. "I had good reasons which I explained in a letter. I said it would be more spiritual to leave it empty...We live in a pretty unspiritual century," he said sadly, and sleepily.

Before making the call, I had spoken with Councillor Dave Green, chairman of Bradford Council's regeneration committee, and can report a preference for Millennium projects which contribute significantly towards the long-term revitalisation of the district as a whole.

"We could have a fireworks display, we probably will have one, but we also want something permanent, not just for the Millennium day itself," he said.

Thousands of events across the district will take place, this we know for sure. From the cooking of a world record-breaking five-tonne Christmas pudding in Burley to producing special commemorative coins and mugs in Ilkley and the transformation of Grassington's former town hall into a £600,000 community and arts centre.

In Ilkley at least, a debate has been raging about whether to raise a special one-off rate to pay for Millennium events. This has now been dropped. A special rate is unlikely to be raised in Bradford, however. Coun Green said Millennium celebration costs would come from existing budgets and, hopefully, partnership deals with other organisations.

As the Millennium belongs to everyone, not just to a group of officers or local politicians, perhaps the opinions of the general public should be canvassed as to the kind of schemes that would both honour the occasion and serve a long-term purpose for the generations to follow in the next 1,000 years.

Bradford's Centenary celebrations had only one such event - the opening of Centenary Square by the Queen last March. For the most part the Centenary turned out to be an extension of the annual Bradford Festival. The majority of the festivities were city-centre orientated; the rest of the district either looked on or looked away.

Maybe this explains why Coun Green wants centrally-organised events to have a wider implication. Apart from lighting up central Bradford's roof-scape, he showed great interest in two other ideas: the creation of an east-west footpath from Pudsey to Keighley, part planted with trees, and the overhaul of the northern bank of the Leeds-Liverpool Canal from Shipley through Saltaire.

The latter idea has already received the enthusiastic support of an informal group of business people and politicians which had a meeting with Shipley MP Chris Leslie in February.

A properly-refurbished path, lighted and landscaped with shrubs and trees, would complement the renovation of Shipley railway station, now going on, and the construction of the 70-bed hotel between the station and Salts Mill.

Ultimately the canal-path could be part of an improved and integrated communications and tourist route in that part of Shipley.

All this is up in the air, however. Nothing firm has been decided about anything. Let's hope that Bradford doesn't repeat the mistake of the Centenary celebrations by leaving things too late and then asking Bradford Festival to rush in at the last minute.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.