New horizon for Bradford's landscape (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

New horizon for Bradford's landscape

8:48am Monday 15th March 2010 in

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We are not judged on our intentions but on what we deliver.”

That’s the message on the door to the office of Barra Mac Ruairi, the man charged with the task of overseeing the Bradford district’s regeneration.

“We hammer that message home to anyone who walks through the door,” said Mr Mac Ruairi, who took up his role as Bradford Council’s strategic director of regeneration in early 2008.

He said: “We have had two years of building this department. It has become strong. We needed to get the structure right, the people right and the processes right.”

Mike Cowlam, the Council’s assistant director of regeneration, said: “What a lot of people don’t realise is that it’s a department of 850 people now in regeneration.

“It used to be several separate departments with limited working-together. Tony Reeves (the Council’s chief executive) came along and reorganised the Council and Barra came to head up regeneration and brought this department together.”

Whereas the departments of planning, economic development, asset management, transport and housing once operated largely independently, they are now seen as “five fingers of the same hand”, according to Mr Mac Ruairi.

He said: “That helps us in complex negotiations, and has brought us the speed and efficiency that makes us effective. It has been really positive for taking projects forward like the City Park, which was our first big test.

“We are pleased we got that on site 12 months ahead of time. It proves we will deliver – even in tough times.”

Mr Mac Ruairi said the Prologis/Marks & Spencer distribution warehouse, bounded by the M606 motorway and Rooley Lane, had also been brought on to site ahead of schedule.

One of the most positive things to emerge from the era of Bradford Centre Regeneration, the now-disbanded urban regeneration company, was the close involvement of the private sector in regeneration. So what will the Council do to maintain public sector involvement?

Mr Mac Ruairi said: “The Council has been involved with the private sector for years and has key relationships with lots of businesses and work with them tightly. We have identified this idea of team regeneration.

“We have got a close relationship with the Chamber and we are on the Bradford Property Forum steering group and work in all these areas.

“We should not view it as private sector, public sector or voluntary sector, but should look at it as one sector. No one sector should have to go it alone.

“In our policy and strategy- making, we need to understand where they (the private sector) are going, and they need to understand where we are going. The conversation and relationship is crucial.”

Mr Cowlam said: “The urban regeneration company has made a big contribution to improving these relationships. The designation of regeneration as a clear priority has taken us a lot further down this road with the private sector.

“It’s a long-term game, and we are not talking about three years – we are talking about a 20-year place-making programme.”

In late 2007, bosses of Bradford Centre Regeneration revealed that six “pivotal” projects had emerged from an original list of 40 possible schemes.

The so-called “Big Six” included the Broadway shopping scheme, the Park at the Heart project, the proposal for the former Odeon cinema, the £350m Bradford Channel urban village, a rolling programme to upgrade the public realm in Bradford’s retail area, and a plan to relocate Bradford Magistrates’ Court.

Mr Cowlam said: “The priorities have not changed. We were an integral part of deciding these priorities. On the whole, they are the same.

“By bringing our team together with BCR’s team, we have been able to strengthen.

“One of the good things that has come out of it is that our inward investment team now sits right next to the former BCR team. They are all Council employees now at the Design Exchange.”

Next: How the individual projects are getting on