With all the excitement and anticipation about the building work under way on the Westfield site, it is sometimes easy to forget that the retail area of the city centre does cover a much wider area.

While the progress on Broadway is, of course, much welcome and the finished product is looked forward to with bated breath, it is equally as welcome that the former Rawson Market is at last coming back as a going concern. The site will become an Asian bazaar-style operation with 150 stalls including a beauty lounge and tailoring service, and opens for business next weekend.

It is important that this new venture is patronised by all the communities of Bradford and should be seen as a new opportunity for shopping for everyone. It will hopefully go towards revitalising that end of the city centre and ensure a good flow of footfall between the new bazaar and the Westfield shopping site. If that happens, everyone will benefit, including all the businesses in between.

With £200,000 sunk into developing the bazaar it is hoped that it is a success, because that breeds yet more success and could attract yet more stores and individual traders to Bradford.

It is vitally important that a city centre has a balanced retail offer, catering not only for those who like the big High Street names, but people who like to shop at more bespoke and independent boutiques.

For too long Bradford has not had the shopping centre that the populace deserves, and with these new developments coming online we can look towards the future of a more vibrant city centre for everyone.