New use for site is long overdue (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

New use for site is long overdue

9:00am Wednesday 18th April 2012 in Our View By Telegraph & Argus

Moves to bring a derelict Bradford fire station back into use are long overdue and should be encouraged by both the West Yorkshire Fire Authority and Bradford Council.

The former Bradford fire station on Nelson Street has become a magnet for vandalism and anti-social behaviour, with people breaking in, stealing fixtures and fittings and starting fires.

It now stands as a decaying eyesore – one of far too many such buildings in and around the city.

So it is to be hoped that the sale of the building, which is dependent on it getting planning permission for a proposed use as an ‘educational facility’, goes ahead.

The 40-year-old property has been disused since 2006, when it was closed to make way for a new £4m fire station in Leeds Road. Unfortunately, the Nelson Street base was then left to rot, and it has now become a boarded-up eyesore.

Although they have not been identified at this stage, the fire authority say the prospective purchasers of the site want to turn it into an education facility that will benefit children in the area.

It is to be hoped that the Council can now take a favourable view once the plans are submitted. Bradford has far too many sites like this that have been allowed to rot away, attracting only criminal elements like vandals and thieves who will strip it of any remaining resources of value, and the T&A’s Save Our Green Spaces campaign was a response to the amount of disused land like this which could be brought back into use, rather than constantly building houses on greenfield sites.

And while we would not suggest planning rules should not be applied to such sites, it is to be hoped that the Council treat applications to bring them back into use with appropriate sympathy and do all it can to facilitate such developments.

Any reduction in the derelict, decaying, disused eyesores that litter the city represents another step to eradicate their overbearing presence here.