Hiding things we don’t like seems to be the new trend in Bradford.

It began, of course, with the Broadway shopping scheme where developers Westfield, Bradford Council and regional development agency Yorkshire Forward are expected to stump up a third each of the £300,000 cost of landscaping the site to disguise the fact that it has been mothballed until the recession ends and sufficient pre-letting can be established to enable the build to go ahead.

Now the leader of the Conservative group on Bradford Council, Anne Hawksworth, is calling for more money to be spent on the erection of a “drape” between the two towers of the former Odeon to hide it from view and prevent it detracting from the £24 million City Park which is due to open next year.

The obvious question is: where next? Perhaps a giant cardboard box could be placed over Highpoint, the former YBS HQ in Westgate, in case passing balloonists think they’re going to crash into a giant WW2 concrete pillbox? Or maybe we could build big brick walls all around the Chain Street area and ask Banksy to decorate them with his grafitti art?

And what about hiding the back of the Odeon so that customers allocated street-front bedrooms in the new Jury’s Inn hotel have a better view rather than asking for their money back because they’re faced with an eyesore?

Or perhaps the Council should have the courage of its convictions, carry out the demolition now, tarmac the site and give shoppers some much needed cheap central parking – which would surely do far more to boost the city centre and would allow the Alhambra to be seen in all its glory, for a while at least?

Better that, surely, than to make Bradford a laughing stock on top of all its other troubles?