ONLY six businesses have been given grants or rate rebates in a scheme set up more than a year ago to tempt retailers into struggling city-centre streets, the Telegraph & Argus can reveal today.

The £1.5 million funding pot was set up by Bradford Council to help prevent the top of town from being left behind by the opening of The Broadway.

But so far, less than a fifth of the money has been dished out, with the numbers of empty shops in once-bustling areas remaining a concern.

A spokesman for the authority acknowledged it “had hoped that take up would be greater by this point” and its deputy leader, Councillor Val Slater, has revealed that plans are in the pipeline to boost the scheme.

But opposition groups are now calling for a wholesale rethink of the city centre and an open debate about what it should look like in the age of internet shopping.

Councillor Jeanette Sunderland, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said: “We are living in a dream world if we think that somehow, in a period of time when we are increasingly buying more and more online, that we can create a fantasy shoppers’ world by offering a few thousand pounds in grants.

“This is increasingly becoming a problem to all major cities.”

The Priority Streets scheme was begun last July as an extension to the £35 million City Centre Growth Zone - a successful initiative which brought more than 70 vacant units back into use and created nearly 500 jobs.

Focusing on five streets - Darley Street, Kirkgate, Ivegate, Rawson Square and Rawson Place - it offers capital grants for shop re-fits as well as rate rebates for each job created.

Cllr Sunderland said it was now time for a “wholesale rethink” of the layout of the city centre and called for shopping areas to be demolished to make way for housing.

She said: “We are building houses all over the Green Belt.

“They are taking about building thousands and thousands of houses around the fringe of the city and what they should think to do is to help the city by demolishing swathes of it, big chunks of it. Just take it out of use and turn it into housing.

“It needs a radical solution.”

Councillor Simon Cooke, leader of the Conservative group, said while he was no town planner, he thought Cllr Sunderland was “partly right”.

He said it was no surprise that the top of town had suffered in recent months.

He said: “It has been a year since Marks & Spencer moved out of Darley Street. The idea that instantly everyone was going to rush forward and everything was going to be fine was always a bit cloud-cuckoo-land.

“But we have to look beyond grants. Grants are more of a sticking plaster.”

Cllr Cooke said it was time for an open public debate about the future of the city centre.

He said: “What’s concerning is we were told that we were going to review and refresh the city plan in response to the impact of the new shopping centre, to look at what alternatives and opportunities could be brought forward, and that doesn’t appear to be happening.”

Councillor Val Slater, the deputy leader of the Labour-run council, said she “absolutely understand” people’s concerns about empty shops, and described Darley Street as “a specific challenge and of course an opportunity”.

She said: “We must remember that businesses need time to consider their plans and weigh up their options before setting up and we can’t compel them to do that.”

Cllr Slater acknowledged that people’s shopping habits were changing but said this was “no excuse not to have a bustling city centre and retail offer”.

She said officers were looking at ways to boost the Priority Streets scheme but it was too early to reveal further details about this.

She added: “We have further plans in the pipeline to boost the Priority Streets Scheme and to help ‘join the dots’ in the city centre so that the growing confidence spreads throughout the city.

“A wholesale and ambitious regeneration of a city takes time but we are determined to attract similarly ambitious businesses to help deliver it.”

Of the six recipients, four are new to the city while two are expanding their work or their premises.

Self-service eatery Gustoso has opened in Kirkgate, creating two jobs, after receiving £19,056 in grant money for machinery and property improvements.

Bradford Artisan Bakery, in Rawson Place, is opening soon, creating two jobs, after getting a grant and rate rebate worth a total of £66,305.

Existing business Blues Hair Salon in Rawson Place used a £12,734 capital grant to expand the business, creating two new jobs.

National music and DVD retailer That’s Entertainment has been granted rate rebates of £27,005 for creating at least two jobs by opening an outlet in Kirkgate, Bradford.

New to You Lifestyle, an RSPCA charity shop, has opened in Darley Street creating two jobs. It benefited from £33,541 in combined capital grants and business rates rebates.

And the existing Fuse Arts Space, in Rawson Place, has successfully applied for business rate rebates of £17,000 for future plans which are anticipated to create five jobs.

But some of the recipients have already expressed concern at the lack of footfall in these areas.

The owners of one of the businesses, who did not want to be identified, said: “We would not have come here. We were going to go to Leeds. We came here because of this scheme. We feel let down.

“I would say to people, ‘don’t bother’. It has cost us more than to do it in Leeds.

“We knew in our hearts that this was not the right place for this. But, because of the grant, we did.”

The business owners also claimed the council had “no vision whatsoever” for the city centre, adding: “The only way to regenerate this part of town would be to turn this area into a cultural hub.”

Another business owner said the scheme was the reason they moved in, but added: “It could be better. It is so quiet – there is no footfall and now the post office is going it’s going to get worse.”

“I think the Council could definitely do more. This part of town is dying.”

But a member of staff at Blues Hair Salon was more positive, saying: “It has worked for us. We have spent it on the salon upstairs.”

Val Summerscales, secretary of the Bradford District Chamber of Trade - which had welcomed the grant scheme when it was announced, said retailers might have been waiting to see what the effect of the Broadway’s opening was on the rest of the city centre before committing to opening up new shops.

She said she hoped take-up of the grant scheme would improve.