IT is hoped that a lottery funded project will help “bring life back” to some of the city centre’s most neglected heritage buildings.

The cash will go towards restoring the tatty frontages of once grand Victorian shops and finding new uses for their empty upper floors.

It will also fund the restoration of the statue of Richard Oastler, in the centre of Oastler Square.

Last January Bradford Council secured initial support for the £2 million National Lottery grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund to support a Townscape Heritage Scheme.

The plan is for the project to focus on the Bradford City Centre Conservation Area, with projects being concentrated of some of the city centres oldest, and most neglected streets. Funding will be available for buildings along North Parade, Rawson Place, Darley Street, Northgate, Piccadilly, Upper Piccadilly, Duke Street and James Street.

The Council received a development grant of £61,000 as part of the Stage 1 bid and has now appointed a Townscape Heritage Scheme Project Officer to develop a more detailed proposal to secure the full award through a Stage 2 round which is this week being submitted to the Heritage Lottery Fund.

HLF officers will then visit and look at the information collected so far to determine whether Bradford should be given the full £2 million.

The Council has made contact with a number of property owners in the area to talk about their ambitions for the ‘top of town’, what the grants could achieve, and how the council could support their projects.

Richard Middleton, Townscape Heritage Scheme Project Officer, said: “We have enough information now so as soon as we know if we have the full amount we will be able to go live. It will be open to anyone who is the owner of a building in the target area. There will be grants to repair buildings, or to re-instate buildings that have suffered from unsympathetic alterations. The aim is to help these grand buildings that have been out of use for some period of time.

“We’re looking to enable owners of these buildings to bid for a grant that will help them look after these buildings and do a quality job maintaining them.

“It is not uncommon in the top of town to find buildings that have empty upper floors. Another part of this scheme is finding ways to get these back into use. We know a few owners that have already got schemes in mind, but who might not be able to afford the full project without help from these grants.”

He said the grants would not go to building owners who are responsible for the unsympathetic alterations themselves.

Saira Ali, team leader of Landscape Design and Conservation said the scheme will also fund training people in the skills to repair and restore heritage buildings. She added: “It is all about opening up the heritage of Bradford. We’re investing in bricks and mortar but also investing in people. We want to bring life back to these old buildings.”

A similar scheme has seen parts of Keighley transformed, and the Bradford team took the owners of city centre buildings to Keighley to see how it has improved those buildings.