Eyes keeping a close watch on a changing city

Todefend St George's Hall against the bulldozers of Bradford Corporation's City Engineer, Stanley Wardley, the society purchased the building which, as we know, was later taken over by Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

The likes of auctioneer Tony Windle, the chairman; insurance brokers Ian Dallas and Neville Packett; and lawyer Roger Suddards cheerfully took on the local authority because they thought they had a responsibility to future generations of Bradfordians.

They saved Paper Hall and the old Post Office building in Forster Square from demolition. They fought for the Wool Exchange. But the battles for Swan Arcade, the Mechanics' Institute, the Theatre Royal, Busby's and the old Girls' Grammar School building in Manningham Lane were lost.

Two years ago Mr Windle told the T&A the society was run by "the old school, " people born and bred in the city, who had a feeling for Bradford.

Warmth of sentiment for a place must be the basis for civic pride.

You can only feel that way if your personal life is intrinsically meshed with the life of the city.

For this reason there is bound to be a conflict of interest between Bradford's citizens and firms of outside developers and consultants.

The latter may have a vision of the future; but the latter have strong feelings about the past. The birth of a new Bradford has to accommodate both.

In Bradford's history that past was largely the creation of entrepreneurs between the middle of the 19th century and 1910. So Bradford's past is not distant but recent.

Some of those buildings - the Victoria Hotel, the T&A, the row of buildings along Well Street - can now be seen from various parts of the city, now that Forster House and Central House have been demolished.

Bradfordians now have an idea of what the city's skyline looked like in the 1950s, before those two ugly masses of glass and concrete were erected.

Talking about this on the site of Victoria Mills, Shipley, is appropriate; the developer, Andrew Mason, whose Newmason Properties company is heading the £75m conversion, is chairman of the steering committee of the recently re-formed Bradford Civic Society.

"To be a civic society, it has to have a responsibility to the residents of Bradford. The planners have their platform. The developers have their platform.

Maud Marshall, at Bradford Centre Regeneration, has her platform. The T&A has its platform.

Where do Miss Smith and Mr Singh go?

"If they have a civic society available to the interests and people of Bradford they will have a voice. It cannot be a single issue pressure group, however; it should be an umbrella organisation, a consultative body for planners.

"It cannot have a power of veto only, otherwise it will not be taken seriously. The Civic Society must try to be pro-active and educate people, " he said.

Andrew Mason, 45, was born and bred in Shipley. His father was a joiner. He left school without any qualifications. After working on oil rigs and platforms in the North Sea, Mr Mason studied at night school and got the requisite A-levels to secure a place at Warwick University where he studied politics and economics.

He taught English as a foreign language in Greece for a year and then spent a number of years in the construction business here and in various parts of the world. He specialises in conversions. Newmason properties, formed four years ago, employs more than 40 people and is expected to have a turnover of £25m this year.

Married with two children, Mr Mason lives near Tadcaster. He speaks passionately about Bradford and believes that for the first time in many years the city has real opportunities to make good progress.

Heis planning to build a company headquarters for Newmason on a four-and-a-half acre business park that he's going to develop in Shipley.

He is a passionate advocate of the canal scheme for the city and believes that all the interested parties in Bradford's rebirth want quality developments - "Otherwise people won't use them!"

After reeling off the names of the developers currently at work in Bradford, he roughly estimated the financial worth of it at about a billion pounds.

"Leeds, Liverpool and Manchester have led the field but made mistakes. By coming later, Bradford has the opportunity to ensure that those mistakes are not replicated here.

Bradford has got the opportunity to be as good as anywhere in the world. It's got 5,800 listed buildings - more than any other part of the country, " he said.

The next 18 months are critical. The demolition work should be completed and the building work ready to begin. The civic society, with its starting base of 50 to 60 members, has to be in a position to study the proposed shopping development, the proposal to demolish the Odeon and aspects of the Will Alsop plan dealing with the creation of space and water.

He acknowledges the importance of Alsop's design plan in which open space plays such a vital role. He would almost like a moratorium for a year on any new building so that Bradford once again look at its original skyline and sight-lines that have been blocked since the late 1950s.

"The most important thing that the civic society can do is look at the shape of the architecture that is being proposed and how it sits with the existing environment. It must also look at the quality of materials being suggested - there are bricks and bricks. Perhaps a sub-committee could do that.

"I don't know anybody who wants to ignore public opinion. People actually want to hear what the public of Bradford want to say. City centre developers Westfield are desperate to get people on side. The worst thing they can do is put up a scheme that people don't like because people won't go there.

"I can pick up the phone and speak to four or five big developers and ask if they're happy with the level of co-operation they're getting, and they would say yes, " he added.

That would certainly apply to Eastbrook Hall, Listers Mill, his own Victoria Mills development and the ambitious canal development; but the proposal to demolish the Odeon has resulted in a torrent of protest.

"I don't know the merits of the plan.

To take up a position on it I would need more information. My first instinct is: save it, then think about it, because once you demolish, it's gone."

With that, he had to go, to York to deliver a talk. Andrew Mason is a dynamic friendly man who says he is passionate about wanting the best for his home town. I'dsaythereformed civic society is fortunate to have him as chairman.