Dr Paul Seeley is a professional musician from Heaton, Bradford. He shares his thoughts on the recent announcement that St George's Hall is to be revamped and expanded.

As a professional pianist and conductor who has performed at St George's Hall and other UK venues I would dearly love to share the dream of a revamped St George's (T&A, March 20) but I fear, from my experience of arts administration, that reality may not match the dream.

Comparison of St George's with halls elsewhere reveals its shortcomings. I choose for my comparison not a major city such as Nottingham and Cardiff but the modest Dorset harbour town of Poole, where the arts centre was revamped in 2002 and renamed the Lighthouse, providing a 1,500-seat concert hall as well as a theatre, small cinema, studio space and function rooms.

Seating in the concert hall is spacious, sightlines perfect with tiered rows and excellent acoustics. Lifts provide access throughout for the less mobile. There is a choice of refreshment facilities. Secure car parking is directly opposite the entrance.

St George's has 1,800 seats, many with little leg room and poor sightlines, good though not perfect acoustics, limited disabled access, no lifts, little choice in catering options and a nearby municipal quagmire that passes for a car park.

Suggestions from the (no doubt expensive) consultants include "reconfiguring the seats" which will of course impact upon seating capacity and therefore upon ticket price.

Then there is the idea of "expansion". Which way? Up or sideways? Upward expansion may well upset English Heritage by spoiling the architectural look.

All this for workshop and studio space - but for whom? Some 25 years ago we were promised all that with a modest concert venue, the Delius Centre, another project which never got off the ground.

And where is the money coming from? Let's face it, Bradford's culture funding is in a pretty mess when its libraries have not been able to buy a single book since mid-January.

And if the money does come forward, and if some improvements are made not only for patrons but also in dressing room and refreshment areas for visiting artists, this will still be a 19th century anachronism in the 21st century.

Nor is there any guarantee that the "worldclass stars" will come rushing here. It is people, not places, that attract people.

International concert artists, lured to the unlikeliest places by a small-town music society, go there confident of the welcome from a large appreciative audience and trusting the reliability of the event organisers.

In that there is a lesson that our councillors and arts officers may learn from.