A proposed Bradford souk would be built out-of-town to attract people into the city from outside the district, the charity behind the plan has revealed.

Adeeba Malik, deputy chief executive of development agency QED-UK, said the organisation was looking for a site as close as possible to the motorway for its Arabian-inspired marketplace.

But Councillor David Green, Bradford Council’s regeneration and economy portfolio holder, was concerned about the suggested location as the authority had made development of the city centre its priority.

Mrs Malik said: “We want to be able to attract all kinds of people from outside the area. This is about job creation and we want people to come into the city afterwards to eat, for entertainment, and the souk can be a trigger point for visitors to engage in all the city has to offer.”

She said she could understand cynics saying the souk would never happen and the charity had yet to test the strength of feeling for the scheme from Bradford Council. The plan is the subject of a bid for funding from the Government’s Regional Growth Fund.

But Coun Green said: “It’s clear from what we have said and what we are doing that the regeneration of the city centre is the key priority for the Council and we would be very concerned about any retail development outside of the city centre.

“We have had very preliminary dicussions with people who have similar ideas that did have a site outside the city centre and we made it clear that was not acceptable.”

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