SIR - On a rare visit to Bradford city centre I can only describe the experience as soul-destroying.

Can there be another city centre in the UK that reeks as much of deprivation and hopelessness as ours? I take no pride in writing this; I am a born and bred Bradford lad - this is my city. However, it has been allowed to slide into ignominy for a decade and more now.

From the disastrous hole in the ground from where the scaled-down new Broadway centre arose, a decade too late, its customer base having long found fresh pastures. To the gradual deterioration of the city centre populace.

Had Michael Jackson been shooting the video to Thriller now, Bradford city centre would have been an ideal choice; the extras are free. A young lad I know recently described a Sunday morning trip as “like being in Shaun of the Dead”. Sunday morning!

That young people neither feel safe nor attracted by the centre asks an obvious question: what future is there? An awful lot hinges on Bradford Live and whether the NEC Group can entice enough quality acts to Bradford to establish footfall back to the city.

Yet if the authorities do not pull their heads out of their self-protective denial bucket, even this may be a forlorn hope.

Steve Wilson, Idle, Bradford