SIR – I was born and raised in Bradford and remain a proud Yorkshireman.

I got such a surprise on an overnight stay on April 28 to discover that Town Hall Square is now known as City Park, with a lake and fountains. I also noticed the Odeon, where I spent many happy hours, wrapped up in bubble wrap as though in storage.

What has happened to Cheapside and Forster Square? All the shops are gone and a large, white gazebo by a grassed area, where headbanging music filled the air, had replaced them.

I was with my 16-year-old son and his mother (a Lancastrian) and the noise was so great we made our way towards Ivegate and Kirkgate, where I once worked. These were also not as I remembered them, the old familiar pubs having gone or changed for the worse.

Have the Council done what the bombs in the Forties could not do, destroyed a once-proud city?

Roger J Vernon, Belmont Street, Southport