DIY Urban Regeneration

Bradford, and particularly the city centre, is in need of regeneration.  Parts of the city have a youth unemployment rate that is more than double the national average, the city centre is near the top of the charts for vacant shop units and stalled development projects have blighted the city centre, a place which faces competition from other centres across West Yorkshire and beyond.  The textile industry in the city has left a legacy of many empty mill buildings, some of which have fallen victim to fires and some have been subject to stalled development proposals (such as Midland Mills, below).


The city is forecast to have one of the fastest rising populations in the UK over the coming years, which presents a challenge as to how all these people are housed.  Property developers are not wanting to take any risks in these turbulent times, so are opting for what seem to be 'safe bets', greenfield and low density houses with gardens and space for cars, a Castle for the Englishman - or Mondeo man.

The mechanisms for delivering regeneration have changed in recent years.  Large scale regeneration projects led by the public sector do not fit with the Government's austerity policies, changes to the availability of finance mean that large scale city centre apartment development, driven by speculators, are a thing of the past.  But the city still has empty buildings, people to house and needs to be a place where companies can start-up or want to move in to.

Community Led Development
Non for profit mutual societies can be set up to secure development.  Brixton Green has issued shares to the community to secure the redevelopment of a council owned site close to the centre of Brixton.  FC United  have issued shares to the community to build their own stadium at Newton Heath.

The Creative Foundation is Folkestone is a charity that has acquired dis-used buildings in the town, leading to the establishment of a Creative Quarter.

Closer to Bradford, the LILAC eco housing scheme in Bramley is currently under development.  This is a mutual home ownership society, where members have joined the co-operative and twenty homes are being built.  LILAC has secured investment through loanstock, where investors can lend the co-operative funds over a fixed period.  In Slaithwaite, the Green Valley Grocer (below) has thrived after the village's greengrocers was bought by the community, following a share issue and the shop provides an outlet for locally produced food, which would not have been possible without the community buying into the venture.

Bradford does have some co-operatives already, the 1 in 12 club and Brances and The Hive housing co-operatives. 

But in the meantime...

The meantime phenomenon has certainly not missed out in Bradford, as demonstrated by Fabric's Pop Up Art Space, Urban Garden and Hand Made in Bradford. The Pop Up People report looked at how vacant spaces have been used temporarily, a theme that was explored in an earlier blogpost.  With Bradford's number of empty shops, this needs to be pursued.

Bradford is yet to have its multi-million pound Westfield shopping mall, but those hipsters in Shoreditch made a whole shopping area out of shipping containers, Boxpark (above).  If shopping in shipping containers seems a bit too far fetched for Bradford, there is certainly scope for small scale intervention.  I walk through Bradford Interchange everyday, it must have one of the highest levels of footfall in the whole city, it will be the first thing that many people see in the city... but just look at it:



Get some greenery on the top of the walls, a climbing plant up those poles and add a bit of colour to those glass panel things and it would just look a whole lot less drab and just a bit more welcoming!

Can we do DIY Regeneration in Bradford?
Why not?  How much confidence is there in other forms of regeneration at the moment, in fact do these even exist any more?  Banks aren't lending money and developers aren't taking risks, but regeneration still needs to happen and someone needs to fill that gap.

Imagine if it was the people who had regenerated places like the Goitside area (below), which had a high number of residents and workers occupying the empty buildings.  Imagine if the community owned and operated the Odeon building and large vacant buildings like Highpoint and Sunwin House were handed over for a large range of retail, arts and entertainment venues - that'd be amazing!

The squeeze on local government finances and the recession require an innovative and adventurous response, particularly in Bradford where the need for regeneration is so acute.  Community led development would help improve Bradford's image, reinforce its identity and help the city centre sustain a larger residential population, which in turn would support shops and services.

So, over to us.

Living in the City Centre

In the blog post about 'opportunities' for Bradford City Centre, living was identified: "There is some living in the city centre already, many buildings in the ‘Goitside’ area are unoccupied, as are many floors above the shops.  Given the housing waiting list figures, the general shortage of housing in the city – there is scope for the city centre to provide more housing in the long term and for facilities such as health centres to have a presence in the city centre." - The issue hasn't been explored much in this blog, but it has until now.


I tried to think about reasons people choose to move somewhere, so I took the imaginative step of Googling "reasons for choosing a place to live" and going straight to the first page that came up.  The idea is then comparing each of these reasons with what is happening Bradford, an amazing concept right?


Public Transport Links
The city centre scores very highly for this, it is one of the main reasons why myself a seasoned public transport user, chose to move here.  Pretty much all of Bradford district is linked by bus, as well as areas around Leeds, Huddersfield, Halifax, Dewsbury, Wakefield.  The train links to Leeds and the Aire and Wharfe Valleys are frequent, and trains to Manchester aren't bad either.  


Links to motorway networks 
I'll take this to mean motoring in general.  Its a non-starter to have a car in the central apartment blocks, but is possible in Little Germany and other peripheral areas.  City centre living is unlikely to be as popular in the UK as other countries, not only because of the whole 'there's no culture of it here' thing but because of how car dominated our society is.

Travel time to your workplace(s) 
This is linked to the above two points, if you work in the city centre, then great.  If you work near the centre or somewhere in Bradford its not bad as everywhere is easy to get to on the bus and you're generally going away from the flow of traffic.  But, the economic focus is very much on Leeds - if you work in Leeds City Centre, then its great to get the train in to work though watch out for overcrowding!  If you work to the east of Leeds City Centre or near the motorway, then its not ideal.

School Catchment area 
It would take a massive change in culture and a massive investment in central Bradford to make living around the centre an option for families, but soon there may be no choice.  Most apartments are too small for children and there's a real lack of play space.  It would be possible to be within good access of a good secondary school, but Primary provision may be more problematic.

Proximity to neighbours 
City centre places to live are high density, so there's not much getting away from neighbours.  The way many of the flats are designed aren't very neighbourly, i.e. you don't have a front garden space where you might see your neighbours.  Plus, the population is very transient and so finding that sense of community would be some way off.  This is probably linked to the above and the lack of settled families.



Do you prefer to buy a house in a bustling town or out in the suburbs?
In a country where living in the heart of the city isn't really something that most people aspire too, the city centre probably loses out on this count.

What amenities (gym, shops, local pub etc) would you like to have close by? 
Amenities are a big selling point of the city centre.  There are lots of different places to buy food in the market and other specialist food shops, but these don't open 'out of hours', there is Morrisons in the centre which opens quite restricted hours and then the 24 hour Tesco on the edge of the centre.  Fashion retail is quite limited but public transport to other nearby cities is easy enough, until we get our shopping provision improved!  The city centre has a range of pubs, there is scope for this to be improved, but this needs more people to live and work in the centre.

View 
This comes down to personal preference and potentially you could have brilliant views of rooftops, amazing listed buildings and even be able to see out to the moors.  Conversely, you might just be able to see straight into other buildings and on to a service yard or busy road.

Desirability of the area
This is perhaps the biggest challenge to living in the centre of Bradford.  Its a challenge making living in the centres of Manchester and Leeds to be something to aspire too.  It would take an massive change to both people's perceptions and the image of Bradford, as well as actually changes to crime rates, schools etc to ever make Bradford desirable.  Places like the Goitside area (Thornton Road / Sunbridge Road) are ripe for residential lead regeneration, but there's the matter of the red light district being there.  A high number of well paid white collar are unlikely to come to Bradford any time soon (perhaps in the long term), the creative sector isn't likely to be a hugely significant generator of jobs - so there would need to be significant investment in the city centre to make it an attractive place for the 'bright young things' to live as a commuter destination.  The low property prices, coupled with an upsurge in the evening economy and independent retail could help, but this needs a whole lot of work.



Off Street Parking
Kinda already covered this in the motorway bit.  Bike parking tends to be overlooked in most developments, it wouldn't do most people harm to cycle out of the Bradford bowl everyday!

Conclusion
In the short term, a whole lot of work needs to be done with the authorities, property owners and businesses to help make Bradford a bit of a cooler and more desirable place.  In the longer term, there needs to be massive investment in schools in the centre, a change in planning policies, the promotion of family housing via larger apartments and the provision of green space and play space, massive investment in public transport to foster a change to our car dominated society.  Then, just then, might city centre living be a long term solution for everyone!

I noticed the website I consulted missed off quite an important issue (!), the price.  As  mentioned in desirability - low prices and a good range of things to do might meet in the middle in Bradford's favour.  The price is something I'll look at next time!