Horror? Hardly Stephen King territory is it?
Loads of cuttings in the London area that have gardens backing on to them. Take a trip on the North London or Goblin next time you're down there. You'd think you were up North it's so horrific.
Well, if and when Network Rail come to clean these places up, they may find the cost and manpower needed quite "horrific".
My "horror stories" was just a choice of words, but in context I appreciate it's not.
Maybe you could have appreciated that it was just a choice of words on my part.
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I would tend to agree with you here, with your suggestion of having long term unemployed people and perhaps some people who are undergoing court ordered community punishments/community service, doing voluntary clean up operations and other useful community work for the local council, like you suggest perhaps for one day a week. Doing these do look good on your files.
I have been in that position, so I do know what's like.
I think that there may be health and safety issues that would have to be looked into for certain types of voluntary work/litter picking on railway land, especially in 3rd rail areas.
Funny when I suggested similiar measures, I was berated by many of you on here.
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Why do you deem it impossible? Bradford had a perfectly good retail / pleasure centre, until a combination of the Westfield fiasco & a disproportionate amount of investment went 9 miles east. But Bradford has a large catchment area, that is considerably closer to it's centre than Leeds, as well as frequent bus & rail links into the centre from many of these. What it needs is this centre now under construction to be completed (currently due late 2015), and a rethink of Bradford council's policies which is also starting to happen. And hopefully the Westfield centre will be a slightly better design than the rather appalling Trinity centre in Leeds, which as we discovered days after it initially opened forms a perfectly designed wind tunnel if the wind comes in from a certain direction (what is it with Leeds architects & wind, they constantly seem to clash?), so it may be part of the catalist for a revival in Bradford. It will never compete with Leeds, but it doesn't need to.
What I hope to see is Bradford working the tourist angle better, promoting the city as a gateway to the Pennines & Dales. There's lots of talk in the tourist trade of Yorkshire fast become a vogue place to visit (especially once the Tour De France passes through), and there's been rave reviews in places like Lonely Planet & even the NY Times. So there is scope for Bradford to become successful, with good retail facilities for it's residents & maybe more cultural facilities for visitors passing through.
Bradford's catchment area in places is also the same as Leeds, save for the south west of Bradford (Calderdale area mainly).
It takes only minutes longer to reach Leeds from places on the Airedale line than it does Bradford, and to be honest, why would anyone choose Bradford over Leeds for shopping, even when Westfield is built. Leeds is adding to its retail portfolio with Victoria Gate, and Trinity alone is due to bump Leeds up the Experian retail rankings. Trinity, personally I like. It's similar to Cabot Circus in Bristol, although I do appreciate and understand peoples weather concerns due to its open design.
Bradford needs to sort out its retail offering, for sure, but lets face it, Westfield is hardly going to boost Bradford to the extent Leeds has experienced. Can you honestly tell me that places like Darley Street aren't going to suffer the empty shop syndrome that is often the case when new shopping centres open. It's happened in Wakefield, it's happened in Derby, so it will certainly happen in Bradford.
The city needs a decent selection of shops, but it should play on other strengths, such as it's "curry scene", its wool history. It could also improve the National Media Museum, but it needs to sort out the Odeon building, and just tidy the city centre up a bit. It's proximity to Bronte Country, the Pennines, Yorkshire Dales, etc should help.
Bradford needs something "different", but I'm just not sure what it could sustain. Hebden Bridge has done well at becoming a bit "alternative", but copying that wouldn't work I don't think.
I really don't know what the answer is, but another generic shopping centre will only marginally help.
