As cities go Bradford has not exactly been famous for its contribution to culture. Yet, it has certainly got good claims to punching above its weight.
David Hockney has made a phenomenal contribution to the world of art and he is firmly a Bradford lad, trained in the local college. The local musical contributions range all the way from the composer Delius through to the dark rock of The Cult, with a smattering of Pop Idol and X Factor stars like Gareth Gates. Then there is the city’s contribution to architecture, which is a delight to anyone who cares to walk around the old streets and look upwards.
Bradford has a claim to having the finest town hall anywhere in Britain. The former wool exchange building now provides one of the most beautiful roofs to a bookshop anywhere in the country. The cathedral and the whole area around Little Germany is a fascinating place to explore. All that is without heading a little way out of the centre where the delights of Salts Mill and the surrounding streets offer a world heritage site worthy of the name. And, what’s more, there’s the incredible contribution to local culture made in more recent years by a thriving Asian community.
Bradford’s other side: signs of neglect and decline
Yet, it would be naïve and wrong to enthuse about the cultural delights of Bradford without being honest about the other side of the city. Walk around the streets in the city centre and the signs of neglect and outright decline are everywhere. The inner city has more than its fair share of empty shops, betting shops, pawnbrokers, tattoo parlours, sad fast-food outlets and closed banks. Again and again as you walk the back streets, you find yourself in a location that in London would have been gentrified into posh apartments but is instead crumbling into dust and reeking of neglect.
Former mill buildings that could make a massive contribution to solving the housing crisis remain boarded up and unoccupied for decades as they seem to be doing nothing but waiting for the next fire to trigger an insurance payment. And talking of fires, I know of plenty of streets that have still not fully recovered from the damage of the 2001 riots that took place when nasty far right thugs tried to invade areas where few locals wanted them.
Cultural recognition not enough to turn Bradford round
Anyone who cares about Bradford is likely to be a big fan of it being recognised as a city of culture. The renovation of the fine Odeon Cinema will help ensure it provides an uplifting example of gloriously over-the-top design for many decades to come. If only the council can prove as effective at obtaining a reliable tenant as it was at rescuing the building. Renewing and relaunching the Science and Media Museum also has great potential to help the city to continue to attract visitors and interest film makers.
But those of us who care about the city, and I count myself one of them, as I worked in Keighley for eight years and in the city centre for three, also know that it is going to take a lot more than one year of good publicity to restore its pride. While culture can play a big part in a city’s regeneration, it is not enough. It can’t turn round decades of decline without serious investment into creating better housing, better schools and a strongly reviving local economy. You can only create a feel-good atmosphere if people are genuinely feeling good.
Bradford’s regeneration needs a programme of change
Like so many of our former industrial heartlands, Bradford has suffered from the devastation of its economy. It screams out for economic investment and a clear regeneration strategy.
The way to achieve that is to launch a co-ordinated drive to improve housing, improve schools, and attract businesses that runs alongside attempts to enhance cultural pride. There are areas of Bradford like Saltaire that are highly aspirational, surrounded by streets which absolutely aren’t but could easily be made so. It shouldn’t be beyond the vision of any government that claims to care about working class communities to launch a programme of change that builds up the strengths of the city, starting in the easiest areas to transform and working out street by street.
It takes time to make a city a more attractive place to live and work but it is perfectly possible to achieve. Look at what was done to large parts of London that were once run down. Or the change that has been achieved in parts of Manchester.
Labour pushing green belt building rather than inner city revival
At the moment some of the new government’s policies seem to have been designed by people who have given up trying to transform the inner cities and decided instead to go all out to build new suburbs. Endless streets of new estates are going up on green fields in areas surrounding Bradford such as Silsden. At the same time buildings that provide astonishing opportunities like the Dalton Mill complex in Keighley are still crumbling into dust without the faintest incentive to help anyone develop them.
Places which should be leading the jobs revival like the excellent Bradford University are laying off staff rapidly because the government has chosen to continue to deter overseas students and shut off the income and the positivity that they bring into the city and into our country. There is precious little focus on trying to make it attractive for developers to renovate, repair, restore and revive. Most of the new government’s focus is on giving developers a free hand to build on the green belt.
Bradford’s year of fine words must be followed by a decade of transformation
Bradford is, of course, where the Labour Party started. The very first meeting of the Independent Labour Party took place in the city and that is part of its proud culture. The challenge for the new generation of activists is to deliver visible improvement for communities like Bradford that are felt to be real by the people that live there.
Many people in inner-city red-wall areas are still seething with discontent, not just towards the last government for 14 years of neglect but towards Labour for losing its strong roots in the community and presiding over long periods of steady inner-city decline. Unless communities like Bradford see real evidence that things are changing some very unpleasant forces will find it easy to exploit the discontent.
So, I hope Bradford enjoys its year as the city of culture. But what we really need is a decade of transformation and the confidence of the local community that they are being provided with more than fine words.
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