Bradford Degeneration Correct but not Politically Correct

Well last night's performance by Maud and the Demolition Men was precisely what we expected - arrogant, defiant, deaf and determined to ignore any adverse opinion.

This started badly when the already tetchy Amjad Pervez rolled out the old excuse that Bradford was now where Leeds, Sheffield and other cities were 15 years ago and that our expectations should therefore be modest and not expect too much to happen any time soon, as usual totally disregarding the fact that the reason for this is those cities recognised their problems and acted whereas Bradford still has the same people around who determinedly refused to move with the times 15 years ago and got us into this hole in the first place.

We then moved on to a presentation by Maud Marshall of the moronic plans of the fantasy architect Will Alsop first presented to the city amid general hilarity in 2003. Much of this was unmitigated marketing waffle and best ignored although she did mention the "improvements" on Darley Street - where the tarmac patches marring the Yorkshire stone paving were actually installed from new to save the expense of having the utility companies move in to destroy the paving. It says a lot about BRC's vision when they build tattiness into every new project. Also prominent was the determination to press ahead with the hated Park at the Heart despite the lottery folks having run their ruler over it and found it utterly unworthy of funding, as part of this it seems that the final hole created by the destruction of the Exchange station way back in the 70s will be filled by a new magistrates court next to the Crown Court. No doubt it will then take another 40 years to fill the hole created next to City Hall.

Obviously there are only two important questions that the panel needed to answer - where the f*ck are Westfield and why is Maud so determined to demolish the Odeon, getting to these points was slightly delayed by a speech about the need for provision for "seniors". The panel were then asked repeatedly to give a date beyond which either Westfield would commit to building, they be booted out or the board of BCR resign. This was weasled by Tony Reeve who on the one hand unequivocally stated that the final one or two deals need by Westfield were to be agreed imminently, on the other hand that there were provisions in the deal for the council to buy back the land and find another developer then he promptly chopped off the other hand in a sharia like gesture on the grounds Westfield were such wonderful people even thinking about ditching them was a mortal sin. Since he was clearly getting nowhere with his waffle the panel turned to the spokesman for Westfield who would only commit in general terms to a completion date of 2010 (which given a build time of 18 months or so suggests that the beginning of substantial works is still some 12 months or more away).

The question then turned to the various misinformation that is alleged to have been put out by the BCR regarding the Odeon - as might have been expected no admissions of guilt were forthcoming and much was made of the need for any retention of the Odeon to be "economically viable" although it was clear that both Maud Marshall and Kris Hopkins would move heaven and earth to make sure this wouldn't happen with Kris Hopkins resorting to that old standby of the politician "disabled kiddies" to justify not putting any council money into it.

The only member of the panel not to come across as oily and evasive was Jan Anderson of Yorkshire Forward who made the very telling observation that the similar Urban Regeneration Companies in Hull and Sheffield somehow managed to take the local population with them rather than antagonise them.

There was a subsequent appeal from the floor for the regeneration panel to concede just one of their precious projects to the public as a gesture so that there would at least be an appearance of co-operation but this largely fell on deaf ears.