Streets close to traffic in move to transform city
SOME of the biggest changes to Bradford city centre’s road network were introduced at the weekend when several streets permanently closed to traffic.
Sunday saw the introduction of a new public transport loop and the closure of roads including Hall Ings and Market Street to traffic.
The changes come four years after Government awarded Bradford millions of pounds through the national Transforming Cities Fund scheme to carry out major changes to make the centre more attractive to pedestrians and less dominated by car traffic.
Work to reconfigure the city centre road network has been underway since last summer, and has included the creation of a new loop on which the city’s buses will run.
Well Street, a pedestrian street between the Broadway Shopping Centre and Little Germany, has now become one of the main bus hubs in the city centre.
Roads pedestrianised include Bank Street, Broadway, Market Street, Hall Ings and parts of Bridge Street. The junction of Little Horton Lane and Prince’s Way was also blocked off to vehicles, creating a new “pocket park” near the city’s war memorial.
Some councillors and local disability groups have raised concerns that details of the changes have not been well communicated with bus users, and that disabled and elderly residents may struggle to find the correct stops.
Emmerson Walgrove, of Equality Together, says disabled residents and wheelchair users find the centre as “obstacle course” and will have difficulty travelling to the new stops.
West Yorkshire Combined Authority says details of all effected routes have now been uploaded to their website, and that staff will be in the city centre from Sunday to direct people to the correct stops.
The pedestrianisation of Hall Ings will include the extension of Norfolk Gardens, creating a new city centre park that will incorporate a new entrance to Bradford Interchange – which will be where the under-demolition NCP car park now stands.
Phase 1 of construction work, which focused on works to roads around the edge of the city centre including Croft Street, Jacobs Well, Prince’s Way, Godwin Street, Lower Kirkgate, Church Bank, Well Street and Vicar Lane, is now finishing.
These works were to enable bus services and stops to move onto new public transport routes which go around the core of the city centre rather than through it.
A Bradford Council spokesperson said: “Traffic-free green spaces are being created to make the city centre a safer, easier and more pleasant place for people to spend time and to get around on foot or by bike.
“Unfortunately, disruption to both drivers and pedestrians is inevitable while works of this nature take place, but every effort is being made to minimise this wherever possible. We’d like to thank people for their patience while this improvement work takes place.”
Work is expected to be completed by the end of the year.