Millions to be spent on major schemes to regenerate city

And as well as boosting eonomic development there are plans for £40,000 to be spent on erecting a memorial to those soldiers from Bradford who have died since 1945.

The memorial will be placed in the garden behind the Cenotaph next to the Alhambra in the city centre.

A further £250,000 will be used to pay for the replacement of the ancient box office ticket system which is over 12 years old and not designed to provide the required marketing and management information.

The new system a council report says should increase sales from 25 per cent to 60 per cent.

One of the largest sums is designed to see the landmark Canal Road Project in Shipley stay on track.

This scheme, expected to cost hundreds of millions of pounds, will eventually see thousands of houses built in the area with associated road improvements and office developments.

The idea is to spend £175,000 on part one which will involve the purchase of 13 acres of brown field land from the Highways Agency to complete the assembly of a larger development site at Crag Road, Shipley.

In the second part £275,000 will pay for two sites close to Shipley Town Centre earmarked for inclusion in larger redevelopment proposals.

Bradford councillor Chris Greaves, (Ind), said: “This is a huge project with the joint aim of regenerating the area and enabling the council to meet its housing targets which if they can be met will provide greater protection of green field sites further out.”

As for the release of £274,000 to restart a small capital grants scheme to support business investment in the district he added: “there are risks attached to that and sometimes I have wondered if it is all a bit ‘smoke and mirrors’ but if you don’t take some risks you never do anything or get anywhere.”

Elsewhere the council is hoping to spend £600,000 on the refurbishment of the ground floor of Britannia House in the city centre.

“Officers hope the save money in the long term - around £125,000 per year - following the expiry of its current lease at Centenary Court.

Coun Greaves said: “Britannia House, across from City Hall is council-owned and used by people with an accounting and computing background as well as pension fund people, so it would seem to make more sense to use your own properties rather than paying rent to someone else and this would appear to be a four-year payback.

“My only concern would be that Britannia House is an old building so it does need to be looked at very carefully. If you are going to spend a quite significant amount of money on such a building it’s important that it is thought through strategically.

“Overall, with all these schemes I would say that there are more pluses than minuses though as I have said earlier, in certain areas a degree of caution needs to be exercised.

“And with regard to the spending on the memorial I don’t think anyone will quibble with that.”

Officers also want the council’s executive to approve £120,000 on preparatory work to meet planning approval granted last year for major construction work proposed in 2012-13 on Buck Lane.

Another £50,000 is also needed to get the site ready.

Officers have also asked for £30,000 to create a temporary centre at 1 Tyrrel Street for entrepreneurs including work areas and a ground floor area for events. There are plans too to spend £25,000 on demolishing the redundant first floor footbridge between the Cavendish Street building and North Street former college building.

The report will be discussed at a meeting of Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee to be held on Wednesday.