World food restaurant with six food courts to open at iconic Yorkshire mill dating back to 1860s

A planning application to build a restaurant in a car park area at Whetley Mills, off Thornton Road, has been approved by Bradford Council this week.

Submitted by Haroon Habib, the new restaurant would have a modern design, and be located in an area North of the mill, accessed by Hockney Road.

It would have an outdoor seating area and parking space for 47 cars.

The application, submitted earlier this summer, said the business would give customers “a choice of world foods under one roof” and would have six smaller food courts within the restaurant.

It also went on to say the new restaurant would help with the regeneration of the huge mill site, parts of which have stood derelict for years, raising concerns over the building’s future.

The application said: “The applicant is aware that the landlord has a programme to revitalise the whole Mill complex and has been successful in attracting new business to the complex. and will continue to do so.

“Both the applicant and the landlord feel that the best way of securing the upkeep of the main listed buildings on the site is to keep them in active albeit adopted use as per our proposal.”

Whetley Mills dates from around 1865 and was built to the architectural designs of Milnes and France, one of the foremost architectural practices in Bradford at the time.

Despite the fact that sections of the building have been empty for long periods of time – the iconic chimney remains, and Whetley Mills has been described as “one of the best surviving mill complexes in the area” by Council heritage and conservation officer Jon Ackroyd.

Although several businesses have found a home at the Grade II listed mill in recent years, large sections of the mill had been empty for years, to the point where the mill was listed on campaign group SAVE Britain’s Heritage’s list of “at risk” buildings in Yorkshire.

However, recent years have seen more businesses move into the complex, from Toolstation to My Lahore Catering.

Documents submitted with the application show that between 2007 and June this year the number of empty units in the mill has fallen from 23 to 10.

Approving the application, planning officers said the new restaurant would not harm efforts to find a future use for empty areas of the mill. They added: “The proposed development is considered to have a high quality design and will not cause any harm to the visual amenity of the local environment.

“There are no concerns regarding harm to the significance or viability of the nearby heritage asset.”