Bbc News: Bradford’s City Village Phase One Secures Planning Approval
News coverage confirms that Phase One of Bradford’s City Village has been granted planning approval, a decision that unlocks the first physical step in a multi-site city centre transformation. The approved package includes immediate delivery of townhouses on Chain Street and paves the way for further demolition and construction across the Top of Town area.
News: What Phase One approval delivers now
Phase One approval authorises the construction of 33 townhouses on Chain Street, clustered around a new community green. Those townhouses will offer a mix of two- and three-bedroom layouts, each with a designated parking space, and are described in planning papers as modern and energy-efficient. The Chain Street homes are the concrete first element of a wider neighbourhood plan that will place emphasis on public realm and landscaped spaces.
The approval also confirms the wider approach for the area: homes will be built across three sites that previously contained the Kirkgate Shopping Centre, the former Oastler market and adjacent car parks. That three-site footprint is central to the neighbourhood’s design and means redevelopment work will include both residential construction and new public realm across multiple city centre plots.
How the decision shapes the next stages of regeneration
The decision for Phase One is linked to a sequence of follow-up actions already set out in plan documents. A detailed planning application for Phase Two will be submitted later this year, maintaining a staged delivery model. Outline permissions for the broader regeneration already envisage significant apartment development across the Oastler and Kirkgate parcels, and the approval clears the way for demolition and site clearance activity tied to those later phases.
Demolition of existing structures is explicitly referenced as part of preparatory work: the former Oastler site and the 1970s-built Kirkgate Shopping Centre are planned to be taken down in order to make way for subsequent housing and public-space schemes. The approval therefore not only allows the Chain Street townhouses to move ahead but also signals the start of physical transformation across the Top of Town.
Community, partners and the planning context
Local leaders have framed the planning decision as a milestone for the city centre, linking housing delivery with improvements to public spaces and the local retail mix. The Phase One package highlights a mix of tenure types and cites energy-efficient design for the new homes. One preferred partner for delivery of the first townhouses has been identified in planning material, subject to a final legal agreement that will determine the funding and delivery pathway for those units for sale and rent.
Planners have emphasised complementary infrastructure measures as part of the approved work, including landscaping, safer roads and active travel routes intended to promote walking and cycling. Those components are intended to knit the new housing into a broader strategy of city centre renewal and to create new green spaces that will sit alongside the newly designed Chain Street community green.
The Phase One approval effectively sets the construction timetable in motion for the initial homes and establishes the parameters for later, larger phases of City Village. With demolition and detailed applications already noted as next steps, the decision marks a clear shift from proposal to delivery for a project that aims to reshape several central sites and introduce a new residential focus to the city centre.
