Bbc News: Bradford’s City Village Phase One given planning approval

News coverage highlights a planning milestone as Phase One of Bradford City Village has been granted approval, clearing the way for the first tranche of homes and public realm works in a major city-centre regeneration.

News: Phase One — what has been approved

Planning approval for Phase One will deliver a focused package of housing and public space for the city centre. The approved scheme includes 33 townhouses on Chain Street, set around a new community green, with a mix of two- and three‑bedroom homes and designated parking for each dwelling. The authority described these as modern, energy-efficient homes to suit a range of household sizes and needs.

The City Village scheme will be built across three sites: the former Kirkgate Shopping Centre, the former Oastler market and car parks on Chain Street. Phase One approval is the first concrete step in a wider plan that will ultimately create up to 1, 000 homes across the Top of Town area.

What the approval means for the wider regeneration

The approval for Phase One comes with outline permission for further regeneration across the Oastler and Kirkgate sites. Outline plans envisage several hundred apartments on the Oastler and Kirkgate parcels, alongside a mix of affordable and private rented tenures to build a more residential city centre offer. A local affordable housing provider has been selected as the preferred funding partner to deliver the first phase of townhouses for sale and rent, subject to a final legal agreement.

The wider City Village vision also includes new public realm and landscaping: three landscaped green spaces are planned to complement recent city-centre improvements, and supporting infrastructure works – including safer roads and active travel routes – are part of the proposals intended to promote walking and cycling and to create a sustainable, people‑centred neighbourhood.

Next steps and demolition plans

Planners will see a detailed application for Phase Two later this year, which will shape how the project moves from outline to delivery across the remaining sites. Demolition of elements of the existing commercial core is expected as part of future phases to make way for new homes and public spaces; the former Oastler and Kirkgate shopping centres are identified for removal in later phases to free up land for development.

Council leadership has framed the approval as a milestone moment that sets out the direction for the city centre over the next decade: quality housing, more public spaces and a rebalancing of retail alongside new uses aimed at bringing more people into the centre. With planning consent in place for Phase One, project partners now move into funding, detailed design and the next round of planning applications that will determine the pace of construction and delivery.

This decision represents the first formal green light for a transformation that planners intend to deliver across multiple central sites, linking housing delivery with public-space upgrades and infrastructure improvements for a new city-centre neighbourhood.