Regeneration

City Park is right in the very heart of Bradford city centre, surrounding the Grade 1-listed City Hall.

City Park is a high quality public space in Bradford city centre measuring six-acres (the equivalent of four football pitches). It includes City Hall, Centenary Square, Norfolk Gardens and a new 4,000sq m mirror pool water feature.

City Park provides a superb landscape comprising fountains, trees and attractive green spaces making an ideal environment for walking, relaxing and quiet contemplation. The centrepiece of City Park is the mirror pool which can be filled with water but also drained and used for public events. The mirror pool is a 4,000sq m shallow body of water (around 22cm or 8 inches at its deepest point) and sloping gradually to the edge which reflects and showcases the Grade 1-listed City Hall.

When the mirror pool is partially full, the Y-shaped causeway provides a path for people to cross the park. City Park is a public open space which people are free to use responsibly – we would urge people who want to splash around to make use of the 40 low-powered play fountains close to the Pavilion building.

All dogs must be kept on a lead in City Park and they are not allowed to enter the mirror pool area, whether it is drained, partially drained or filled with water.

There is a weather monitor on site which measures temperature, climate and wind speeds. This feeds into the settings for the fountains and lighting which will reflect the current conditions.

We expect the final cost to be close to the original estimate of £24.5m. We are working within a contract and for commercial confidentiality reasons we are therefore unable to outline how much we expect those to be at present. We understand the need for transparency and we will make the details available as soon as we can.

City Park, and the mirror pool space in particular, will be an adaptable environment which is capable of holding events such as continental markets, Christmas fairs, theatre productions, screenings and community festivals.

City Park has been designed to bring jobs and prosperity to Bradford by attracting visitors and investors, raising land and property values and help create the landscape for investment in the city centre.

The northern portion of the former Police Headquarters has been demolished to create additional space for the City Park. The partial demolition is necessary to avoid disruption to the cells of the Magistrates Courts service.

It is recognised that effective maintenance is crucial to the success of the City Park. The park and mirror pool will be maintained to a very high standard. The mirror pool can be drained every night for road sweepers to drive across and clean the area before the pool is re-filled at dawn.

Yes. City Park has been designed with safety in mind and to be used by people of all ages, all day long (and into the night) and all year round. A full safety assessment including issues of pollution, child safety, water safety, vandalism prevention, fountain / geyser safety and slips / falls has been carried out. Twenty-four hour staffing and remote surveillance is provided and the whole park is well lit with clear ‘sight lines’ and no dark or hidden corners.

Yes. City Park’s design is geared towards being fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act. The exact proportion of disabled parking will be considered alongside the requirement of the city centre as a whole. Sufficient space will also be provided for one-off events taking place. These findings have been closely adopted as an integral part of the design process. Specific consultations have been held with disability groups and feedback from this process has been fed into the final designs.