Kirkgate Area Regeneration - Council document

The Council has just published their Draft Kirkgate Planning, Restoration and Regeneration Statement. The document is concerned with the area in between the Corn Exchande and Kirkgate Market, an area in the city that as we have reported here before has been left to degradate in the last years, or in the Council words that" has not benefited from the recent success of the rest of the City Centre". It is also referred as the "missing piece in the rejuvenation of the City Centre". As usual the Council hides behind a language of heritage, conservation and urban design. The area is now visibly in decline with many shops closed and scaffolding around as some buildings are falling apart. It is in fact part of a wider intention to gentrify the whole area on the opposite side of New Market Street and the Victoria Quarter.