Odsal Sporting Village
A wide-range of partners have shown their commitment to plans to deliver the Odsal Sports Village.
The project, which is being led by Bradford Council, has received support from the Bradford Bulls, Yorkshire Forward, Sport England, Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, Bradford College, and The University of Bradford.
Coun Kris Hopkins, Leader of Bradford Council, said: "Bradford has a great opportunity to deliver a sports village that will lead the way in sporting and educational excellence throughout the UK.
"The village will offer state-of-the-art facilities and access to a wide-range of sports and activities for all members of our community, as well as complimenting the other regeneration projects taking place in the district."
Bradford Council's Executive Member for Regeneration and Economy, Coun Adrian Naylor, said: "It is excellent news that so many organisations as established as this have come forward and committed to the scheme.
"As a council, we are determined the project will go ahead and be delivered and from the support we have received it is clear that all the partners involved are just as keen as us to provide a high-quality sports village in Bradford as soon as we can."
Chairman of Bradford Bulls, Peter Hood, said: "There are three key reasons why Bradford Bulls must have a stadium fit for purpose in the 21st century.
"First, because the brave new world of franchised Super League demands it; second, so we can better grow our crowds and thereby underpin the drive towards long-term commercial viability, and third and perhaps most importantly, because the paying public - whether home support or ‘away' - are entitled to nothing less.
A stadium fit for purpose in the 21st century is, however, only one element of the Odsal Sports Village vision. By integrating Bradford Bulls' existing stadium and land with neighbouring Council-owned assets the involvement of other stakeholders is enabled.
"In this way it becomes possible to deliver integrated, state-of-art sports, leisure, activity and education facilities for the benefit of all.
"Bradford Bulls' commitment to the community we serve has been well documented over the years. The opportunity to build on that commitment by helping take the Sports Village from vision to reality is something to which the Club is fully committed".
David Custance, Assistant Director of Strategic Development and Property at Yorkshire Forward, said: "The Odsal Sports Village will provide a unique sporting, cultural and leisure environment for the people of Bradford.
"The planned transport links with the Bradford Interchange will also ensure that the development will be well connected to work being undertaken as part of the Bradford City Centre masterplan - showcasing a city where people want to live, work and invest."
Bradford College's Project Manager, Ronnie Todd, said: "The College totally endorses the comments of the Bradford Bulls, particularly with respect to timescales.
"Both the College and the University plans to complete our Accomodation Strategies by the end of 2011. This constitutes a £200m-plus capital investment into the city centre, in accord with Learning and Skills Council and HEFCE Government timescales for our sectors.
"It is essential that Odsal Sports Village is completed within this timeframe to provide capacity for student growth of the sports and enrichment curriculum."
Dr Andrew O'Shaughnessy, consultant in Public Health at Bradford and Airedale Teaching Primary Care Trust, said: "The TPCT welcome and supports this exciting development.
"There is now very powerful evidence that physical activity is essential for both maintaining good health and preventing poor health and, as obesity in the UK approaches epidemic levels, representing one of the greatest public health challenges we face, the Odsal Sports Village will give us an opportunity to widen access to high quality physical activity across the district."
David Gent, Regional Director of Sport England Yorkshire, said: "Sport England is very supportive of the plans for Odsal Sports Village.
"The scheme would give people in Bradford and the surrounding area access to a wider range of sporting opportunities than are currently available, and in a better environment, both indoors and outdoors.
"These plans would form a major element of Bradford's Legacy from the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games."
Vice-Chancellor of the University of Bradford, Professor Mark Cleary, said: "We are delighted to be involved in this project, which we hope will build on the work of many partners across the region in developing health and wellbeing and in building a first class leisure environment for the city."
'We will deliver Odsal dream' pledge
Taken from the Telegraph and Argus, Monday 1st December 2008
Council chiefs today pledged that the creation of the Odsal Sporting Village was now a top priority.
The construction contract for the multi-million pound project will be put out to tender early next year when consultants publish the final plan.
And the Council's regeneration chief, Councillor Adrian Naylor, said there was a determination to press ahead with the scheme as a matter of urgency to allow it to be completed around the time of the 2012 Olympics in London.
A firm of specialists has been hired and told to produce a project plan by March at the latest, outlining the cost, timescale and make-up of the scheme.
That plan, funded by regional development agency Yorkshire Forward, will form the template for the tendering process.
The Council has revealed that it is in advanced negotiations with the National Governing Bodies (NGBs) of five different sports: rugby league, tennis, cycling, gymnastics and netball.
Lottery funding for sporting projects used to come through Sport England but is now awarded via NGBs, and the Council believes the Odsal scheme ticks all the boxes when it comes to the funding criteria.
Coun Naylor said: "If we don't deliver anything else, this is the one we have to do. We can't get it much higher on our agenda and really want to push ahead with it."
He said the funding opportunities provided by the Olympics, combined with the fact that Odsal falls within Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe's constituency, meant this was the "best chance ever to deliver the project". He said: "It should be a spectacular project. By March we should have some idea of what the funding gap is going to be. By then, a team of specialists will have delivered the feasibility study and project outline, which will crystallise what's going where.
"This is an important time to keep people interested. It's a tight timescale to deliver at 2012."
Coun Naylor said the steering group's determination to press ahead with the project was reinforced by the pressing need to provide the Bradford Bulls with a world-class stadium to meet Super League franchise criteria.
Jane Glaister, the Council's strategic director for culture, tourism and sport, said: "It's not about creating a training facility for the 2012 games - we haven't got that time. We always said in Bradford that we were more interested in a legacy from the Olympic games."
Council chiefs revealed that the plan for the 48-acre site would include a multi-functional indoor sports hall with facilities for dancing, gymnastics and netball.
Artificial turf pitches are also likely to be included while cricket, hockey and cycling facilities are still being considered. The Council has also held a meeting with the Amateur Swimming Association. Miss Glaister said: "There will be an element of water but we are also planning a city centre strategic swimming pool so we don't need two massive spaces.
"It would be a more specialist facility up at Odsal to complement the city centre facility."
Peter Hood, chairman of Bradford Bulls, said: "It needs to be built prior to the Olympics. If it's a two-year build programme, we have got to start building no later than 2010, but preferably half way through 2009.
"There's a tremendous amount of work being done on this scheme behind the scenes. I remain optimistic for the scheme and for what it will give to the future of the city and the region."
The partners in the scheme are Bradford College, the University of Bradford, Sport England, Bradford Bulls, the Primary Care Trust, Bradford Council and Yorkshire Forward.