“Important regeneration project” in Bradford approved
Proposals have gained approval
Plans for an “important regeneration project” for Bradford have been approved, and will bring over 550 people into the city centre to work and study.
Brit North will be a performing arts college built on the Jacob’s Well car park in Bradford city centre.
Plans for the school have been in the pipeline for years, with a planning application submitted last month.
Those plans, for a education campus complete with car park and multi use games area, have been approved by Bradford Council this week.
Officers said the school would boost the city centre’s regeneration and “increase footfall and activity within the area.”
Once up and running, 500 students will study at the school, with a further 50 staff. The aim is for Brit North to be operating by 2028.
The project is spearheaded by BPI (British Phonographic Industry) who are owners and organisers of the music showcase, the BRIT Awards.
Along with the wider recorded music industry, BPI helped to found The BRIT School in South London over thirty years ago which produced talents like Adele, Amy Winehouse, Tom Holland and Olivia Dean.
The facility was first proposed by BPI in 2023, with the Department for Education giving the green light for the new school to open in Bradford.
Earlier this year it was announced that Bradford Council would give the Jacobs Well Car Park to the DfE to allow the school to be built there.
The free-to-attend college will offer a vocational curriculum, providing young people with skills at the cutting-edge of industry practice.
The planning application showed that the building would include a theatre, set construction workshop, multi use games area, music performance spaces and a TV studio set, as well as the usual classrooms and college facilities.
There had been one objection to the plan, saying a taller building should occupy the site and that building the school “could limit future redevelopment opportunities.”
But planning officers that approved the application said: “The redevelopment of the site would secure the re-use of a vacant and underutilised brownfield site within a highly sustainable city centre location.