Following confirmation from Westfield boss Steven Lowy that the company may sell the controversial hole in the centre of Bradford, Respect leaders are demanding an urgent inquiry into the long-running debacle.
'Westfield recently announced a further £3 billion investment in Britain. None of it in Bradford,' said Respect's council leader Alyas Karmani. 'And now the man at the top says that they may sell the site. It couldn't be much clearer could it, that despite the relentless PR hype Westfield is not going to develop the hole and is trying desperately to sell up and get out. I'll be demanding answers from council leader Dave Green, from Westfield and an inquiry into why and how this scandal was allowed to play out for so long.'
Lowy, visiting London for the Olympics and staying in the family's 74-metre yacht in London, was asked in a newspaper interview to confirm he was not selling the site. 'I didn't say that,' Lowy said. 'We may sell it, but it will play out in a way that pleases the people of Bradford.'
'Enough is enough,' said Bradford West MP George Galloway. 'What would please the people of Bradford is honesty from Westfield and this hapless council about this disgraceful charade. Lowy needs to say clearly and unequivocally that Westfield are selling or he needs to put forward a credible development plan with a timescale. I'll take silence as confirmation of the former.' Galloway said that he would be pressing Grant Shapps, the responsible government minister, to intervene and to press for urgent answers about Westfield. 'I'll be asking him to come to Bradford and to see what I have already asked him to do, examine and launch an inquiry into the regeneration foul-up in the city.'
