HCS Members’ Update January 2024
As 2024 begins we announce the launch of a fully revised website and increased exposure through Facebook and Instagram, meetings with key Kirklees officers and a number of updates since the last update.
February Events
First of all, two dates for your diary:
Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 7pm. New North Parade Baptist Church: Paul Sumner, Senior Sponsor, Transpennine Route Upgrade, Network Rail.
A chance to hear about the biggest engineering project to influence the future of Huddersfield since the building of the M62.
By splitting routes into fast and slow lines, creating greater capacity and increased speeds, plus electrification and more capacity to get freight off roads and onto rail with huge environmental benefits, this is a project that will have profound and beneficial consequences.
Close to 1,000 staff will be working around Huddersfield on a major £80m remodelling of Huddersfield Station (all in keeping with the building’s Grade 1 listing), erecting a new maintenance depot at Hillhouse, widening or replacing numerous bridges, rebuilding stations along the route and, between 2027-29, electrification between Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
To book your place, please go to http://bit.ly/48kZMKZ. If you want to be informed automatically whenever HCS opens bookings for future events, please click on the ‘Follow’ button against ‘By Huddersfield Civic Society’ when you view this event on Eventbrite
Thursday, February 29 at 7pm; Head of Steam, St George’s Square
HCS Members’ Open Evening.
Our open evening, the first we have held since Covid disrupted our annual programme, is a chance for an informal get-together for members and friends with an update on some of our initiatives as well as a quiz to discover how much you know about our town.
Food will be available plus a chance to chat with committee members and friends. Booking details will be available at the end of January but please note the date in your diaries.
HCS Facebook and Instagram Pages Now Active
We are pleased to say that our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HuddersfieldCivicSociety/ which has been out of use for some time is now active once more and we’ll be able to post notes about our activities and events going forward. We would also like to let you all know about some of the more interesting planning debates that are current such as the George hotel and the Cultural Heart.
In conjunction with this we have also created an Instagram page which can be found at huddersfieldcivicsociety where we also hope to send updates and news items to a wider and, hopefully, growing audience. You can help by posting your comments and views.
… Plus, the relaunch of the HCS Website
In the next fortnight the HCS website will be re-launched. Rebuilt with the help of our web manager Andy Hirst and web designer Graham Wrathmell, it has new functions and easier-to-use features.
Behind a familiar home page, several sections have been restructured or rewritten. News, planning and other sections are now easier to search and to find what you want using the standard Google search function.
It will be easier for us to add more material and for you to find what the Society is saying, or has previously said, on any topic. Also, do search sections such as the archive of Huddersfield photographs old and new … and please do send us more for us to include and share!
Together with the Society relaunching its social media presence, these improvements will help keep you abreast of what is happening in, and issues affecting, our town. In the meantime, why not add the HCS website to your favourites to keep posted on what is happening in our town?
Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor
As promised in my last update a response to the above masterplan has now been submitted to the Council. The detailed comments have been posted in the News section of the website so please take a few minutes to read what we have said.
On a related topic, as previously reported, the council is currently procuring the consultant team to undertake a new masterplan and outline business case for Huddersfield Station Gateway.
Ultimately, the Station Gateway will rely on co-operation between, and delivery by, the project partners which are the council, WYCA, Network Rail, TransPennine Express (TPE), and HD1 Developments Ltd, who have been consulted on the brief and stipulated that the consultant, once appointed, shall engage with them during its production. There’s also a requirement for the consultant to consult with HCS (and two other named interested organisations).
The aim of the masterplan is to seek to maximise the benefits of the Transpennine Route Upgrade for Huddersfield by opening up investment opportunities in the gateway and with specific objectives to:
- Create pedestrian links between the station and St George’s Warehouse, and between the warehouse site and the town centre.
- Improve the public realm.
- Provide parking to serve the station and the development of the warehouse.
As part of their work the consultants will be reviewing previous feasibility studies and involve many considerations – including conservation, commercial and operational –requiring careful thought and appropriate balancing to reach an outcome that can be agreed by all project partners.
Planning Issues
On Thursday, January 4, myself, Martin Kilburn, Gideon Richards, Geoff Hughes and Sylvia Johnson met David Shepherd, Kirklees Council’s Strategic Director Growth and Regeneration and Edward Highfield, Director, Skills and Regeneration, to raise a number of issues and concerns as articulated in a letter sent to David saying:
“Following the Cabinet meeting on June 27 when the Cultural Heart was discussed and it was decided to amalgamate the art gallery and museum within the former library, there has been little information or public consultation regarding the current situation. Not only has concern been voiced by our own members but we are aware of similar concerns raised by other organisations, including Huddersfield Local History Society and Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society.
“Similarly, we find ourselves either having to request an opportunity for consultation, eg the Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor, or have received little feedback on why issues have not been explored.
“We have for the last five years made diligent efforts to support the council in its efforts, recognising that (as will on occasions be the case) we do not always see eye to eye. However, we do find it disheartening the number of times our suggestions have been overlooked or sidelined.”
The meeting was positive in allowing us to discuss areas of concern and suggestions for reviewing previous proposals, a level of acknowledgement for improving future dialogue and involvement, as well as providing some comfort in respect of progress being made in what, as we all accept, is a very difficult period of financial constraints.
In addition, an update meeting with Helen Bower, Kirklees Team Leader for Conservation, Design, Ecology and Trees has now been set for January 17, 2024.
Our concerns regarding the increasing number of vacant and vandalised listed buildings and enforcement by the local authority will be at the top of the agenda as well as an update from Helen on progress on safeguarding key buildings such as the former Huddersfield Infirmary.
HCS Membership Renewals Reminder
Just a prompt regarding payment of annual subs for 2024 (apart from those who joined after October 1, 2023 whose membership covers this year). I hope you will be renewing your membership as we value your support in our efforts as illustrated in the above news.
Version below is the one before it was added to the HCS website
February Events
Two dates for your diary:
Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 7pm. New North Parade Baptist Church: Paul Sumner, Senior Sponsor, Transpennine Route Upgrade, Network Rail.
A chance to hear about the biggest engineering project to influence the future of Huddersfield since the building of the M62.
By splitting routes into fast and slow lines, creating greater capacity and increased speeds, plus electrification and more capacity to get freight off roads and onto rail with huge environmental benefits, this is a project that will have profound and beneficial consequences.
Close to 1,000 staff will be working around Huddersfield on a major £80m remodelling of Huddersfield Station (all in keeping with the building’s Grade 1 listing), erecting a new maintenance depot at Hillhouse, widening or replacing numerous bridges, rebuilding stations along the route and, between 2027-29, electrification between Huddersfield and Dewsbury.
To book your place, please go to http://bit.ly/48kZMKZ.If you want to be informed automatically whenever HCS opens bookings for future events, please click on the ‘Follow’ button against ‘By Huddersfield Civic Society’ when you view this event on Eventbrite
Thursday, February 29 at 7pm; Head of Steam, St George’s Square
HCS Members’ Open Evening.
Our open evening, the first we have held since Covid disrupted our annual programme, is a chance for an informal get-together for members and friends with an update on some of our initiatives as well as a quiz to discover how much you know about our town.
Food will be available plus a chance to chat with committee members and friends. Booking details will be available at the end of January but please note the date in your diaries.
HCS Facebook and Instagram Pages Now Active
We are pleased to say that our Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/HuddersfieldCivicSociety/ which has been out of use for some time is now active once more and we’ll be able to post notes about our activities and events going forward. We would also like to let you all know about some of the more interesting planning debates that are current such as the George hotel and the Cultural Heart.
In conjunction with this we have also created an Instagram page which can be found at huddersfieldcivicsociety where we also hope to send updates and news items to a wider and, hopefully, growing audience. You can help by posting your comments and views.
… Plus, the relaunch of the HCS Website
In the next fortnight the HCS website will be re-launched. Rebuilt with the help of our web manager Andy Hirst and web designer Graham Wrathmell, it has new functions and easier-to-use features.
Behind a familiar home page, several sections have been restructured or rewritten. News, planning and other sections are now easier to search and to find what you want using the standard Google search function.
It will be easier for us to add more material and for you to find what the Society is saying, or has previously said, on any topic. Also, do search sections such as the archive of Huddersfield photographs old and new … and please do send us more for us to include and share!
Together with the Society relaunching its social media presence, these improvements will help keep you abreast of what is happening in, and issues affecting, our town. In the meantime, why not add the HCS website to your favourites to keep posted on what is happening in our town?
Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor
As promised in my last update a response to the above masterplan has now been submitted to the Council. The detailed comments have been posted in the News section of the website so please take a few minutes to read what we have said.
On a related topic, as previously reported, the council is currently procuring the consultant team to undertake a new masterplan and outline business case for Huddersfield Station Gateway.
Ultimately, the Station Gateway will rely on co-operation between, and delivery by, the project partners which are the council, WYCA, Network Rail, TransPennine Express (TPE), and HD1 Developments Ltd, who have been consulted on the brief and stipulated that the consultant, once appointed, shall engage with them during its production. There’s also a requirement for the consultant to consult with HCS (and two other named interested organisations).
The aim of the masterplan is to seek to maximise the benefits of the Transpennine Route Upgrade for Huddersfield by opening up investment opportunities in the gateway and with specific objectives to:
- Create pedestrian links between the station and St George’s Warehouse, and between the warehouse site and the town centre.
- Improve the public realm.
- Provide parking to serve the station and the development of the warehouse.
As part of their work the consultants will be reviewing previous feasibility studies and involve many considerations – including conservation, commercial and operational –requiring careful thought and appropriate balancing to reach an outcome that can be agreed by all project partners.
Planning Issues
On Thursday, January 4, myself, Martin Kilburn, Gideon Richards, Geoff Hughes and Sylvia Johnson met David Shepherd, Kirklees Council’s Strategic Director Growth and Regeneration and Edward Highfield, Director, Skills and Regeneration, to raise a number of issues and concerns as articulated in a letter sent to David saying:
‘Following the Cabinet meeting on June 27 when the Cultural Heart was discussed and it was decided to amalgamate the art gallery and museum within the former library, there has been little information or public consultation regarding the current situation. Not only has concern been voiced by our own members but we are aware of similar concerns raised by other organisations, including Huddersfield Local History Society and Huddersfield and District Archaeological Society.
Similarly, we find ourselves either having to request an opportunity for consultation, eg the Station to Stadium Enterprise Corridor, or have received little feedback on why issues have not been explored.
We have for the last five years made diligent efforts to support the council in its efforts, recognising that (as will on occasions be the case) we do not always see eye to eye. However, we do find it disheartening the number of times our suggestions have been overlooked or sidelined.’
The meeting was positive in allowing us to discuss areas of concern and suggestions for reviewing previous proposals, a level of acknowledgement for improving future dialogue and involvement, as well as providing some comfort in respect of progress being made in what, as we all accept, is a very difficult period of financial constraints.
In addition, an update meeting with Helen Bower, Kirklees Team Leader for Conservation, Design, Ecology and Trees has now been set for January 17, 2024. Our concerns regarding the increasing number of vacant and vandalised listed buildings and enforcement by the local authority will be at the top of the agenda as well as an update from Helen on progress on safeguarding key buildings such as the former Huddersfield Infirmary.
HCS Membership Renewals Reminder
Just a prompt regarding payment of annual subs for 2024 (apart from those who joined after October 1, 2023 whose membership covers this year). I hope you will be renewing your membership as we value your support in our efforts as illustrated in the above news.