HCS Members’ Update February 2025
Here are a few key events and updates about the town’s current developments that I hope will shed a light on issues of fundamental interest to the society, some of which are not covered by other media in their reports.
HCS AGM and Speaker Event. Wednesday, March 26 at 6.30pm. Brian Jackson House, 2 New North Parade, Huddersfield HD1 5JP
6.15 -6.30pm Arrival
6.30-7pm HCS AGM
7pm-7.30 Coffee/tea served. Non HCS guests arrive
The evening’s presentation will be of particular interest to many of our members and friends. Here are the details:
Heritage: Looking to the Future: A Presentation by Charles Smith
Charles is the Policy Director at Historic England, the government’s adviser on the historic environment. Before joining Historic England in 2013, Charles was Team Leader for Conservation and Design at Kirklees Council, and remains a Huddersfield resident.
His early career included working for the Diocese of London and the Victorian Society. Charles will talk about Historic England’s functions, its priorities and the opportunities and risks for heritage in the short to medium term. He will highlight successful local initiatives, such as the Huddersfield Heritage Action Zone, and suggest how civic societies and other amenity groups can continue to be effective in ensuring heritage plays a positive part in delivering great places where people live, work and visit.
There will be no charge for this event but please join us at the AGM (it will only be for 30 minutes) at 6.30pm.
Guided Tour of Sunnybank Mills, Farsley, Thursday, June 12, 10am
Featured in the Mills Transformed Exhibition (see below) this mill has been restored and adapted to exhibit its textile heritage and provide a cultural destination with a contemporary art gallery, growing studio artist community, creative courses and events, plus a tearoom and shop.
Tours last approximately 45 minutes, sharing the history of the mill, the mill owners, mill workers and explore the fascinating objects in the collection. It’s a great opportunity to get up close and personal to the stories of a fine worsted textile heritage. Group tours are limited to just 20 people so everyone has a good experience but, if there is enough interest, there is potential to have two tour groups as there’s plenty to explore on site. It’s worth going to the website www.sunnybankmills.co.uk to appreciate this exciting venture.
Further details and booking arrangements in my next update.
Mills Transformed, Monday, September 15
A joint HCS/HLHS event as part of the 2025 Heritage Open Days Festival.
Following a successful exhibition at Bradford Industrial Museum we are delighted to welcome photographer Neil Horsley and John Lambe, Historic Places Advisor for Historic England.
Over the last three years Neil has been documenting the repurposing of derelict textile mills, including Westins in Huddersfield, who have found creative new uses for such buildings. This involved visiting, photographing and interviewing mill renovators at 33 mill conversion across the north of England – amazing success stories of how large-scale mill complexes have, against all odds, been renovated to accommodate a wide range of uses.
Further details and booking arrangements will be provided in later bulletins.
Town Centre Masterplan – Huddersfield Open Market
You may have seen comments, submitted by HCS and posted on the website, in response to Kirklees Council’s consultation over proposals to renovate the Open Market with structural improvements for maintaining the traditional market with a variety of stalls while bringing in more food and drink outlets and having space inside the market hall for events.
While supporting investment on this building, the society has voiced concerns over some of the assumptions made, as well as specific design issues. There is also some question over the expansion of facilities given the market is situated across town from the central shopping area and connecting streets such as Byram Street have an increasing number of vacant units. A focus on proposals included in related consultancy work, particularly the station to stadium corridor, may provide an economic driver to support the £16.5m investment allocated for the development work.
A request for a meeting with the architects for the scheme is being made.
Cultural Heart: Phase 2, Museum and Art Gallery
As indicated in my last update, a major report was considered by Kirklees Cabinet on Tuesday, January 21, concerning progress on the Cultural Heart and particularly on the next phase of the Museum and Art Gallery proposals. No doubt many will also have seen the excellent progress being made to Phase I of the redevelopment, that is the conversion of the former market with the unique structure now visible, especially from the ring road.
Disappointingly, however, although we had understood that this report would indicate commissioning of work to identify specific spaces for the themes within the existing collections, there appears little to indicate this is being carried out.
It primarily states that, ‘… working with the museum and gallery service, the designers revisited the internal design to determine the optimum layout and maximise the display space for both the museum and the art gallery. The revised RIBA 3 design and submission for planning and listed building consent were both achieved in September 2024 with the listed building consent being granted recently and the planning approval expected shortly.’
This approval for a variation on the conditions on the original approval was approved in the past few days.
The information appears predicated on the architectural aspects of the scheme rather than the manner by which the collections can be affectively displayed. I emphasised previously and in my last update how important such matters were. We have still no clue as to where natural history, industrial exhibits, transport collections etc will be accommodated.
Planning Issues
Castle Hill
Thanks to our website manager, Andy Hirst, we were alerted to the fact that an application for proposals at Castle Hill, which the society has previously objected to, had appeared on the Kirklees Council planning portal on January 16, with only two days given to submit comments.
HCS Planning Officer Robert Taylor immediately contacted the officer dealing with the application saying: “It came as a surprise last week to find the above application within the recent lists, that although has a reference number using 2024, appears to only have arrived on the public lists last week? We are very concerned that we then have a termination date of Saturday the 18th January to submit comments.”
An apology was received, citing an administrative error and the period for comment has been extended until the end of February. We have also discovered that a further error has been made in a letter sent to a number of councillors stating that ‘Victoria Tower is a Scheduled Monument’. In fact, the whole of Castle Hill is scheduled as follows: ‘Castle Hill: slight univallate hillfort, small multivallate hillfort, motte and bailey castle and deserted village.’
The Victoria Tower is purely a Grade11 listed building but given this application will probably go before the Council’s Strategic Planning Committee. This is a significant error as some councillors may not be well informed about the historic/archaeological significance of the whole site when determining this application.
The application is a re-submission of 2018/93591 which currently benefits from planning permission but which expires on February 10, 2025.
I urge members to voice their concerns regarding these proposals. The application reference is 2024/93494.
Kirklees Local Plan
A meeting attended by HCS committee colleagues Geoff Hughes, Gideon Richards, Robert Taylor, Ann Denham, Howard Smith and Mike Woodward provided an opportunity to understand the process in developing the new Local Plan.
Public consultation is underway until February 28 with an Early Engagement Local Plan Survey in which the team effectively gathers input for its work https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/planning-policy/local-plan.aspx
Council work on a housing needs survey and call for development land is well underway. However, information is awaited from central government on amended planning rules and practical detail of how multiple issues need to be addressed, such as ‘net zero’, sustainability, open space, biodiversity, transport and other land allocation requirements. It was indicated that the main consultation on the draft plan and policies would begin in late 2025.
Perhaps Huddersfield would benefit from the type of initiative being developed in Greater Manchester where the Combined Authority is working with districts to create investment zones where towns such as Stockport and Ashton plan to create a significant number of new homes and jobs that, ‘instead of housing being built in an uncoordinated way, the Integrated Pipeline will make sure developments are complementary and have the infrastructure to create thriving, well-connected communities – from green spaces for wellbeing to great transport links and low-carbon heating systems.’
Interestingly, and as an example, the Wigan and Bolton growth corridor includes 12,000 new homes with access to a new Health Innovation Campus.
This immediately raises the possibility in my mind of similar but more limited opportunities that could be created along the stadium to station corridor, including the railway warehouse and former college site. The tremendous engineering work currently being undertaken on the TransPennine rail upgrade provides a huge opportunity to benefit from Huddersfield’s proximity to Manchester and Leeds. To achieve this, Kirklees needs to look beyond its own property holdings and engage with private investors and developers.
Membership Renewals
Thanks to all who have renewed their membership. I know it has been a hard slog for our Membership Co-ordinator, Howard Smith, in reminding people that the annual fee has increased from £12.50 to £15. If you have yet to renew your membership or are one of several who has overlooked this increase can I make a gentle plea to contact us as soon as possible. Your support in our work and activities is greatly appreciated.
Best Wishes
David Wyles, HCS chair