Ballroom revamp on the cards for Todmorden Town Hall
Plus, Council to discuss £15m boost for road repairs
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead.
I hope you’re having a good week and taking advantage of Spring and all that it brings.
We’ve got a couple more ‘good news’ stories this edition for you.
Firstly, Calderdale Council is looking for permission (from itself!) to make changes to the stunning ballroom at Tod Town Hall.
I was there the other week for an event and it really is beautiful. The work is around changing the bar so that it’s more in keeping with the surroundings (I did notice the bar was a pretty modern-looking thing and did look out of place a little!).
And there’s super news for motorists who enjoy not having their cars damaged by potholes! Calderdale Council is looking to spending £15m over the next two years on the highways.
So, on with the news…
Stunning ballroom to get bar befitting of its beauty
By LDRS’ John Greenwood
A ‘new’ bar using materials from an old magistrates court is on the cards at Todmorden Town Hall, which this year celebrates its 150th anniversary.
Calderdale Council is seeking permission from the council’s planners to make alterations to the ballroom of the Grade I-listed building.
By re-using joinery from the courtroom – existing consent was given in 2019 for it to be removed – the aim is to use this to better blend the bar in as a key part of the ballroom.
Additionally, feature Minton tiling currently obscured by the bar’s contours will re-emerge into view, says a supporting statement with the application.
Materials, proportions and details will be appropriate for the building and constitute and overall improvement, it says.
“Todmorden Town Hall’s original purpose in 1875 was the administrative and judicial hub for the town.
“Although this is still the case in small part today with Todmorden Town Council and Calderdale Council, for the building to remain viable in today’s society its focus needs to be on community, events, weddings, entertainment, conferencing and tourism.
“The aim of these proposals is to make the building a viable and sustainable facility that serves the communities needs in as many ways as possible,” says the application.
The statement says the existing ballroom bar is a contemporary installation (2010s) constructed from laminated composite panels, timber carcases and melamine worktops.
The back bar is constructed from similar contemporary materials with open shelving and spotlights and its excessive height and proportions sit awkwardly against the coved wall and balcony balustrade above.
Its position also cloaks Minton tiles that line the perimeter of the ballroom, says the supporting statement.
“The bar’s contemporary appearance and materials have little to no reference to the ornately decorated ballroom it sits within.
“Proposals detailed in this application look to remove all contemporary bar fixtures and fittings and replace with a bar design that utilises existing courtroom joinery and accommodates existing ballroom features such as Minton tiles and perimeter banding,” it adds.
The proposed bar front features low level curved joinery from the courtroom and with square panelling this will visually govern the new bar, mimicking the curvature of the coved wall and balcony balustrade above.
The bar front will be split into three sections, a dropped counter for accessible serving, a central raised bar with two sales points and queue zones and, to the right, a third section with low-level screen wall.
The proposed back bar will reveal the Minton tiles and it is proposed optics are mounted to the non-decorative part of the banding above them.
Town hall chiefs asked to approve £15m plan to tackle potholes
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet are set to approve plans to invest £15m into the borough’s roads in a boost to drivers.
More than 500 roads across Calderdale have been earmarked for surface dressing, patching or resurfacing as part of the programme.
The Highways Capital Maintenance programme report, which will be considered by Cabinet, sets out the planned highways projects for 2025/26 and 2026/27. The report outlines the different sources of funding which the Council has received and how the money will be allocated to improve the highways network.
The majority of the funding for highways comes from the City Regional Sustainable Transport Settlement (CRSTS) scheme – government funding distributed by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority across all West Yorkshire districts.
Almost £12 million of this is planned to be spent on asset management, which includes carriageway maintenance, repairs of structures like bridges and walls and work across the borough to improve road safety.
Most of the funding earmarked for asset management is due to be spent on carriageway resurfacing, surface dressing/patching and road reconstruction.
The report says that maintaining the condition of the roads in Calderdale continues to be a challenge, with the borough’s topography and vulnerability to adverse weather putting additional pressure on the available funding and network condition.
There has also been a recent significant increase in the number of one-off repairs for structures such as bridges, culverts and retaining walls. These repairs are often extremely expensive, for example it’s estimated that Storm Bert in late November 2024 caused around £6million of damage to the borough’s highways network.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport, Cllr Sarah Courtney, said: “The highways maintenance programme guides how and where money is spent and ensures that our limited funding is directed to the most critical areas of the highway network – balancing condition, safety, resilience, and strategic importance.
“The programme also supports our efforts to take climate action, recognising the importance of quality infrastructure in encouraging active travel and the use of public transport.
“We’re also aware of the challenges of maintaining our extensive road network, and the last year in particular has demonstrated how we can face costly unexpected failures and repairs.”
She added the Council will continue to seek other funding opportunities to add to the cash boost being discussed next Monday.
That’s all for this edition of The Calderdale Lead. Don’t forget that if you’ve got a story you think we should be covering then please email calderdale@thelead.uk and we’ll take a look.
Until Sunday, enjoy the rest of the week!
Andrew