Late summer opening for new £3m Brighouse Market
Plus: Controversial plans for a revamp of Todmorden Market have also been submitted
Hello and a very happy new year to you!
I hope everyone has had a very restful last few days since the clock struck midnight (even if you were back in work this week!).
Today we’ve got news on not one but two market transformations in Calderdale.
First up, it’s good news for traders and shoppers in Brighouse with council bosses confident that the new market building will be open by late summer.
There’s less joy down the road in Todmorden where the plans for a new market there have been submitted by Calderdale Council.
Traders and residents are worried that particular scheme will have an affect on trade.
The LDRS’ John Greenwood has provided additional reporting for these stories.
New market could be open by summer as work starts in Brighouse
Calderdale council chiefs have said work to lay the foundations for Brighouse’s new £3m market building is due to start soon.
The demolition of the old site in Ship Street is now complete and Cllr Silvia Dacre, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet member for resources, said she hopes the new market will be ready by late summer.
She said: “The demolition of the old building is complete, and the groundwork is being prepared, ready for the new foundations.
“Early 2025 will see the foundations being completed which will allow for the start of the building of the outer walls.
“We are hoping that the market will be completed by late summer 2025.”
The transformed permanent market building will have 21 fixed stalls, each with water, drainage and power.
There will be space to sit, rest and meet as part of an attractive and vibrant market, supporting the Council’s aspiration to open the market on more days of the week in the future.
The market - part of the £19.1m Brighouse Town Deal - will include 19 additional pop-up stalls, which can be removed to accommodate small events. Other features will include secure, decorative gates, new cycle parking outside the market, and new entrances and exits to provide better connections to the town.
Cllr Dacre said the nearby temporary market site - in Daisy Street - from which businesses can continue to trade while the new market is built is receiving support and that feedback from traders had been positive.
For many years the market at Ship Street was privately owned and operated on land rented from the council, but when the owners decided not to continue running it, Calderdale took it over in 2018.
But it was in a state of disrepair and the Town Deal funding offers an opportunity to rejuvenate it for the 21st century.
For more information about the scheme, and the wider Brighouse Town Deal, click here.
Plans submitted for controversial market revamp in Todmorden
Down the road in Todmorden, news of a market revamp has been less-warmly received.
Controversial plans to revamp the outdoor market have now been submitted by Calderdale Council.
Town Hall chiefs say this is a “once in a generation” chance to “create a vibrant and green town square” in the heart of Todmorden town centre.
But opponents of the scheme, which includes replacing the outdoor market with new types of stalls, relocating the coffee kiosk, and undertaking a host of landscaping works to improve the public realm, are worried that changes will impact trade.
The council has developed the project in collaboration with Todmorden Town Board.
Particularly controversial are proposals to change the use of Bramsche Square car park – the main one in the town and next to the market and Market Hall.
Moving the parking will create the space for an open plan public square, and incorporate changes to Pollination Street – the latter developed alongside some green space by Incredible Edible Todmorden members, some of whom who are concerned about the changes.
The parking changes have been opposed by market and other town centre businesses, who are worried about loss of spaces and the relocation of them, albeit to an adjacent site, and these were echoed by contributors to the Todmorden Citizens Against Town Deal Cycle Lane and Parking Projects Facebook group page.
The proposals are to move parking spaces to the adjacent site at Rose Street, land which used to house the town’s former medical centre.
This will provide 51 replacement car parking spaces plus one parking space for a disabled motorist and three motorcycle spaces, with two disabled parking bays and two short-stay parking bays retained to the south of the square, accessed from Rose Street.
Earlier proposals would have seen the number of parking spaces reduced from the 57 available at Bramsche Square (excluding disability user spaces) by 17 to just 40 at Rose Street but concerns, and contributions from another Todmorden Facebook community group, Todmorden Moving Forward, sparked a rethink on numbers.
In terms of general parking spaces, including the two short stay bays, 53 will be retained under the proposals which will now be considered by the council’s planners.
Supporting statements with the application argue the changes will benefit the town: “Bramsche Square is currently a car park and doesn’t fulfil the role of a civic space.
“It is the place in-between, behind, next to and in the way of significant public buildings in Todmorden.
“The Public Places in the Heart of Todmorden project presents the opportunity to rewrite the movement patterns of the town entirely; no longer will Todmorden feel like a town that hugs two A-roads; instead, it can feel like a town with a walkable, cycleable, green civic heart.
“The scale of this transformative development cannot be overstated; it is a once in a generation opportunity to deliver a focal point for civic pride and social cohesion for the town.”
In all, eight projects ranging from Centre vale Park to the Hippodrome Theatre will be developed using Town Deal funding.
For more information about the Tod Town Deal click here
.That’s all for this Saturday edition of The Calderdale Lead. A reminder, any news tips or stories you think I should be looking into then calderdale@thelead.uk will get me.
I hope you have a great weekend - despite the forecast snow ‘blanket’ across most of the UK.
I’ll be back on Wednesday with the next edition.
Thanks
Andrew