New capital projects get green light as councillors agree £640k spend across Calderdale
Calderdale Council Cabinet members agreed to spend £600,000 from money already in the capital spending programme
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead.
I hope you’re managing to stay dry and avoid the heavy rains showers that are threatening to spoil the week weather-wise.
In today’s edition we’ve got details of new capital spending projects across Calderdale.
Senior councillors met this week to agree spending of £640,000 across a number of schemes. My LDR colleague John Greenwood has the full details below.
Plus in our Calderdale Digest there’s good news for mobile phone users in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd.
Before we get onto the news, I just wanted to let you know that we’re running a special promotion on paid subscriptions in November.
You can now support The Calderdale Lead with a paid subscription for just £34.30 - that’s a 30% saving on the usual cost.
If you want to support the work we do then just click here.
So, on with the news…
Calderdale Digest
📱 Good news for readers living in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd - you’ll soon be able to use your mobile phone again!
Customers of Virgin Mobile/O2 and Vodafone lost signal on October 20 after the removal of a mast.
Now, Calder Valley MP Josh Fenton-Glynn - who raised the issue with telecoms minister Baroness Lloyd and the networks themselves - has revealed a temporary solution has been found.
Network coverage should be restored next week and planning permission for a new permanent mast has been submitted.
Mr Fenton-Glynn said customers of both networks should contact customer services to discuss appropriate compensation for the disruption.
🚓 Todmorden Town Crier Antony Law has revealed he won’t be flying to Morocco this weekend to take part in a desert trek for charity after thieves broke into his home and stole, among other things, his passport.
Thieves took a number of items including his luggage set and a matching passport holder, containing his passport.
Frantic attempts to get a new passport have proved unsuccessful although Mr Law said that if he can secure a new passport, he may be able to join the trek late.
He posted on Facebook: “To say I am devastated after 5 months of intensive training, preparation and fundraising is a huge understatement.
“I am absolutely heartbroken that this selfish act has not only violated me personally and taken sentimental items that can never be replaced — but has now taken away the charity event I have been working towards all year as your Town Crier.”
Play area resurfacing, market stall refurbishment and culvert works get go ahead from Town Hall chiefs
By John Greenwood
Senior Calderdale councillors have agreed to spend around £640,000 on capital projects.
Calderdale Council Cabinet members agreed to spend £600,000 from money already in the capital spending programme which is unallocated to any specific project on three schemes.
And they also agreed to provide around £40,000 in match funding, for an electric vehicle (EV) charging hub at the council’s Ainley depot at Elland, using money already allocated for transport projects.
Cabinet member for Resources, Cllr Silvia Dacre said the first three projects were all ones where work needed to be done.
The first will see some safety critical resurfacing work at some play areas (£100,000) – essential to keeping children safe – while the second will refurbish stalls at Halifax Borough Market (£250,000).
External funding has been brought in to help pay for ongoing Borough Market refurbishment but does not cover stall refurbishment.
“It’s necessary as we are moving our of refurbishment and into encouraging new stallholders,” she said.
The third will see repairs made to a culvert in the Todmorden market area (£250,000) – this is also related to projects paid for by external funding which has been brought in.
“Again, essential to ensure that the externally-funded Towns Fund project in the centre of town can proceed safely,” she said.
Cllr Dacre said negotiations were under way for Department of Transport charging scheme cash to pay for the EV charging hub at the Ainley depot, which was much-needed.
The council was hoping for £120,000, for which it would have to provide some match funding, approximately £40,000, she said.
Councillors heard battle to balance the books in terms of the revenue – day-to-day spending – budget, which was now predicted to be overspent by around £5.4 million, was ongoing.
The report to councillors outlined which budgets were under most pressure, including adult and children’s social care packages.
There is also a £2.1 million overspend on refuse collection, largely the result of extending operator Suez’s contract for an extra year until summer 2026 while transition to a new joint partnership between the council and the Norse Group to replace it is funded and developed.
This is despite ongoing measures being undertaken to make savings showing success and extra amounts had been budgeted for social care, councillors heard.
Of around £6 million of savings sought this year, £5.86 million are described as “being achieved in full or are in-delivery” with £400,000 worth described as “off-track”, according to the report.
Cllr Dacre said the rising cost of social care placements was the major issue driving overspends.
“It’s not that the number of placements are going up – it’s that the cost of those placements is continuing to increase as the complexity of individual needs increases,” she said.
Councillors also agreed to note the budget positions and revise the capital programme budget which now has schemes expected to total around £368.1 million between 2025-26 and 2028-29.
Of that around 68 per cent is expected to come from grants, 28 per cent borrowed – around £104.7 million – and three per cent coming from existing reserves.
The council’s revenue budget set for 2025-26 is £249.8 million.
That’s it for this edition - thanks for reading!
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And you can drop me a line at calderdale@thelead.uk if you’ve any story tips, comments or just fancy a chat!
Until Sunday, enjoy your week!
Andrew