What Calderdale benefits from in Spending Review as Rachel Reeves visits West Yorkshire
Plus: Council to start consultation over Sowerby Bridge school closure
Hello and welcome to The Calderdale Lead.
If, like me, you’re a bit of a political geek, you’ll probably be awaiting next week’s Spending Review with bated breath.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is starting to announce some of her plans and today she’s due in our region to unveil a huge funding package for transport improvements.
We’ve got a report on what we know so far below.
Plus, we’ve got details from our man in the council chamber - John Greenwood - on plans to close one Sowerby Bridge school and merge it with another.
So, on with the news…
Chancellor pledges £2.1bn for West Yorkshire transport revolution
Chancellor Rachel Reeves is visiting West Yorkshire today where she will unveil a £2.1bn package to revolutionise transport across the region.
She will join West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin at a bus depot in Huddersfield where she will reveal West Yorkshire's 'transport for city regions' funding for 2027-2032.
The biggest part of the funding is set to be spent on bringing trams back to West Yorkshire with ambitious plans for two new lines - a Leeds Line, running from St James’s University Hospital through the city centre to the White Rose, and a Bradford Line, connecting Bradford and Leeds city centres.
This represents the region’s biggest infrastructure project in decades and will form part of an integrated transport network, under the single Weaver Network branding, connecting bus, tram and train services as well as walking and cycling routes.
Crucially, it looks like the major benefit to Calderdale will be extensive bus priority measures and cycleways on the A641 - part of the Bradford-Brighouse-Huddersfield corridor.
This has been on the cards for a while with different consultations taking place on various scheme options.
The A641 can carry over 20,000 vehicles a day in parts and suffers from traffic congestion and a lack of facilities for people choosing to walk and cycle. This not only impacts economic growth but also results in air quality issues, noise and a poor environment for local residents.
When the plans were last discussed by Calderdale’s Cabinet in August last year, they included:
New cycleways;
New walking and cycling routes away from roads;
New and improved crossings;
Bus priority measures;
Safer junctions;
New bridge over the canal in Brighouse;
New public spaces;
New and improved traffic lights; and
New walking and cycling signage.
Further details of what parts of the scheme - which also impact Kirklees and Bradford city councils - are expected to be formally approved in the coming months.
In her speech today Ms Reeves is expected to say: “A Britain that is better off cannot rely on a handful of places forging ahead of the rest of the country.
“The result of such thinking has been growth created in too few places, felt by too few people and wide gaps between regions, and between our cities and towns.”
Sowerby Bridge school closure and merger plans revealed
By John Greenwood
One primary school should close and merge with another on an expanded site in Sowerby Bridge, councillors say.
Calderdale Council’s Cabinet members have agreed to approve that consultation begins on a linked proposal to close Tuel Lane Infants School and expand Christ Church School at Park Road.
Councillors heard that both schools have issues with falling pupil numbers but crucially already co-operate in close partnership and share an executive headteacher.
With the Tuel Lane building needing at least £400,000 spending on it, the money would be better spend expanding Christ Church, said Cabinet member for Children and Young People’s Services, Coun Adam Wilkinson.
Coun Wilkinson, in whose ward the schools are, told colleagues: “The proposed re-organisation offers a sustained, educationally-sound and financially responsible path forward.
“It’s strongly supported by the leadership and governing bodies of both schools.
“It ensures high quality primary education will continue for local families while avoiding un-necessary capital outlay at a time of tight council finances.”
Coun Wilkinson said the schools already collaborated on the curriculum and transition between key stages – creating a single “all through” primary school for children aged three to 11 would offer greater continuity teaching, shared resources and improved pastoral care, with more efficient use of staffing and facilities, leading to better long-term value for money and securing the school’s sustainability.
Currently, as the schools were linked but not in a federation, the headteacher had to work with two governing bodies, two schemes of finance and two inspection regimes, he said.
Tuel Lane needed money spending on its fabric urgently, including it needing a new roof, and if money were committed but it failed, its liabilities would fall to the council.
There would be knock-on effects for Christ Church as it relied on Tuel Lane for its own pupil intake, Cabinet members heard.
While Tuel Lane is a community school, Christ Church is Church of England voluntary aided, but the proposal respected the identities of both and staff and parents would be consulted over governance changes.
A six-week consultation is now expected to run from June 9, with Cabinet expected to consider responses and decide on the next step in September.
That’s all for this edition!
I’m off to do a sun dance in the hope that this rain disappears soon and the big yellow ball makes another appearance in the sky!
In the meantime, if you have a story that you think I should be looking at, drop me a line on calderdale@thelead.uk.
Enjoy your week and see you for the weekend edition!
Andrew