Partnership working key to clearing up Calderdale's polluted waterways
Plus, police appeal after serious assault and Lakeland pleased ahead of season opener
Hello and welcome to the weekend edition of The Calderdale Lead!
I hope you’ve all had a great week and managed to take advantage of some downtime this weekend, exploring the borough.
There’s always so much going on across our towns and villages, day and night!
In today’s edition, we’ve got details of how council chiefs in Calderdale are working with Yorkshire Water and regulators to ensure they get investment in the waterways and meet the challenges of pollution and flooding.
Plus, we have an urgent appeal from police after a serious assault in Halifax.
And Halifax Town boss Adam Lakeland gives his assessment on the Shaymen with less than a week to go until the National League season starts.
So, on with the news…
Town Hall chiefs quizzed over holding water company to account
By John Greenwood
Partnership working will be key to clearing up Calderdale’s polluted waterways and bringing improved flood resilience, councillors heard.
Coun Katie Kimber asked senior Calderdale councillors what steps the council was taking to hold water companies to account for its role in both drought resilience – given its recent hosepipe ban – and flood risk management.
“Can the council clarify how it is working with Yorkshire Water and regulators to ensure investment in infrastructure, nature-based solutions and climate adaption keep pace with the increasing challenges of both scarcity and flooding?” she said.
Cabinet member for Climate Action and Housing, Coun Scott Patient, said the council was engaging with Yorkshire Water and relevant regulators to ensure “robust” investment in their infrastructure.
This included nature-based solutions and climate adaptations to help meet both flood and drought risk.
“Getting that balance right is really important,” he said.
“We’ve consistently lobbied Yorkshire Water since the 2015 floods to adopt proactive reservoir management to slow down valley flows and reduce flood risk.”
Coun Patient said this had seen the company “draw down” the amount of water from reservoirs above Hebden Bridge, giving the reservoirs more capacity – some on purpose but more recently this had happened naturally because, unfortunately, of drought.
The council welcomed Yorkshire Water’s pilot plan to jointly manage local reservoirs in Calderdale for flood mitigation, and scrutiny work done by councillors headed by Coun Kimber was important, said Coun Patient.
Their recommendations include identifying a council officer as a first point of contact for waterway pollution issues, making funding available for highways work with gulley cleaning in consideration, expanding use of sustainable drainage systems, exploring external funding opportunities and look at approaches taken by other councils to combat waterway pollution.
It should also continue working with local landowners, farmers and stakeholders on land management to enhance water quality and management, and educate residents and business owners on steps that can be taken to reduce waterway pollution.
Pro-active engagement with Yorkshire Water to undertake “meaningful” work with a specific focus on reducing pollutants in waterways – the company was severely criticised last year for sewage levels in Calderdale rivers and has pledged to spend cash in the region to remedy this – should be undertaken.
This should include joint development of a detailed work schedule outlining key actions and time frames to see improvements, recommended the scrutiny councillors.
Coun Patient said Yorkshire Water had willingly participated in that scrutiny process.
Calderdale remained committed to nature-based solutions to help stave off flooding including tree planting, leaky dams, pond restoration and moorland rehabilitation, he said.
This involved a number of partners, and a successful example was the popularity of a landowner grant natural flood management scheme, said Coun Patient.
Police issue CCTV footage after serious assault in Halifax
By Andrew Greaves
Police investigating a serious assault in Halifax have released an image of a man they want to speak to.
Detectives have released an image from the incident, which occurred in Haugh Shaw Road on 14 June and left a man in his twenties with serious facial injuries.
They are appealing for information about the man in grey, who is described as an Asian male in his mid to late thirties.
He is said to be around 5ft 9ins tall, of medium build and was wearing grey joggers and a long-sleeved t-shirt.
Officers have made numerous enquiries to identify this man and are now appealing for the public’s assistance.
If you can assist then please contact Calderdale District CID on 101.
The crime reference is 13250334246.
Information can also be reported anonymously to the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555111 or online.
Lakeland pleased as Shaymen end summer campaign with comfortable win
By Andrew Greaves
Halifax Town ended their pre-season campaign with another win yesterday at Curzon Ashton.
Goals from Jamie Cooke and Will Harris handed the Shaymen a 2-0 win in Tameside, just seven days out from the National League opener against Braintree Town.
And it’s fair to say that boss Adam Lakeland was pleased with the result and the performance.
He told The Halifax Courier: “I thought some of our play at times was really good, we got into the final third on many occasions, created some really good chances.
“The only negative probably was that we haven't scored more goals, because I felt if we'd scored three or four it would have been warranted to be honest.
"But we scored two good goals, should have had more, kept a clean sheet, looked fit, looked strong and a lot of the stuff we've been doing on the training ground, I'm seeing it come out more and more in games.
“The players are only gaining confidence from that and it's really pleasing to see.”
The Shaymen travel to Braintree Town next Saturday for the first game of the National League season. Kick-off is 3pm.
That’s it for this edition!
I hope you have a good rest of the weekend and don’t forget you can get in touch either by leaving a comment here on Substack or by dropping me a line on calderdale@thelead.uk.
Thanks for reading - see you on Wednesday!
Andrew