If we don’t invest in our future, this town will be doomed
COUNCILLOR’S WARNING AS DESIGN FOR ‘CULTURAL HEART’ IS PRESENTED TO DECISION-MAKING CABINET
A NEW “cultural heart” being proposed for the town centre will see wholesale changes to the area around the central library.
In what is being touted as council chiefs’ “preferred option” a new library and art gallery would take over the existing Queensgate Market, which is to be refurbished.
There will be an entirely new event venue of between 1,200 and 2,500 capacity.
And the 1930s central library will become the town’s new museum, replacing the ageing Tolson Museum and absorbing much of its collection.
It will use service tunnels and the undercroft beneath the piazza shopping area as exhibition space.
A new food hall earmarked for the 7.8 acres currently occupied by the piazza and other elements is envisaged as the “glue” that will bring the various features together.
It will open out into the “urban park”, another aspect of the project that will replace the piazza when it is eventually demolished.
Work on site could begin by 2026. The project, a keystone of the £250m Huddersfield Blueprint, will cost £210m.
The council will stump up the money, which will be funded by borrowing.
That was cautiously received by Conservatives who said the authority needed to offer assurances that it could provide essential services as well as paying for debt.
A design presented to Kirklees Council’s decision-making Cabinet showed a cluster of buildings jumbled together on the piazza/library site.
One senior officer quipped: “It’s going to look a whole lot better than that,” and highlighted the involvement of renowned architects and engineers who have been hired to deliver the plan.
He said: “We have got the best possible team.”
They are architects Feilden Clegg Bradley, who have worked on the York
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Leeds, LS12 1EG shire Sculpture Park, London’s Alexandra Palace and Sheffield’s Heart of the City, and engineers Arup, who were involved with the Shard in London and the Piece Hall in Halifax. The so-called blueprint, which was unveiled in 2019, focuses on regenerating six key areas of Huddersfield town centre. They are the Station Gateway, St Peter’s, Kingsgate and King Street, New
Street, the Civic Quarter and Queensgate and the piazza area, which will become the new cultural heart.
Among those enthusiastically supporting the “daring” project is veteran councillor Peter McBride, the council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration.
He said it represented “a huge risk” but that it was also “a thoughtful risk.”
He added: “It’s also a huge risk to ignore the issue and to leave things behind and not to invest in our future.
“If we don’t, this town will be doomed.”