Castle Hill petition will not be heard by council
A PETITION calling on Huddersfield’s Castle Hill to be protected from development will not be heard by Kirklees Council, planning chiefs have confirmed.
The news will come as a blow to people who have campaigned against a controversial cafe and visitor centre scheme on the iconic landmark in Almondbury, which overlooks the town.
Those plans by entrepreneur brothers Mick and Barry Thandi were narrowly approved in October 2020. And in February the council granted planning permission with work to begin within three years.
However, the Thandis must comply with stringent conditions before the facility can be signed off.
The change.org petition set up by Robert McGuin, which has attracted more than 3,600 signatures, says the council’s planning policies ‘ought not allow a hotel/restaurant to be built in Huddersfield on a national monument, in the green belt in the proximity of a listed building: Victoria Tower.’
However, it appears the petition has now run out of steam after a senior planning officer confirmed a request to have it heard at a meeting of full council ‘has been considered but cannot be progressed.’
In an email to Almondbury councillor Bernard McGuin; head of planning and development, Mathias Franklin said: “As there has been a full planning process and a final decision made to grant planning permission at the site, this issue is no longer with the council but a private matter with the developer on whether they choose to proceed with their development.”
He added: “The developer does need some further permissions from Historic England, but this is not a decision for the council. As of March 1, Historic England confirmed it had ‘yet to receive a Scheduled Monument Consent application from the developer.’
The project cannot move forward until that consent is given.
Reacting to Mr Franklin’s email, Clr McGuin conceded that the petition created by his son faced ‘an uphill task.’
He said: “We were pushing for the council to be protective, to make sure that the conditions [imposed on a development] were onerous for anyone wanting to build on Castle Hill. It seems as though it is going to be very difficult to build up there and to keep to those permissions.”
He added: “I was mainly concerned that the council would strictly police the conditions of the planning application. If they do then the costs could be prohibitively expensive. In my estimation, to make building viable and/or profitable, there needs to be a huge turnover of customers and visitors, which would thereby destroy the character of the hill.
“Hence my call for the council to protect the hill as it is a national monument.”