Council’s managing of our heritage is disastrous
Amanda Barrie, actress, 84; Walter Koenig, actor, 83; Sam Neill, actor, 72; Mary Crosby, actress, 60; Morten Harket, singer, 60; Kimberly Williams, actress, 48; Andrew Lincoln, actor, 46; Tinchy Stryder, rapper, 32 KIRKLEES Council has a truly disastrous record of mismanagement of Huddersfield’s heritage.
Most historic buildings have been demolished and replaced by ‘ economic’ concrete structures. Those that remain are deteriorating. This is dereliction of duty by Kirklees Council.
The removal of the cloth hall, of similar architectural importance to the Halifax Piece Hall, was and remains sacrilege. Now it is a Sainsbury’s.
The umpteen times St George’s Square has been rearranged, at very great expense and each time for no benefit.
Did Kirklees Council really choose to remove the Victorian replica lamp posts commissioned at great expense and manufactured locally by David Browns and the Yorkshire flag stones to replace them with LED lighting and Chinese stone? Yes.
Did they rip out Victorian shopping arcades of Huddersfield and replace them with out of town monstrosities? Yes.
Kirklees Council is beyond reform. It needs to be abolished.
In addressing the current plans, Kirklees Council shows it has not learned a jot from the decades of mistakes.
1) The priority should be to reinvigorate the town centre. This means people living and working there. Forget fanciful green white elephants and build housing in the centre.
2) Put a total ban on demolishing any more historical buildings. Enforce owners to maintain them or strip them of ownership.
3) End the disastrous policy of enabling out-of-town shopping developments. I hope that those who enabled them will face prosecution in my lifetime.
4) Discourage private car travel and provide better enable transport/walking/cycling. You are 40 years behind the curve in this.
5) Abolish Kirklees Council and desist associating the Kirklees with a geographic area. It is not. The naming of ‘Kirklees College’ is an affront.
I am furious with Kirklees Council. You will never be forgiven for what you have already done – decades of crimes against Huddersfield.
The new plan is simply a continuation of all the ill-advised, short-sighted mistakes Kirklees Council have made in the past.
Stop the destruction. Respect and preserve Huddersfield’s great heritage and stop wasting hundreds of thousands of pounds of our money making the town forever worse.
Ideally, replace Kirklees Council with a more suitable organisation to care for the interests of the people of Huddersfield.
We need to stop yobs ruining our cricket
THE sound of ball on bat is pleasant to the followers of cricket, but what is unpleasant is reports of pavilions set on fire and cricketers being injured by hooligans while batting.
The national sport being targeted by those who have no interest in the sport.
Fathers, sons and so on play for these village towns and so many give a lot of their free time to help run the clubs.
These clubs, many in rural areas, are easy targets for those wishing to cause mischief.
If Boris Johnson is serious about an extra 20,000 police, put them all on the beat where the local tearaways can have their wings clipped, when the cats away the mice will play, and many are having a field day.