Despite what Calderdale council, the courier and the conservatives say about the new market in Sowerby Bridge. It is not as they would have you believe a thriving and successful market. There has been so much hype about it being busy and interesting but this is a pretty picture painted to mask the truth. If you go to SB market, take a look around, talk to the traders you will find an entirely different story. Many of the stalls are empty, many of the stall holders are unhappy with the rent or terms and conditions; they have to pay for parking and electricity. My favourite trader who had a stall at the old market site for many years realised after her initial excitement that she just couldn’t afford it any more and the terms set by the council were unreasonable, she had to move on.
For some weird reason, the council thought moving it would suddenly make the market work. They had to go and blow 1m on a poorly designed and built new market with no charm or character when we had a beautiful fixed market place in a great location with the geese by the river that just needed updating. The real reason why they moved it was because they wanted the land and who’s going to argue against the proposed new swimming pool when our current pool is so filthy and uninviting. Hey here’s an idea, why don’t we do up the Victorian swimming baths and make them splendid again, no I think we’ll spend loads of money on a new one that will be lovely a clean for a year but then quickly degrade into a smelly mess. The new pool in Todmorden is great but its sparkle is beginning to fade with only a little age. How long have the Victorian baths lasted? They are a testament to great architecture and build quality.
Don’t get me wrong I don’t disagree with regeneration, development or new buildings, I just object to the standard of the new builds I see being thrown up around me. The lack of thought and design, the off the peg architecture, the sheer lack of thought and consideration for aesthetics is not acceptable. Most is not all the new builds in SB are unsympathetic and do not blend in with surroundings. The Council always seem to replace rather than renew what they already have, hence the new market, the Swimming pool. What if the pool is to be closed will be the fate of The Library, the last remaining council run building in that block? They have gradually been closing down all facilities in this block, surely not the Library too.
So back to the market – there is nothing to be done now, it’s there and that’s all there is too it, a few simple improvements could save it. Firstly make the car park free, from what I have heard the paying car parks don’t make any money as they are in debt from building them and they have to pay attendants etc. If they weren’t paying car parks, more people would use them and visit the market, and in doing this traffic would also be reduced as all those people who drive around looking for free parking spaces would stop. (I know they just park at lidl, but people like to park as close as possible). My next improvement would have to be to reduce the rents of the existing stall holders and this would also encourage new traders. It’s a false economy to charge to much as they only chase people away and empty stalls don’t make money. My third improvement would be to move the café from the smelly road side to the more pleasant canal side. Add a lot more trees (they never did replace those lovely cherry trees they hacked down, they just gave us some tiny weedy trees that were instantly vandalised) and some more flowers in baskets and then it would look a lot less ugly. If I had my way it wouldn’t be there at all, I would have left it where it was and found a different location for the new pool. I would have just updated the toilets on this site and on the site of the old market. On that subject, how ridiculous to having paying toilets, what do you do if you’re desperate and you haven’t got 20p, I’ll tell you what they do; they widdle on the market stalls – lovely.
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
The Copley Transformational Project
This project was initially a more modest scheme to place industries on the former site of Standard Wire just off Wakefield Road opposite the HBOS data centre. It is currently a car park where employees at the data centre are being charged £2 per day to park there. The project has now become a key objective in the Upper Calder Valley "Renaissance" scheme and needs a whopping 30m from investors/developers to proceed regeneration on this 35 acre site.
I think the council should think very carefully about what they want this development to be about. This Development really needs to happen but this is not an ideal site for houses, it’s partially on a flood plain and very deep in the Valley so far too dark for human inhabitation (normal humans anyway, by all accounts the site of standard wire is contaminated with corrosive acids so not suitable for housing). This is the best site for the relocation of industries that are currently along Holmes road such as the Dougdales and the Council tip; the tips current location is not satisfactory, it has inadequate access and the tip is too small both of these factors cause accidents and so much road rage it’s tragic.
The new road would help the infrastructure in SB dramatically and ease up traffic on Wharf st. It would also help to save the Bridge that is repeatedly damaged). But until the necessary land is acquired the new access from Holmes Road to Wakefield Road, opposite the HBOS data centre at Copley cannot be built.
This leads me to suggesting that to begin with the development could begin with relocating the industries from Holmes Road to the Standard Wire site, it has already been used for decades as a site for business so the access is great there and this would help to keep vehicles that are too large off this stretch of road.
(Dougdale’s lorries are far too big for the current road and are quite often stuck jack-knifed at the right angle corner. Calder valley skip hire drive like maniacs and are constantly ramming it (I was bore witness to one of these wagons driving straight into the railway bridge at the other end of Holmes Road (I was under the bridge at the time and the crash was so loud I thought the Bridge was far more damaged than it was). Anyway I digress (again) the one way traffic causes tailbacks, the bridge and the road system cannot handle it. If the industries were to be moved, there could even be a restriction on vehicle size and weight over the old bridge between Canal and Holmes Road. This would be great in the short term and make the issue of the new access road less urgent so the focus can be turned back the development of the site in question and the costs can be brought down significantly.
None of this stuff should affect the nature around this area and I’m sure it can be done sensitively if some thought goes into it, making sure that walks and areas such as the allotments are left well alone, keep it all on the brown land I say, there’s plenty of it. There was probably good reason why some land wasn’t built on in the good old days when they could build properly.
Should the Copley Valley Transformational Project they shouldn’t miss the opportunity to use this brown land for what it’s most suitable for, industries/work units etc. and not houses. If the Industries were moved from Holmes road then this provides opportunities to convert Dougdales and some of the other brown land areas into possible sites for shops, houses and other amenities which fits in perfectly with what The renaissance group wants to achieve in creating a new focus for the town away from busy Wharf Street and closer to the River Calder and railway station.
I think the council should think very carefully about what they want this development to be about. This Development really needs to happen but this is not an ideal site for houses, it’s partially on a flood plain and very deep in the Valley so far too dark for human inhabitation (normal humans anyway, by all accounts the site of standard wire is contaminated with corrosive acids so not suitable for housing). This is the best site for the relocation of industries that are currently along Holmes road such as the Dougdales and the Council tip; the tips current location is not satisfactory, it has inadequate access and the tip is too small both of these factors cause accidents and so much road rage it’s tragic.
The new road would help the infrastructure in SB dramatically and ease up traffic on Wharf st. It would also help to save the Bridge that is repeatedly damaged). But until the necessary land is acquired the new access from Holmes Road to Wakefield Road, opposite the HBOS data centre at Copley cannot be built.
This leads me to suggesting that to begin with the development could begin with relocating the industries from Holmes Road to the Standard Wire site, it has already been used for decades as a site for business so the access is great there and this would help to keep vehicles that are too large off this stretch of road.
(Dougdale’s lorries are far too big for the current road and are quite often stuck jack-knifed at the right angle corner. Calder valley skip hire drive like maniacs and are constantly ramming it (I was bore witness to one of these wagons driving straight into the railway bridge at the other end of Holmes Road (I was under the bridge at the time and the crash was so loud I thought the Bridge was far more damaged than it was). Anyway I digress (again) the one way traffic causes tailbacks, the bridge and the road system cannot handle it. If the industries were to be moved, there could even be a restriction on vehicle size and weight over the old bridge between Canal and Holmes Road. This would be great in the short term and make the issue of the new access road less urgent so the focus can be turned back the development of the site in question and the costs can be brought down significantly.
None of this stuff should affect the nature around this area and I’m sure it can be done sensitively if some thought goes into it, making sure that walks and areas such as the allotments are left well alone, keep it all on the brown land I say, there’s plenty of it. There was probably good reason why some land wasn’t built on in the good old days when they could build properly.
Should the Copley Valley Transformational Project they shouldn’t miss the opportunity to use this brown land for what it’s most suitable for, industries/work units etc. and not houses. If the Industries were moved from Holmes road then this provides opportunities to convert Dougdales and some of the other brown land areas into possible sites for shops, houses and other amenities which fits in perfectly with what The renaissance group wants to achieve in creating a new focus for the town away from busy Wharf Street and closer to the River Calder and railway station.
Monday, 7 April 2008
Bypass scheme stopped, again.
The Holmes road bypass scheme was looking all set to go but has once again been shelved indefinitely until developers step in with loads of money; it looks like SB will never be getting that bypass. Well it wasn’t exactly a major bypass just a small section of new road that could have saved a lot of traffic from going through Wharf St. from Wakefield road and rejoining the A58 at station road.
I should really oppose this new stretch of road as I have an allotment there and don’t know how the proposed road would affect it. But for the greater good I think it should go ahead if done sensitively (how likely is that??) and sensibly, there are many ways that SB could benefit. It won’t however, if ever happen for a long time.
It is noted that this would have caused its own problems as a new section of road would have had to be built from the end of Holmes road up to Wakefield road, so land would have to be acquired. Also it would have been difficult to decide what to do at the station road end of the bypass where the railway bridge is one way- but there are solutions to this, one of which is to open up another of the railways arches to create another passage, each of these could take one-way traffic. It could have once been a problem that the market was located on Station Road but now that has gone there is not much along station road that would be badly affected by the new road, it is also a very wide section of road. My only concern here would be for the well being of the geese that hang out by the joining of the two rivers at the taxi rank, they often cross the road here.
As with any huge schemes like these they are dependant on many factors one huge one in this case is the ‘Copley Transformational Project’ at the former Standard Wire site opposite the HBOS data centre near Copley. If this doesn’t happen then the bypass can’t happen, it is imperative that the council tip and other industries be relocated, not just for the bypass but in the short term to save the ancient bridge that is constantly being battered by lorries and trucks to large for it to handle. The lovely old bridge between Holmes road and Canal road is one-way and not only causes huge tailbacks during rush hour as it’s one way but is repeatedly rammed by trucks and loosing huge amounts of very large stones to the river.
This one way system between Holmes and Canal road just will not do in the long run so in a way I hope that the Holmes Road scheme will go ahead, with least amount of damage to the countryside or the allotments. SB could greatly benefit from having much of the industries relocated to a site with better access as part of this scheme; this I think is the bigger issue. If they moved the industries to the new site they may not even need to build new roads as the heavier traffic wouldn’t need to use this route anymore.
I should really oppose this new stretch of road as I have an allotment there and don’t know how the proposed road would affect it. But for the greater good I think it should go ahead if done sensitively (how likely is that??) and sensibly, there are many ways that SB could benefit. It won’t however, if ever happen for a long time.
It is noted that this would have caused its own problems as a new section of road would have had to be built from the end of Holmes road up to Wakefield road, so land would have to be acquired. Also it would have been difficult to decide what to do at the station road end of the bypass where the railway bridge is one way- but there are solutions to this, one of which is to open up another of the railways arches to create another passage, each of these could take one-way traffic. It could have once been a problem that the market was located on Station Road but now that has gone there is not much along station road that would be badly affected by the new road, it is also a very wide section of road. My only concern here would be for the well being of the geese that hang out by the joining of the two rivers at the taxi rank, they often cross the road here.
As with any huge schemes like these they are dependant on many factors one huge one in this case is the ‘Copley Transformational Project’ at the former Standard Wire site opposite the HBOS data centre near Copley. If this doesn’t happen then the bypass can’t happen, it is imperative that the council tip and other industries be relocated, not just for the bypass but in the short term to save the ancient bridge that is constantly being battered by lorries and trucks to large for it to handle. The lovely old bridge between Holmes road and Canal road is one-way and not only causes huge tailbacks during rush hour as it’s one way but is repeatedly rammed by trucks and loosing huge amounts of very large stones to the river.
This one way system between Holmes and Canal road just will not do in the long run so in a way I hope that the Holmes Road scheme will go ahead, with least amount of damage to the countryside or the allotments. SB could greatly benefit from having much of the industries relocated to a site with better access as part of this scheme; this I think is the bigger issue. If they moved the industries to the new site they may not even need to build new roads as the heavier traffic wouldn’t need to use this route anymore.
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