The West Yorkshire Combined Authority (WYCA) have just approved our business case for a major part of the Holmfirth Blueprint. These plans are being designed with local people and businesses in mind, and have been shaped by your feedback from the outset.
What is the Holmfirth Blueprint?
The Holmfirth Blueprint focuses on five objectives for the town:
- Bringing Holmfirth’s streets to life
- Helping the local economy thrive
- Making the town centre accessible for everyone
- Putting the River Holme back at the heart of the town
- Finding ways to celebrate and build on Holmfirth’s identity
What does approval of the business case mean?
At the heart of the new blueprint is the Town Centre Access Plan. The West Yorkshire Combined Authority have just approved our business case for this part of the blueprint. This is a major step forward to securing £7.47million funding.
This part of the Holmfirth Blueprint will introduce wider pavements and better crossings. Thus creating more space for pedestrians – who make up a huge portion of visitors to the town centre. We’ll also find ways to balance the needs of traffic with those on foot or on bikes. Also we’ll be reassessing parking in the town centre. This includes creating a new multi-use car park and events space. As well as introducing electric vehicle (EV) charging points and making it easier to access disabled parking spaces.
These plans will open up the town centre for more people to enjoy.
How are the plans being developed?
We first began engaging with the public about changes to Holmfirth town centre back in autumn 2021, and this helped inform the initial blueprint. Last year we held a public consultation on these initial plans. Inviting people who live in, work in or regularly visit Holmfirth town centre to get involved and share their views. In November and December hundreds of you gave your opinions on the plans, both online and in person. The results were largely positive and have really given a boost to our initiatives, as well as identifying some clear priorities for us going forward.
What happens next?
Now that the business case is approved, work on the Town Centre Access Plan is due to start this summer.
We’ll also continue to develop the rest of our plans within the Holmfirth Blueprint, with support from the responses gathered during our last public consultation.
The River Holme, which gives Holmfirth its name and is a huge part of the town’s history, will be made a more picturesque feature in the town centre again. This objective has received the most public support, with 91% of you agreeing with plans to open up views over the water and create better access to the water’s edge, as well as improving the river itself.
There was also great public support for new initiatives to celebrate Holmfirth’s rich and varied heritage. We’ll be finding new ways to highlight this heritage and culture through projects and developments in the town centre.
We’re also looking at how key spaces in Holmfirth could be repurposed to bring even more variety and vibrance to the town centre. As well as creating a new multi-use car park and events space, we’re looking at the option of relocating the Royal Mail sorting office to outside the town centre – it could free up space for a new development which would add more to Holmfirth’s charm.
Where else are we working on right now?
Holmfirth is one of four towns for which we’re currently developing blueprints – along with Batley, Heckmondwike and Cleckheaton. These blueprints will help lay out the next 10 to 15 years of development for each of the town centres, following in the footsteps of the Huddersfield and Dewsbury Blueprints announced in 2019 and 2021.
Councillor Graham Turner, Cabinet Member for Growth & Regeneration, says:
“Our blueprint plans across Kirklees are about preserving the heritage of our towns and villages, while giving them the brightest possible future. Holmfirth is already one of Kirklees’ bustling beauty spots, and we now want to celebrate and enhance that identity as much as possible.
The Holmfirth Blueprint is about making the town centre more appealing to visitors, but also as a place where people can put down roots and become part of a great community. We want to bring these streets to life and help the town thrive, and the Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan is a big part of that – we’ll be making the town centre much more accessible and opening it up to everyone.
I’m overjoyed that the West Yorkshire Combined Authority are supportive of our plans, and even more so that there’s so much support from local people. As we look to invest nearly £9million in Holmfirth town centre, the public’s views are continuing to shape our priorities. We know what’s most important to those who care most about this beautiful town, and – as with any regeneration project – that has to be at the heart of everything we do.”