YET another day – yet another new look unveiled for Huddersfield town centre.
The £200m Queensgate Revival project illustrated in the Examiner today will impress many and it is true the scheme demonstrates an energy to develop our town into a major commercial and shopping demonstration.
It will change the face of a large area of the town centre for ever and cannot be faulted in ambition.
As such, the project demonstrates the clear message that Huddersfield is going places and is determined to be noticed.
But – and there has to be a but – it is being done at the expense of further expansion at the Kingsgate shopping centre.
Many were surprised when councillors blocked multi-million pound proposals for Kingsgate a few weeks ago on the grounds that they would have a detrimental impact on the Queensgate development.
An appeal is being made so it clearly may not yet be all over and Kingsgate bosses make the point that they can get their plans off the ground far quicker than the council can, in fact in just a couple of years.
And therein lies a big question: with the credit crunch and the economy not exactly in brilliant shape, just how soon could we really expect to see the Queensgate buildings become a reality?
Remember, it took 10 years to make Kingsgate happen – and that was when times were far better than they are now.
