Sir Bernard Ingham not impressed by St George’s Square

Nov 6 2009 by Sam Casey, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

A HIGH-PROFILE visitor to Huddersfield has given a damning verdict on the £4m St George’s Square revamp.

Sir Bernard Ingham said the work had been a waste of money.

The ex-civil servant, who was Margaret Thatcher’s press secretary when she was prime minister, arrived on the train at Huddersfield Railway Station yesterday.

He walked through the square to the George Hotel, where he was speaking to Huddersfield Women’s Luncheon Club.

But he was not impressed.

Sir Bernard said: “It seems to me to be an absolute outrage.

“£4m? This proves conclusively that local government doesn’t know the value of money.

“The way people spend money these days is an utter disgrace.”

Commenting on the decision to import pink Chinese granite to pave the square, he added: “I think the way it was before was quite in keeping with Huddersfield’s identity as an historic Yorkshire town.

“Why do we need to get stone from China? I wouldn’t have recognised that it had come from there.”

Sir Bernard, who grew up in Hebden Bridge, was a journalist with the Yorkshire Post, Yorkshire Evening Post and Guardian before he joined the civil service.

He spent 11 years as Thatcher’s chief press secretary and later became head of the government information service.