Residents campaign to get Ferndale name recognised

Jan 4 2011 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

“WE want to be Ferndale”.

That’s the New Year plea of hundreds of residents on the Ferndale estate, in an area off Bradford Road that used to be on the Sheepridge/Brackenhall estate

They are welcoming in the New Year with a campaign to give the area its own identity, starting with a brand new logo for the Residents Association.

They plan talks with Kirklees Council to try to ensure the new identity is finally accepted by every authority and organisation, rather than being linked with Brackenhall.

Large swathes of the former Brackenhall estate were cleared to make way for the new housing developments.

There are still parts of the old council estate remaining but the Ferndale development now has almost 600 homes.

Ferndale Residents Association chairman, Yvonne Hutchinson, said: “We launched the re-branding exercise as locals were fed up with Ferndale being confused with Brackenhall.

“Some of the Brackenhall estate does still exist but the new development is called Ferndale.”

She added: “We have worked hard to try and ensure this does not become an ‘us and them’ situation.

“There are nearly 600 homes on the Ferndale development and we feel that merits recognition in its own right as a community.

“The Brackenhall of old does have bad memories of trouble and problems.”