PASSIONS always run high when we discuss our most famous landmark and heritage site Castle Hill – and so they should.
Our history is uniquely linked to this site, one of the most important Iron Age settlements in Europe.
Strangely very little research has been carried out on the hill. What has been attempted was never completed and much of it never properly catalogued.
Recent amazing breakthroughs in archeology, harnessing revolutionary scientific techniques, mean that we can now launch a state-of -the-art investigation that may well reveal a wealth of secrets about who lived here in pre- recorded history.
This is an exciting possibility and it’s here at the historic heart of our community.
This chance of a lifetime means that we must resist all attempts to develop permanent structures on the area until this major enterprise has been carried through.
Recently there have been planning applications to build on Castle Hill by a Bradford- based company associated with the Thandi Brothers.
These are the people who some years ago acquired the old inn on Castle Hill with the intention of redeveloping it but at the same time preserving, in the most part, a large element of the old hostelry.
The building was of immense historical value and notably listed by English Heritage.
To local people’s amazement and horror this company reduced the whole building to rubble, totally ignoring the local council and English Heritage listing.
The company then proceeded to construct an ugly modern building which viewed from the town and it’s environs looked remarkably like a Travelodge or Premier Inn.
With my full support, many local residents, the town’s civic society, the Huddersfield Archeological Society and a multitude of others vigorously protested and Kirklees Council forced the developer to knock down the new building.
Many local people thought that such an outrage should have resulted in a much more severe penalty.
Some years later, perhaps hoping that memories in Huddersfield are short, the same developers are back trying to recoup the losses on their original investment.
They are consistently putting in planning applications for development of a new enterprise on Castle Hill, the latest of which it appears is to build a replica of the building they originally demolished!
My expectation was that Kirklees Council would view with great caution the granting of any such planning consent to a developer that had betrayed the council’s trust in such a spectacular way in the past.
In addition, given the vital importance of the heritage site, how could a council involved in plans to discover the archeological history of the site allow a development on the very land where the investigation will take place?
Imagine my surprise when a recent planning meeting only rejected this application to build by one vote.
In a recent publication of the Examiner, the leader of the council criticised me for pointing out that the developers in this application, the Thandi Brothers, have been very actively campaigning for a positive outcome for their application.
Clr Mehboob Khan pointed out that I had campaigned and lobbied against the development of a large Tesco store on the site of the present Huddersfield Sports Centre.
Whilst that is true, I would suggest most humbly that it is my job as the Member of Parliament to do and say what I feel is in the best interests of the town and to do it openly, in public meetings, in the pages of the Examiner and at the public inquiry.
The campaigning that I object to is the private lobbying and off-the-record informal meetings, without officers present.
If the developers feel that there are valid reasons why their application for planning should be granted then let them bring it openly into the public domain and let the wider community know what is going on.
