Enterprise in action

Jan 23 2008 by Andrew Baldwin, Huddersfield Daily Examiner

HARDLY a day has gone by recently without the announcement of proposed development of some sort in Huddersfield.

The latest plan comes from businessman Ghulam Rasool who is putting more than £1m into a new town centre department store.

If his vision is right, it should provide a major boost to a shopping area which has seen better days.

It’s small-scale stuff compared with some regeneration schemes, but still very welcome nonetheless.

Such enterprise is what makes Huddersfield an exciting place to live in for all those following its evolution into a town fit to face the challenges of the 21st century.

Mr Rasool’s project will not only create jobs and new shopping opportunities, it will also be visually pleasing.

The present structure on the site is hardly the best looking of buildings, it is fair to say, and we are told its replacement will blend in with other frontages on this stretch of Westgate.

It’s a bold venture, which might still possibly be hit by the economic crash which many are predicting.

A few more plunges in share prices, followed by recession, and the whole thing might take on the look of the foolhardy.

But Ghulam Rasool should be wished all the best.

He’s a Huddersfield-born man putting something back into the town.