DISCARDED stone setts from St George’s Square have been re-used in Meltham it has emerged.
The controversial £4m project has not been short of dissenters after the historic square’s traditional Yorkshire stone was ripped up and replaced with pink Chinese granite.
But what is Huddersfield’s loss is Meltham’s gain as some of the stone setts from outside Huddersfield railway station have been used to form gulleys as part of a bridleway revamp alongside Blackmoorfoot Reservoir. Meltham Town Councillor, Terry Lyons, said the facelift was fantastic.
“They look really good, the bridleway is lovely and flat and they’ve taken out the nasty blind bend.
“I was originally opposed to it (the bridleway) 20-years-ago because it was too dangerous, but now its been upgraded it’s fantastic.”
Holme Valley North Area Committee chairman, Clr David Woodhead, said: “I think it’s good value for money.
“It’s part of a much wider programme of improving paths and bridleways across Kirklees.”
Jacqui Gedman, Assistant Director of Transportation, said: “Kirklees Council has a policy of recycling as many materials as possible.
“It was always planned that the stone setts from the square would be re-used.
“Aand it may well be that the Meltham scheme has made use of some of the materials.”
But local man, Frank Manchester, was less than pleased with the upgrade work.
He claimed the bridleway was still dangerous.
As reported earlier this year, Mr Manchester has previously warned the bridleway at Edge End, which passes through his land, is not appropriate for walkers and horse-riders to cross paths safely.
He says elderly walkers have been injured by horse riders on two occasions after the path was upgraded to a bridleway without consultation five-years-ago.
Mr Manchester also slammed the £17,500 upgrade work as poor value for money saying he could have done it for £500 and says the revamp has not remedied the danger as walkers can still not get their backs to the edge of the path to encourage horses to pass in the middle.
He said: “They are making a death trap, I’m not bothered about it looking nice if it’s not safe.
“If you stand with your back to the wall the horse will walk past you, but if you leave a gap the horse will try to walk between you and the side of the path.
“The sides of the bridleway still aren’t right.
“I do worry about these things - all I asked for is for the soil at the edge of the path to be dug away from the wall - then you are safe.”
Mr Manchester, 84, also accused the authorities of taking away his valuable acid soil that he had been offered £500 for by a local nursery.
Roz Lawton from the Colne Valley Saddle Club said she’d had no reports of any injuries but she admitted the path had been “nearly unrideable” last summer as it was so rutted.
“I think that anything they do up there would be a big improvement,” she added.
