AN entire block of Huddersfield town centre is to be demolished.
A plan to flatten all buildings within the block bordered by Northumberland Street, St Peter’s Street, Primitive Street and Lord Street – which includes some historic architecture – has been given the green light.
But Kirklees planners have barred the government agency behind the scheme from knocking the site down until a new plan is approved and a contract for carrying out the work is agreed.
The council says it does not want an “unsightly gap” left in the town centre if nothing is set to take its place.
The block, within the Huddersfield Town Centre Conservation Area, contains the 1889-built Sunday School building and a 1960s tower block, formerly home to the YMCA.
The 1964 built St Peter’s buildings were also once the site of Huddersfield Polytechnic and one of the town’s first Chinese restaurants, the Hong Kong.
But the buildings, now owned by the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), have all been empty for some time and redevelopment has been deemed economically unviable.
Chris Marsden, chairman of Huddersfield Civic Society, said they hoped some memorial stones could be rescued from the former Northumberland Street Primitive Methodist Sunday School.
He said: “It’s going to be demolished and there’s no appeal process.
“We think it’s a great shame because there are lots of examples of buildings being re-used, such as the Media Centre and the old post office across the road.
“Northumberland Street is very handsome, as is Lord Street, and now we’re going to have this gap tooth.
“There are probably about a dozen memorial stones on the Sunday School buildings, specific to individual people.
“We hope we can find a place for them to be re-mounted rather than turning them into rubble.
“There may even be surviving family members alive who want to be involved.”
The HCA, who took on the site after Yorkshire Forward was scrapped, has said that revamping the existing site would cost £11m in contrast with just a £¾m price tag for pulling the whole lot down.
It also says removing just the 1960s building and leaving the Victorian ones would leave them with a negative land value of -£1.9m to -£2.7m.
The permission now paves the wave for an interim plan to develop a 68-space open ground car park on the site.
The HCA will use the car park to recoup some cash while it searches for a long term solution for the site.
But Mr Marsden criticised planners for allowing the demolition in a conservation area.
He said: “The point of a conservation area is to enhance the area, not to knock it down because you find it an embarrassment.
“In January 1890, the Huddersfield Chronicle newspaper said the Sunday School was a ‘great architectural improvement to this part of town’.
“The Victorian building was an asset to us but it seems to be doomed by the one next to it.
“I don’t think the loss of this Victorian building is outweighed by any economic benefit of having a car park.
“If there was a plan for a building on the site then we would be able to judge that on its merits.
“The 1964 building seems to be one that’s hard to justify keeping up, but demolishing this whole site will be like having a missing tooth.”
