Who we are

Hebden Bridge Community Association is a member-controlled charitable organisation. It is important to us that we have the widest possible support from within the Hebden Bridge community, and we are pleased that currently over 500 people have signed up as Friends of the Town Hall and members of the Association.

The Association is managed by the members of the voluntary Board of Trustees, who are elected by the members. The last election was in October 2009, when thirteen candidates stood for the ten posts.

The trustees are:

Andrew Bibby is a freelance financial journalist, who regularly contributes to the national press. He has a particular interest in social enterprise and co-operative business.

Robin Dixon is a retired teacher, who is a local town councillor and is also currently Mayor of Hebden Royd. He also has experience in advertising, exhibition design and the construction industry.

Sue Fenton moved to Hebden Bridge almost thirty years ago. She recently took retirement, and is now the volunteer coordinator for the Town Hall project.

Peter Hirst has recently retired, having spent most of his working life in community development and local sustainability. He worked for and with local authorities, government departments and voluntary agencies. He is currently a trustee of the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, where he chairs both their Enterprise Board and the performance, audit and review committee.

Karen Houghtonhas professional experience in regeneration and neighbourhood renewal, urban design and community sustainability. She currently works as an independent consultant, having been previously a member of Yorkshire Forward's Renaissance Towns and Cities Team.

Linda Patterson OBE is a consultant physician who has lived in Hebden Bridge for over 25 years. She has held executive and non-executive posts in the NHS, and is a trustee of the Royal College of Physicians of London and of the White Ribbon Campaign, a charity campaigning against violence against women.

Sarah Moss has business experience in sales and marketing gained in both the public and private sector. She is a former trustee of Calderdale Women's Centre.

Sara Robinson is a freelance project director and facilitator, with a particular focus on the cultural sector. She is the former Director of the rural arts centre in Ludlow, Shropshire, and has also been an Arts Council fellow on the Clore leadership programme.

Mike Smith has been coopted on to our Board from April 2010, as our Treasurer. Mike is an accountant, who has worked as a company accountant for a range of locally-based businesses. He is also a Governor of the local college of further education.

We are very sorry to lose Janet Battye from our Board. She has stepped down as a trustee (July 2010) as a consequence of becoming leader of Calderdale council. We acknowledge her substantial contribution to the Town Hall project.

Our part-time Project Worker, appointed in April 2010, is Kate Rae.

For our major capital-build project, the trustees have appointed Bauman Lyons as architectural advisors, BWA as quantity surveyors and Arup as consulting engineers.

The project team works closely with a working party established by Hebden Royd Town Council, Blackshaw Parish Council, Erringden Parish Council, Heptonstall Parish Council and Wadsworth Parish Council, comprising Cllrs Dorothy Sutcliffe, Alan Fowler, David Bell, Fiona Gibbon, Mary Livesey, Catherine Groves, Lesley Jones and parish council clerks Allan Stuttard and Lars Hansen.