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Our development plansWe are actively developing a major new-build extension to the Town Hall. Details here.
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DiaryNEW: PROJECT DEVELOPMENT OFFICER POST IS CURRENTLY BEING ADVERTISED. DETAILS ON THE WEBSITE. Posted Jan 24 Our 2011-2012 Annual Report is at the printers, and will be mailed out to our Friends very soon. In the meantime, the web version is available here. Posted Jan 24 What a pity to see our neighbour the Hole in the Wall pub boarded up with corrugated iron yesterday. We hope the building can soon reopen its doors. Posted Jan 24 Delighted to report that the Greenwood Room reopened yesterday. We've made a number of changes, including altering the floor level to make it on the same level as the rest of the building. It looks pretty smart, we think. Details on how to book it for your meeting from Sue our administrator on 01422 845261. Posted Jan 24 Our hard hat tour of the development has led to a good crop of tweets on our Creative Quarter Twitter feed. Check them out here! Posted Jan 21 We were pleased to be able to organise, in conjunction with our contractors STG, a 'hard hat' tour yesterday, both for some of our propective new tenants and for members of the Rotary Club of HB. It's good to see the building coming along, and to be able to stand in what will very shortly become our new Waterfront Hall. Posted Jan 13 Thanks to our members who turned out last night for our AGM. We appreciate the support shown by you all. Posted Jan 9 Our ten trustees met together yesterday afternoon, along with Sarah our director and Sue our administrator, for a planning and information-sharing session in the beautiful surroundings of Lumb Bank, the Arvon Foundation's writers' centre a couple of miles north of Hebden Bridge. Our thanks to Becky at the centre for her help. Posted Jan 4 Happy new year to all. We start what will be an exciting year (our new building is scheduled to open in late Spring) by welcoming our new Executive Director Sarah Lister-Blow into her new temporary office at the top of the Town Hall. It's good to have you with us, Sarah. Posted Dec 19 We're delighted to be able to report that the Town Hall project has received support from the Heritage Lottery Fund. The Association has been awarded a development grant of just under £30,000 to enable us to progress work during 2012 on a 'round 2' application to the Fund to restore the fine Victorian features of the building, including the mosaic floor tiles and the stained glass windows. The capital works on the fabric of the building will be linked to a community-based heritage activity and interpretation project. All the details are on our press release issued today. We've also just issued a new Friends Newsletter. Posted Dec 19 Our audited accounts for our financial year are now finalised and approved. A copy is here. It can also be accessed on our Library webpage. Posted Dec 13 Our contractors have had to close Hangingroyd Lane and Old Gate for part of today, as the last of the steel and concrete decking is moved on to the site. Thank you to all our neighbours and local businesses who have been understanding. There should now only be one further closure, for part of a day in mid-Jan. The contractors will advise local residents. Posted Dec 5 Our annual trustee election has taken place, and we are delighted to welcome to our board Chris Standish, Chris Smith, Rachel Rickards and Stephen Curry. Mike Troke becomes an elected trustee, rather than a cooptee. Trustees old and new will be meeting on December 15th for our usual monthly Board meeting. We've also planned an 'awayday' afternoon session in early January, to help our new trustees get to grips with their new responsibilities! Posted Dec 5 Our downstairs kitchen looks a lot better for the new coat of paint it has received. Big thanks to Michael Coneys who volunteered to do this work for us. Posted Dec 1 December already, the year seems to have flown by (although, looking back, we've come a long way since Jan). We've just had a very well attended meeting of the future tenants of the Creative Quarter enterprise units, to discuss some of the details. Thank you if you came along. The Creative Quarter is shaping up to be a really vibrant place to work, we think. Posted Nov 28 We've put out a press release about our Hard Hat tour, being arranged for next Saturday. Posted Nov 28 We're just catching up after our AGM on Thursday evening. Thank you to our members who came - we hope you found the evening interesting and useful. The architects' software which allows a virtual tour of the new buildings got its first airing! We had about 25 people at the meeting, but unfortunately this was just short of the quorum of 30. The formal AGM will therefore be rescheduled shortly, and we will advise you of the date. Posted Nov 28 Talking of visitors, the last few days have been busy ones. We were delighted to have three members of the committee which manages the village hall in Aberford (north Yorkshire) come to find out what we were up to. Closer to home, on Friday we welcomed children from Hebden Royd primary school on site. Our second and final Time Capsule is now safely buried in the foundations. Our thanks to the children for their efforts (and once again to Wireform for the capsule itself). Posted Nov 28 Aagh. In making a minor change to the template to this website, we've accidentally managed to delete a diary entry last week about the visit by Garry Brown of the social enterprise investment fund Key Fund. What the Posted Nov 21 There's a jolly piece about HB just up on the Guardian's Northern blog, which mentions among other things our efforts with the Town Hall project. Is Jill Robinson's picture of our town accurate? Posted Nov 20 Our contractors are getting to the point where the last of the steel frame is about to arrive and be erected. The key dates for the deliveries and crane lifts are next Weds and Thurs (23/24), the following week, and then another couple of days in the week beginning December 5th. For safety reasons the crane lifts will have to be during daylight, and although the contractors have promised to do their best, this will involve some temporary closure of Old Gate and Hangingroyd Lane. Brian Fletcher the Contracts Managers tells us: "I have been in discussions with [Calderdale] highways for quite a while.. For the lifts next week we may be able to keep the road open, as the crane may be able to use some of the site, although I cannot guarantee it until we have the crane set up due to safety requirements of the site operatives and members of the public, although if I can then I will. The lifts after this will definitely be a road closure... I and the site team will do all we can to reduce disruption and keep things safe and reopen the road asap." Letters are going out to our neighbours. Thank you all for your understanding. Posted Nov 18 Congratulations to the Calder Valley Youth Theatre who have once again got some great reviews for their latest production, Sweet Charity, being staged in Halifax until tomorrow evening. The rhythm of life is a powerful beat... We're looking forward to having the Youth Theatre as one of our core tenants once the new building is complete next summer and are busy discussing the practicalities with them at the moment. Posted Nov 15 Don't forget: our AGM is next week, on Thursday 24th. 7pm start. Posted Nov 15 Andrew, one of our trustees, had a phone call today from Fred Chadwick, chair of the Stubb Field Community Association. The group is in discussions with Calderdale council about a community asset transfer of Stubb Field (the playing field near the Nest estate in Mytholmroyd). We wish the group well and will offer what help we can. Posted Nov 15 A useful conversation last week, on how we can collaborate with Hebden Bridge's long-standing and very successful Arts Festival. Thanks to Rebecca and Dave for coming in. We're going to keep closely in touch. Posted Nov 14 We have a new Friends' Newsletter just out. Posted Nov 14 We have six candidates for this year's election to the board of trustees (there are five places to fill). Our thanks to Stephen Curry, Roger Gill, Rachel Rickards, Chris Smith, Chris Standish and Mike Troke for putting their names forward. Ballot papers are in the process of going out to all members of HB Community Association. And thank you to Jason Boom, clerk of the town council, for offering to oversee the election. Posted Nov 4 A nice news piece in the Yorkshire Post about the apppointment of Sarah as our new Executive Director. Posted Nov 4 We've issued a press release today about last Friday's time capsule burial. And we're pleased that Hebden Royd school will very soon be ready to bury their own time capsule. Posted Nov 4 A very special afternoon... For the past few weeks, the children at Riverside primary school have been assembling all sorts of things to be buried in a time capsule in the ground under what will become our new courtyard. Today was the day it was buried. The members of the school council (two for each year) came to the Town Hall, where they were welcomed by Brian Fletcher for our contractors STG. Then (after the media had taken their photos) the oldest and youngest children did the actual burying of the box. Here's a photo of Sam and Arley, with Brian assisting.
Posted Nov 3 Two of us have been at the Locality annual conference in Manchester this week.We are committed members of this valuable organisation (the result of a recent merger between the Development Trusts Association and BASSAC). And meanwhile, three of us had a very warm welcome yesterday from Brent Woods, chief executive of the Media Centre in Huddersfield. Our thanks to Brent for his help. Posted Nov 2 We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new Executive Director, Sarah Lister-Blow. Sarah is currently the Manager of the Gateway community centre in th Ravenscliffe area of Bradford. Full details of Sarah's background and experience are on a news release issued today. Sarah takes up her post in January. Posted Nov 2 Part of our charitable purpose is to support the economic regeneration of our community, so it's appropriate that we have taken the decision to sign up as members of the HB Business Association. Posted Nov 2 The children at Riverside school have been working on the contents for a Time Capsule which they will be burying somewhere deep on the site on Friday afternoon, ready to be dug up (perhaps) in the year 2111 or thereabouts. Our big thanks to local business Wireform who have donated a really excellent metal box for the occasion. Posted Nov 2 Just for the record (and because one of us was asked about it in the pub yesterday evening), the work currently being done to HB Packhorse Bridge isn't linked to our development at the Town Hall. Just a coincidence that another set of contractors are in town. Posted Nov 1 Don't forget that nominations to join the board of trustees need to be with us by Nov 10th. Posted Oct 21 Our monthly trustee board meeting last night got through a lot of business in two hours (well, just over...) Don't forget that now is the time to come forward if you would like stand as a trustee this AGM. Posted Oct 18 Thanks to Lesley, Lynnette and Myra from the local sustainable transport group who came in last night to discuss ways we can make our new Town Hall properly cyclist-friendly. This is part of our work in ensuring we do indeed become a Sustainable Transport Building (see July 24 last year, and our background paper). Posted Oct 17 The formal calling notice for our AGM on Thurs November 24th is now available on the website, and will be mailed to all members very soon. Here too is the trustee nomination form. Posted Oct 14 We have a new newsletter out for small businesses interested in our HB Creative Quarter. Posted Oct 14 We love the wall-hanging which has been made by some of the regulars at the Royd Square centre. It's now proudly on display in our entrance hall. Come and have a look! Posted Oct 11 Some disappointing news comes in with the emails. HB has a superb Brass Band, in the national Championship division (that's the Premiership for brass bands), and the talented and hard-working Junior Band. How better, we thought, than to celebrate the opening of the new building with a specially commissioned brass band tune? And so we applied for some modest support from the PRS grant fund for new music commissions. Sadly, PRS seem to think that our idea isn't such a good one - or at least not one they can support. They told us to wait for a letter giving us the reasons - and then emailed back shortly afterwards to say that, in fact, no letter would be sent. Hmm. Posted Oct 11 Whilst we're at it, here's the news story in today's Halifax Courier. Nice photo. Posted Oct 11 Ah, here's that Yorkshire Post story now online. Posted Oct 8 "The people's Town Hall of 21st century" says the headline in today's Yorkshire Post, over an extended feature about our project. We rather like this - it's certainly what we're trying to achieve. Our thanks to YP reporter Adam Shergold for a well-crafted piece. (Can't find it on the YP website, but if it turns up we'll put in a link.) Posted Oct 7 A lot of interest in what we're doing and trying to achieve at the Pennine Prospects conference in Ilkley this afternoon, where we were the focus of one of the workshops. Some intelligent discussion from both local authority staff and participants from the voluntary sector. Talking of things with Pennine in their title, we've also been delighted to drink a celebratory glass of wine this evening to mark today the news that the innovative project on the industrial and social history of our neighbourhood Pennine Horizons has received the funding it has been going for. Congratulations to them on their success. Posted Oct 5 We have arranged our next Hard Hat tour of the site for Sat December 3rd, between 10 am and noon. There should be more to see than at our last tour in September! More news later. Posted Oct 3 We've put a press release out today, with an update on progress on the capital build. Posted Oct 3 Applications for our Executive Director post closed on Friday. We had a good response from a strong field of candidates. If you have applied, we will be in touch very soon. Posted Sep 29 Andrew, one of our trustees, had a warm welcome at Riverside school assembly yesterday. The Riverside children are getting together a time capsule, which will be buried beneath our new building in the next few weeks. We're hoping to have a similar time capsule soon from Hebden Royd school, too. Posted Sep 22 The contractors report good progress on the construction of the frame for our new hall. (Overheard: ""I think they're building a new Morrisons". Er - no, wrong!) Posted Sep 19 And up it goes... the metal skeleton for the hall is now rapidly taking shape. Keep watching! Posted Sep 16 A dramatic change to the construction site yesterday as our contractors erected the tower crane, which will now stay on site for much of the rest of the work. And the steel frame for the new hall has arrived, too. It's a very visible sign of progress. Posted Sep 12 A quick PS. Sue our administrator has now totalled up Saturday''s signing-in sheet. We had 75 people through the doors from our Heritage Open Day: 36 said they came from HB, but we also had some visitors from further afield - 7 from Leeds, 4 from Sheffield, 2 from Liverpool, 2 from Oxford and - yes - 2 from Australia. Posted Sep 12 An excellent day on Sat, when we opened the Town Hall as part of English Heritage's Heritage Open Days scheme and also ran our first Hard Hat tours of the building site. Thanks to Brian Fletcher (STG) and Karen Houghton (project manager) for the latter. And we also finished off the day with a useful meeting with three members of the local Sustainable Transport Group, who discussed with us ways we can make the new building particularly cyclist-friendly. Thanks to Lesley, Myra and Lynnette for their support on this. Posted Sep 12 We've been delighted to have worked jointly with Calderdale council on a new report on the asset transfer process. Making Asset Transfer Work is just out, and can be found here. Posted Aug 26 Our latest Friends' newsletter is now out, and will be emailed or posted early next week. Posted Aug 26 We have just begun advertising for our - first ever - Executive Director. Please pass on the word! Posted Aug 26 We're delighted to be one of the featured organisations in the new online publication Above and Beyond launched today by Social Investment Business. You'll find it here. SIB have also issued a press release today about the Above and Beyond initiative and are inviting feedback on Facebook or Twitter. Posted Aug 26 Our contractors STG have begun to post a weekly bulletin outside, explaining what they've been doing. We think this is a very helpful initiative. They tell us that the tower crane (about 22m high, and necessary to do the lifting for the building structure) will be arriving on site shortly. It'll come very early in the monring, in order to minimise disturbance. Posted Aug 18 You may have seen last week's HB Times' front page story, focusing on the initiative by local campaigner Bear to make our town 'The Greenest in the Land'. We think this is a great goal. As you'd expect, our new building has been designed to be as energy-saving as possible (it will include photovoltaic panels, among other features). As regards our lovely Victorian existing Town Hall, this was built at a time when there was no pressure to save energy or reduce carbon emissions, and it's not very efficient. We've commissioned the excellent people at Bradford Environmental Action Trust to do a full energy audit of the building. We've also switched to Ecotricity for our electricity supplier. Posted Aug 5 A new research report from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation entitled Community organisations controlling assets has recently been drawn to our attention. It's on JRF's website here. Posted Aug 3 We have been active members of the Development Trustes Association, now Locality, since almost the start of our project, and have received enormous help and support both from Locality staff and from our friends in other, more established, development trusts. Today two of our trustees were over in Bradford, receiving a warm welcome both at the Carlisle Business Centre run by ABL and at Newlands Community Association, where we had the chance to visit their very impressive new Inspire business and community centre, currently going up. Our thanks to Jenny at ABL and Tony at Newlands for their time, help and advice. Posted Aug 1 We are going to participate in the national Heritage Open Days initiative run by English Heritage. The Town Hall will be open to all on September 10th. We're planning hard hat tours of the new development at 11am and 12 noon. Press release. Posted July 26 Apologies - holidays have meant that our diary's not been updated for a while. We'll try to do better... You'll perhaps have noticed that the contractors have been progressing well with the building work. You can now work out where the new riverside hall will be going up, and where the courtyard will be. Posted July 4 We have just issued a call for tenders for a marketing consultant to work with us on promoting the HB Creative Quarter. More informarion if you are interested here. Posted June 29 You'll probably know that as a charity we can reclaim the standard rate tax you pay on donations you make to us. We thought you'd be interested to know that we have just submitted our latest GA claim, for £1056.50. If you do make a donation (for example to our appeal for stone paving for the courtyard) and you're a UK taxpayer, please ensure that you tick the Gift Aid box. Posted June 29 Quick reminder that our 'special offer' for businesses wanring to reserve a unit in our Creative Quarter (3 months' occupancy for the price of 1) finishes this weekend. Don't miss the boat! Posted June 28 We're holding another short briefing session in the Town Hall next Sat (2nd) at 12 noon. Come along if you'd like to find out how the building work is going. Press release here. Posted June 10 Thank you to Jason Boom and his colleagues at the Town Council, who have just put out the hanging baskets again outside the Town Hall. We look forward to a bloomin' good summer. Posted June 10 We have a new newsletter out for local creative/digital businesses interested in the HB Creative Quarter, our enterprise unit development. Posted June 3 Our Friends newsletter for June is just about to be sent out. It's also here ready for reading. Posted June 3 The auger on site at the moment (see June 1) works by drilling down into the sub-surface, whilst at the same time liquid concrete is poured down the inside of the auger - so that the drilling and concreting is done in one operation. We thought you'd like to know... Posted June 1 If you've been in the centre of Hebden Bridge in the past few days, you'll definitely have noticed the developments taking place. The big rig is not there for bunging-jumping, but for putting in the piling for our new buildings. Technically, it's not a pile-driver but an auger (basically our contractors are drilling rather than driving down the piles). This phase of the work should be complete this week. Posted May 27 Our appeal for sponsors to help us pave the riverside courtyard with propoer York tone has got off to a good start, we feel. So far, we've had 43 square metres of stone sponsored. Add in the Gift Aid credit we'll get, and we're a quarter of the way to our target. Posted May 27 As you'll see the construction site is now cleared and ready for the next phase, which will see the piles driven into the ground. The contractors tell us they've found a lot of rubble left behind when the cottages which used to occupy the site were demolished. Posted May 19 We're just back from the centre of Hebden Bridge where we had our stall this lunchtime - a useful opportunity to let people know locally exactly what's happening with the building work. And then, briefly, a discussion with the architects and conservation officer about the exact sort of stone we'll be using. As we said on Apr 27, we're going for quality stone from a quarry near Huddersfield. Posted May 16 We're running a stall in HB this coming Thursday, where we'll be able to explain to you what's going on with the Town Hall development. It's the second of a number of regular briefings, to try to ensure that everyone knows what's happening. Weather permitting, we'll be in St George's Sq, from 12 noon until 2pm. Press release. Posted May 3 There's a press release out today, focusing on our contractors STG. Posted May 3 We've produced a public newsletter, with information about the capital build. It's available here, and will be distributed in town very soon. Posted Apr 27 Bank holiday Monday was as busy as ever in Hebden, with the now-annual Duck Race organised by our friends in the Rotary Club. Next year, all being well, there should be plenty more viewing space to watch the race - from our new riverside courtyard and balconies! Posted Apr 27 We're going to be using best quality Pennine stone for the new building. Our press release gives all the details. Posted Apr 27 Things are happening on site. The scaffolding has gone up and the work of taking down the old rear extension is well under way.
Posted Apr 18 Hebden Bridge Community Association has chosen the West Yorkshire based construction company Strategic Team Group (STG) for the contract to build the new Town Hall extension. Based in Castleford, STG is a £40m business with 230 directly employed staff. It has a track record in a wide range of local construction projects, including a major mill conversion at Rowntree Wharf, York, a new library on the outskirts of Huddersfield and conversion of Menston Hall near Ilkley. STG also operates across the country, and has won contracts to improve railway stations as far afield as Truro and Swansea . Richard Marshall, STG Operations Manager said: “We are delighted to be playing a part in helping Hebden Bridge acquire some key new public buildings. The Town Hall site is a challenging one for construction, but we will be doing our best to minimise the disturbance to local people during the building process.” Press release with more info here. Posted Apr 18 Thank you if you came along to our informal briefing on Saturday. One of the things we did on Sat was to launch an appeal for 182 sponsors, prepared to sponsor a 'square metre' of yorkstone for the courtyard in order for us to raise the £18,200 we need to use real stone rather than substitute paving. The details are here. Posted Apr 14 A reminder that we are holding an informal briefing for Friends of the Town Hall this Saturday , 11am for 11.30am, when we'll be letting you know what's happening. The plans will be out again too. We may even be able to run to some cups of coffee. Posted Apr 14 The fences have gone up today around the rear part of the Town Hall site, as our contractors begin to gear up for what will be about 12 months of work on site. The current fences will be there for a few weeks, but will then be replaced with a more secure hoarding, which will close off the site whilst the real building work is underway. Posted Apr 12 Some staffing changes at the Town Hall: Kate Rae moves across from administrative work to become our project Development Officer, and Sue Graham takes up the role of Administrator. Details on the press release. Posted Apr 8 We're pleased to see that the news of our £1.2m grant from the European Regional Development Fund makes it to the front page of the HB Times today. Posted Apr 1 It's anniversary day - exactly a year since HB Town Hall was passed across from Calderdale into the Community Association's ownership and management. Posted Apr 1 We've produced our April newsletter, which will be sent out to all our Friends and members on Monday. It's also here on the website. Also just out is the first newsletter for Hebden Bridge Creative Quarter, our enterprise units. Posted Mar 31 Two of our trustees signed the legal paperwork earlier this week with Yorkshire Forward which will bring over £1.2m of European money to the Town Hall project. This seems to us to be worth a press release! Posted Mar 27 It's countdown time for building work on our major new development. We've been very busy in the past few weeks (sorry, this diary has suffered) with the formal tendering and work of selecting the building contractor, and also tying up some loose ends with our funders. But now we're pleased to say we now have our preferred contractor (we'll be able to announce their name very soon), and it really is all systems go. Stand by for a friends' newsletter very soon. Posted Mar 16 Our pioneering asset transfer of HB Town Hall into community ownership has now led on to a second, and just as eventful, decision by Calderdale. The council's Cabinet agreed on Monday to take the in-principle decision to transfer the town's much loved Picture House cinema into community ownership too. You can read Calderdale's press release here. The Community Association is part of a major consortium of local organisations behind this initiative. We're working very closely with the town coucil (Hebden Royd, not Hebden Bridge as it says in Calderdale's press release), and also with the Ground Floor project, the Arts Festival group, HB Partnership, and the four parish councils. We've just heard too that Pennine Heritage are asking to join the consortium, and we're in close touch with the Trades Club. The interim project team met today and among other things agreed to work speedily towards the formal relaunch of the Friends of the Picture House. The provisional date for the public meeting at which we'll do this is Thurs May 19th. We're also doing a lot of work on possible governance structures for the Picture House, following the transfer. We're very mindful of the very clear desire expressed at the public meeting earlier this month that the Picture House should be democratically run by and on behalf of the community. Posted Mar 4 Our annual report for 2010-2011 is now out. We have limited numbers of the report in hard-copy form, but to save money we're hoping most people will be happy with a pdf. It's here. Please have a look. Posted Mar 4 There was a packed meeting last night at Riverside school to discuss arrangements for ensuring the future of HB Picture House. There's a generally comprehensive report on the Hebden Bridge community website (although one or two mistakes did creep in: Robin Tuddenham is Calderdale's director of safer stronger communities, for example, and the reference should be to a grant application being made to Calderdale, not a grant being made to Calderdale! With the Town Council, we are lead partners on the asset transfer application to the council. A copy of this application (with just a few financial details removed) can be found on our website here. Posted Feb 28 Don't forget that the public meeting to discuss the future of HB's much loved Picture House cinema is this Thursday, at 7.30pm in Riverside school. We're part of the local consortium of community groups who have organised the event. Posted Feb 28 We were very pleased to welcome trustees from our fellow members of the Development Trusts Association Kiveton Park and Wales Development Trust who made the journey up the M1 from Rotherham to talk to us about our own experiences in Hebden. We've learned a lot from other development trusts and are keen to reciprocate when we can. Incidentally, the Development Trusts Association and Bassac are in the process of merging to form a new organisation Locality. So we'll shortly be members of Locality rather than the DTA. Posted Feb 14 An absolute avalanche of media interest this morning. A BBC film crew for the TV News at One comes in about 10.30, wanting to talk to us about the Town Hall project... and no sooner have we done our little 2 min bit with them than another film crew, also from the BBC, arrives from the News 24 channel. One of our trustees Andrew is pushed forward as our spokesperson. Later on, there's a live interview on Radio 5 Live too. All this completely unexpected. The reason? David Cameron's speech about the Big Society, of course. We point out that what we've done in Hebden rather predates the current talk of the Big Society, but reflects the town's strong tradition of community engagement and action (and reflects also what we suspect you can find traditionally in most British communities). We also sound a slight caveat - putting communities in charge of public facilities and public services is fine in principle, provided the resources are there, as well. At a time of savage cuts in local authority funding, it can feel sometimes as if we're being asked to pick up the pieces. Posted Feb 8 Posted Feb 7 Posted Feb 7 Posted Feb 1 Posted Jan 24 Posted Jan 21 Posted Jan 21 Posted Jan 21 Posted Jan 20 Posted Jan 20 Posted Jan 17 Posted Jan 17 Posted Jan 11 We are disappointed that Nick waited until the planning process was over and the builders about to move in to raise this with us. We held several consultation days between February and July last year, and specifically took two options to the February 13 th consultation, which was well attended. Both involved retention of the listed Victorian Town Hall at the front. One involved retention of the rear two-storey extension, the other involved demolition of the extension, allowing for the creation of a new public riverside courtyard. There was a very strong majority feeling from that consultation, represented in what people said to us and the comments they left, that we should go for the second option. People told us they were very excited about the idea of opening up the river, of creating a new riverside hall and a new courtyard. This is therefore the route we took. More detailed proposals were again presented for consultation in May, and there was then the lengthy period from July to October when our planning application was up for debate. Planning consent was given in October. The specialist heritage assessment of our plans from the council has been very positive. It included the comment, “The existing buildings do not address the river in an accessible way. They merely use the river corridor for light access and the corridor remains such, with no public benefit. The proposals enhance the experience of the town and add to its views and public experience.” We're sorry not to be able to please everyone, but we are heartened that many other local people have told us how much they like the designs. We hope when the work is completed next year that the whole town will enjoy the new community facilities and the riverside area. Nick also raised the same issue on the HebWeb forum last Autumn. We posted quite a lengthy response at that time which you will find here. Posted Jan 7 Posted Jan 7 Posted Jan 4 And so on to 2011, where our attention will be focused particularly on our new capital build. We hope that the builders will be on site as early as April... so it's definitely going to be another busy year. Posted Dec 31 Posted Dec 31 Posted Dec 30 Posted Dec 23 Posted Dec 23 Posted Dec 21 Posted Dec 21 Posted Dec 17 Posted Dec 17 And whilst we're on car parking matters, we are going to have to temporarily close both car parks from Weds Dec 29th - Thurs Jan 6th to allow a detailed site survey to be undertaken. (We have managed to avoid having to have this done in the run up to Christmas). Posted Dec 13 Posted Dec 13 Posted Dec 13 Posted Dec 9 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 7 Posted Dec 7 Posted Dec 7 Posted Dec 3 Posted Dec 3 Posted Dec 1 Posted Dec 1 At the moment, we are still planning to go ahead with our meeting tomorrow night on Hebden Bridge Creative Quarter. If we do have to cancel, we will do so tomorrow morning and let you know here. Posted Nov 26 Posted Nov 26 Posted Nov 26 We've said goodbye to some of our trustees, and are welcoming five new trustees to the board. We'll get the 'who we are' section of this website updated as quickly as possible. Posted Nov 25 Our draft accounts are now back from our auditors and will be presented tonight. Hard copies available tonight, or find them here on the web. Posted Nov 25 Posted Nov 25 Posted Nov 22 Posted Nov 19 Posted Oct 27 Posted Oct 27 Here's our press release. Posted Oct 26 Posted Oct 25 Posted Oct 22 Posted Oct 22 Posted Oct 22 Posted Oct 19 Posted Sep 27 Posted Sep 14 We shall shortly be inviting members to consider standing for the Board of Trustees. Time to begin to think about whether you would be able to make this commitment... Posted Sep 13 Posted Sep 10 Posted Sep 10 Posted Sep 2 Posted Sep 2 Posted Aug 19 Posted Aug 18 Posted Aug 17 Posted Aug 17 Posted Aug 16 We're delighted that our decision to apply for a wedding licence has clearly met a real need. we have several other weddings and civil partnerships booked in for later in the year and early 2011. (New press release about this issued today). Posted Aug 15 Posted Aug 11 There's a lot to look through. To help, we've put a selection of the documents which most people will find most useful here, in our 'plans' section. Posted Aug 9 The full planning documents should be available on Calderdale's website shortly. We'll let you know. Posted Aug 9 Posted July 24 (This diary is now about to take a two week holiday. Back in early August, when hopefully the planning docs will be up on Calderdale's website). Posted July 22 Posted July 19 Posted July 16 Posted July 14 And here's the logo for the scheme.
Posted July 9 We are arranging a Public Briefing Day on Sat July 24th in the town hall, when all the plans will be available for browsing. We're also arranging a series of special sessions during the day, as follows:
Full details of the event are here. Posted July 9 Posted June 29 One of our trustees, Sue Fenton, is coordinating the volunteer side of things. Contact her (via our usual email address) if you're able to offer a little time. Posted June 29 Posted June 28 Posted June 28 Posted June 28 Posted June 19 And after? Afterwards we all enjoyed the 500th anniversary of the town's packhorse bridge (and watched some extremely noisy firecrackers let off from the flat roof at the back of the Town Hall). Fortunately, the Town Hall is still standing... Posted June 16 The answer is... yes, please! It''s really busy every day at the Town Hall and the bookings diary is starting to fill up. So we are now looking for people who are willing to help with one (or more!) of the following tasks. We could do with people to staff reception – greet people, answer queries, answer the ‘phone and take messages. Initially we are hoping to get enough people to keep the reception staffed from 12-4pm Monday to Friday. We need people who could steward events – to help to arrange the room, make sure refreshments are available and to clear up afterwards. We also need extra pairs of hands for tea and coffee making and the variety of tasks which present themselves in the course of the Town Hall week. If you are interested in finding out more about this, we will be having a introductory session on Friday 25 th June at 2pm at the Town Hall. No need to book: just come along. Posted June 15 Posted June 15
Posted June 11 A thank you to the company too for their support in this way). Sweet and Maxwell (part of Thomson Reuters) have also given us a generous donation for the project. Posted June 10
Posted June 10 Posted June 4 Posted June 3 Posted June 3 We had lots of people through the Town Hall on May 22nd and received lots of comments. Mostly, we're pleased to say, the comments were very supportive of what we're proposing, but we recognise that some people do have concerns. Our architects are still trying to take on board as much as they can all the comments received, and aren't yet in a position to come back with any revisions. So we won't have the final plans ready for this week. Apologies, if you were planning to come. If you weren't able to come on the 22nd , we will very shortly be putting up on our website the options which the architects are developing, together with a feedback form. You'll be able to view them there. Posted June 3 Posted June 2 Posted May 17 Posted May 14 Posted May 12 Posted May 10 Posted May 10 Posted May 10 Posted April 29 Posted April 23 Posted April 23 We have agreed to hold another public consultation day on Sat May 22nd. There were also be a public briefing on the details of the plans, just before we begin the formal planning process, on Sat June 6th. We are currently hoping for our plans to be taken to the Calderdale planning committee in September. David Burdus, who is advising us on access and disability issues, also had a meeting yesterday with a number of representatives of the community concerned with disability issues. We hope to feed the points raised there into the planning process. Posted April 16 Posted April 16 Posted April 15 Posted April 12 Posted April 12 Posted April 9 Posted April 9 (Quick postscript: we think our April fool's press release (below) might just have taken a few people in... We're pleased to say that Chuck M Heigh never showed up). Posted April 1 Posted April 1 Hebden Bridge is to be the site of the country's first community-run casino, in a pioneering initiative announced this morning by Hebden Bridge Community Association. The development will breathe new life into the town's fine Victorian town hall, which has now passed into the hands of the Association from Calderdale. The development involves an innovative tie-up with Las Vegas based operator Imperial Leisure Inc (I.LI ), and represents the first casino development by I.LI in Britain. "Once again Hebden Bridge is demonstrating that it is ahead of the rest of the country. We have been planning this development for exactly a year, but have held back on the announcement until the Town Hall was safely in the hands of the Association," says chair Peter Hirst. The plans will bring the opportunity to play blackjack, craps and poker to the heart of Hebden Bridge. The Association has announced that the large upstairs room, currently used as the council chamber, will host a roulette table, whilst state-of-the-art fruit machines will be available for playing in downstairs areas of the building. Under the terms of the recent asset transfer for the Town Hall negotiated with Calderdale council, the responsibility for maintaining this grade-II listed building passes to the Community Association. According to Mr Hirst, the result of the I.LI arrangement will secure the future financial sustainability of the Town Hall for many years to come. I.LI's Senior Vice-President Chuck M Heigh III will be in Hebden Bridge town hall this morning, to seal the agreement. "We love this Hebden Bridge place which is one hellava cool town. We are looking forward to making bags of money with you guys," says Mr Heigh. Use of other parts of the Town Hall building by the Town and Parish councils will not be affected. Posted Mar 31 Posted Mar 31 Posted Mar 30 Posted Mar 30 Posted Mar 30 Posted Mar 28 Posted Mar 26 Posted Mar 25 Posted Mar 24 Posted Mar 24 Posted Mar 24 Posted Mar 24 Yes, we have just done a mailing to all our Friends and members with the latest newsletter, and with the notice for our general meeting on April 15th. As you know, we usually rely on email, but this time we wanted to make sure everyone got the formal calling notice and voting form by post. Posted Mar 22 There is a rumour that April 15th could be the date of the first party leaders' election broadcast. If so, we will keep our meeting short. (Though as one of the trustees put it today, we reckon we're more interesting than those party leaders anyway...) Posted Mar 22 We're busy because the transfer of the Town Hall into community ownership is now only ten days away; yes, we're working flat out to ensure a smooth and efficient transition on April 1st, when control of the Town Hall will pass to us. No jokes about April 1st, please! Posted Mar 8 Posted Mar 4 Posted Mar 4 Posted Mar 3 We are also now in the position where we are advertising for our first, part-time, member of staff. This is an exciting step forward for us, and for the project as a whole, and it reflects the fact that we anticipate asset transfer taking place at the start of next month. The post we are advertising is for a Project Worker, working 20 hours a week; the post is initially temporary, lasting a year. The role will involve setting up and ensuring the smooth running of administrative systems, responding to enquiries about the Town Hall, maintaining records and generally promoting the use of the Town Hall and the work of the Community Association. If you would like the application pack, please contact Peter Hirst on 01422 842551. The closing date is March 19th. Posted Feb 26 One decision we made was to appoint Peter Hirst as our Chair, and Sara Robinson as our Vice-Chair. Andrew Bibby continues as our company secretary. (If you can't remember who we all are, there are details about all ten trustees here). Talking of trustees, we're very sorry to be losing Derrick Palmer as our treasurer. Derrick has been involved in the project since the early days two years ago, when there were just a handful of us sitting around a kitchen table, dreaming dreams. Derrick has recently taken on new work commitments in London which is taking him away from Hebden increasingly. Derrick, you'll be missed. Which means that we now actively advertising for a new hon treasurer to join us. If you would like details of the job (yes, it's a job, albeit unpaid!), please get in touch. Posted Feb 24 One of the many things on our work list is the need to finalise the wording of the legal agreements between us and Calderdale, which of course has to be got right. We're enormously grateful to Steve Nixon of solicitors Walker Morris who is acting as our adviser on this, on a pro bono basis. We've arranged this through Business in the Community's ProHelp scheme. We held a very useful meeting with Steve yesterday. Posted Feb 18 Posted Feb 15 We've been asked is there's some way that people couldn't make Sat can also make comments. The answer is, of course, yes. We need somehow to get the detailed plans (which were on boards) into a format which we can put up here on the web - please give us a little time to talk to the architects about this. In the meantime, don't forget that the survey on parking is available here for you to complete (see Feb 12 entry below). Posted Feb 15 Posted Feb 12 Posted Feb 11 The story has been picked up in the Halifax Courier, today's Hebden Bridge Times, and the Hebden Bridge community website. Posted Feb 10 Posted Jan 29 Posted Jan 29 Posted Jan 29 Posted Jan 29 Posted Jan 27 Posted Jan 27 Posted Jan 27 Posted Jan 22 Posted Jan 14 We're about to start a major campaign to increase the number of Friends of the Town Hall (we're up to about 470, but would like hundreds more!). Among other things, we will be running a stall in the Picture House in HB on Fri Jan 22, Sat Jan 23 and Sun Jan 24. Look out for us if you're going to the film on one of those evenings. Even better, could you offer to volunteer to help us (7pm - 8.30pm) on one of those days? If so, let Sue know on HB 844906. Posted Jan 14 Posted Jan 11 We're meeting regularly as the full Board of Trustees (minutes of our meetings are posted on the website), but we have also instituted a series of sub-committees handling particular areas of work. Firstly, our governance committee has the responsibility of ensuring that we we run our affairs well, meeting our charity and legal commitments (and also meeting our democratic responsibilities to the Hebden Bridge community). The operations committee is handling the practical arrangements linked to the actual take-over of the Town Hall (likely to be only about ten weeks away). The asset transfer committee is liaising with Calderdale on the legal and contractual aspects of the transfer. We have a business planning, finance and fundraising committee which among other things is overseeing the applications we are in the process of making; this group works closely with the Capital Build and sustainability group. Finally we have a Communications and stakeholder relations committee. This is busy organising the consultation day on Feb 13th, and is also planning a major new drive to increase the number of Friends of the Town Hall. (Yes, never a dull moment...) Posted Jan 8 Posted Jan 8 We had our first trustees meeting of 2010 last night, some of us battling down from the snowy tops to make it. It was, as usual, a busy agenda. One decision we have taken is to hold a public consultation event in the Town Hall on Sat Feb 13th, starting at about 11am. More info soon, but please note the date. Posted Dec 23 We end the year with ten committed people on the board of trustees (elected at the first AGM of the Association), with over 470 members of the Association and Friends of the Town Hall, with the formal decision from Calderdale's Cabinet to approve transfer of the Town Hall to us taken, with our architects Bauman Lyons appointed and working closely with us, and with our plans developing quickly for the two major funding bids we hope to put in during 2010. Next year is scheduled to see us actually taking over management of the Town Hall. We are aware of the responsibilities we are taking over, and will be taking steps to ensure that we undertake the tasks which need to be done efficiently and in a highly organised manner. But we're also looking to bring the maximum energy and creativity to the process, too, and will be looking to involve everyone in Hebden Bridge in making this landmark building genuinely a place that belongs to us all. Posted Dec 21 Posted Dec 15 We are continuing to liaise with Social Investment Business who are adminstering the CommunityBuilders scheme, and three trustees held a useful meeting with two of SIB's staff today in the Town Hall. As you'll know, we are preparing an application to the CommunityBuilders fund for capital works. Posted Dec 11 Posted Dec 10 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 Posted Dec 8 We have at last the good news we have been waiting for. Calderdale's Cabinet agreed on Mon Dec 7th to the transfer of control of the Town Hall to Hebden Bridge Community Association. This is a landmark decision, and it means that the long-term future of the building is now, we believe, secured. As part of the deal, Calderdale will continue to use offices in the building, and will pay us rent. We will take over full responsibility for the building, initially on a forty-year leasehold basis. Calderdale is also making a contribution towards necessary immediate maintenance work. We are now working on the necessary technical legal agreements with Calderdale, aiming for a legal hand-over date of 1 st April 2010. However, thereafter it will take us a few weeks to get everything straight, so we are planning the ‘real' launch celebrations and events for the start of June. Posted Dec 7 Posted Dec 4 Posted Dec 1 In the meantime, you may wish to look at the Cabinet paper, with recommendation, which is posted on Calderdale's website, and the options appraisal appendix accompanying the paper. Calderdale have also taken the unusual step of press releasing the fact that the asset transfer proposal is on Cabinet's agenda. The text of their press release can be found on their website, too. Posted Nov 20 Posted Nov 20 Posted Nov 13 We're taking these issues seriously: as the minutes of our last trustees meeting put it, "It was agreed that although HBCA is a relatively small, local organisation our aims are to operate with first class governance." Helpfully we have in Sara Robinson and Peter Hirst two trustees whose work involves or has involved them advising other voluntary orgs on governance issues - not surprisingly, we asked Sara and Peter to lead today's session. And in case you're wondering how ten volunteers manage to get time off on a weekday morning, we're fortunate that several of us are self-employed and therefore have some flexibility over our diaries, one of us is retired, and another was able to swap her workhours to make time for our meeting. Posted Nov 12 Secondly, she suggests that a disabled scooter is kept at the Town Hall for visitors to the town. It's a good idea, and one we'll remember. (We have set up an informal disability advisory group to work with the architects specifically on this aspect of the building design. We're pleased that town councillor Jade Smith has offered to coordinate this group. Get in touch with us if you'd like to be involved, and we'll let Jade know). Posted Nov 12 Posted Nov 12 Posted Nov 10 Posted Nov 7 Those of us who live here know that our community does have these issues to address (as probably do many other market towns in semi-rural areas like ours). The film is a reminder to us of the obligation, in our work for new community facilities in the town, to ensure that we do as much as possible to ensure these facilities are available for all. (You can watch the trailer to the film on the BFI website). Posted Nov 6 Posted Nov 6 Posted Nov 3 Posted Nov 3 Posted Oct 23 Posted Oct 16 Posted Oct 16 Posted Oct 9 Lots of thank yous are in order, particularly to those people who voluntarily came along for the Open Doors as entertainers and presenters. Thanks to Calder Valley Voices (in fine voice, as always), to the great two-piece outfit Cowbaby, to local artists Rachel and Anthony of Canvas/59 steps, to Jason Elliott and Space 5 for the Hebden Bridge 500 faces project, for Johnnie McQuade for his outstandingly mystifying magic, to Fin Plumpton for his exquisite classical guitar playing, and to Diana Monahan and other members of HB Local History Society, for their fascinating photos of the Town Hall in days of yore. We hope very much we haven't forgotten anyone. More generally, thank yous to Riverside School and the Methodist Church for letting us use their chairs; to Peter Burton and other Calderdale staff for facilitating our use of the building; to the team from our architects Bauman Lyons, who we thought did a superb job both during the day and in the evening; to Hebden Royd Town Council for use of their projector (and of course to David and Christine for their work on the trustee election); to Nick Wilding, with apologies that we had technology problems and couldn't show the video he made; to Gwen Goddard for agreeing to chair the AGM and Maggie Woods for taking the minutes. Sue Fenton, too, for doing a great deal of back-stage work both during the day and during the evening. Yes, we're sure we've forgotten some others - please forgive us if we have. We hope to have some photos to put up here shortly. Posted Oct 9 Posted Oct 7 Posted Sep 28 Posted Sep 28 Hebden Bridge Community Association has announced that it has appointed Leeds-based architectural practice Bauman Lyons to work with it on plans for Hebden Bridge 's landmark Town Hall building, currently the subject of an asset transfer proposal. Bauman Lyons is a highly regarded practice established in 1992, which has undertaken a range of high profile projects in the Yorkshire area. It has an emphasis on combining creative regeneration schemes with high environmental and social sustainability. The firm's director Irena Bauman is a Commissioner of CABE (Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment) and a member of Yorkshire Forward Urban Renaissance and Market Towns panels. “We are delighted to have Bauman Lyons working with us on the Town Hall project, and we are sure that they will bring a great deal to Hebden Bridge . Their track record suggests that they will be highly sensitive to local community views, whilst at the same time ensuring that new buildings are very high quality and built to last,” says Karen Houghton, trustee of Hebden Bridge Community Association. “We share your vision of community led developments and feel that we will be able to add value to the Town Hall project in terms of our experience and creativity. We are interested in working with you because your scheme is community led, because you are breaking new ground with ownership transfers, because the existing building is beautiful, because the existing development site is difficult, because of your aspiration and because we are committed to working in Yorkshire ,” says Irena Bauman. Bauman Lyons was one of three architectural practices shortlisted and interviewed. Eleven architects submitted expressions of interest, from which a longlist of six firms was drawn up. Posted Sep 24 Posted Sep 23 Posted Sep 22 One of England 's smallest parishes has made a big contribution towards plans for Hebden Bridge 's Town Hall. Erringden parish council, covering just 50 or so houses and about 190 inhabitants, has decided to become a ‘Gold' member of Hebden Bridge Community Association, the community-run charitable trust which is leading plans to take over the running of the Town Hall from Calderdale. It joins another rural parish, Heptonstall, which has also become a Gold member. In total, over 450 organisations and individuals have demonstrated their support for the initiative by becoming members of the Association and Friends of the Town Hall. “We may be a small parish, but we wanted to make a big gesture in support of the Town Hall plans,” says Mrs Veronica Stuttard, chairman of the parish council. “The Town Hall, as well as having the offices of Hebden Royd Town Council, is also our base and we use the fine council chamber and offices for our own parish business.” Posted Sep 16 Posted Sep 16 Posted Sep 15 Posted Sep 15 Posted Sep 15 Posted Sep 15 The newsletter is available here. You'll see that we're particularly keen to push the events on Oct 8th. We are also encouraging Friends to consider standing for election as trustees. More information and the nomination form are available online. Posted Sep 15 You can still enrol online here, in person at the Book Case (Market St) or at the offices of the Town Council (first floor, Town Hall) or download details and an application form to enrol by post Posted Sep 14 Posted Sep 8 At almost the same time, we've had a letter from the Community Foundation for Calderdale awarding us a £5000 grant. This will be used to purchase new furniture, tables and chairs for the Town Hall. A very big thank you to both organisations for their support and commitment to community life in Hebden Bridge. And there's more: we've also heard that the London-based charity the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation will offer us a £2000 grant, towards the costs involved in creating the new facilities. Thank you to their trustees, too. We have decided that all this merits a press release. Here it is. Posted Sep 8 Sara has already worked with us on the architect appointment process, and we're sure that she will have an enormous amount to contribute to the success of the Town Hall project. Posted Sep 7 Posted Sep 3 But in the end, as is the nature of all of these interview processes, there could only be one successful candidate. We'll be able to let you know who it is very shortly, once all three candidate firms have been contacted and the details agreed, but we can say that we are very excited at the prospect of working with the architects we have chosen, and we think they will do an excellent job for Hebden Bridge. The entries from Dec 2007 until Aug 2009 are now archived. |
message said was that we've been very pleased to have Key Fund's interest in and support for what we're doing here in Hebden Bridge and welcomed the chance to show Garry round the building.
