Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan
Consultation has concluded
The story so far
In 2016, we put forward a long list of transport schemes to include within the West Yorkshire + Transport Fund; ones which could be delivered before 2021 and the ones to be delivered post 2021. The Corridor Improvement Programme centres around improvements around the key corridors on our Key Route Network (KRN) aimed at reducing congestion and improving journey times. The Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan, A62 Leeds Road Smart Corridor and the Huddersfield Southern Gateways (now Corridors) were the 3 schemes Kirklees put forward for funding.
The Holmfirth town centre access plan, led by Kirklees Council, is funded through the West Yorkshire Plus Transport Fund and the Leeds City Region Growth Deal – a £1 billion package of Government investment through the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), delivered by the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to accelerate growth and create jobs across Leeds City Region.
Prior to public engagement on the access plan, a significant amount of work was done to assess the road use and layout in Holmfirth town centre. The area of Holmfirth is unique and provides many challenges to making major alterations to the roads, but the impact of congestion meant consideration for improvements were necessary. The aims of the improvements were to:
- Create a more attractive environment for residents, businesses and visitors
- Ease traffic congestion in Holmfirth
- Improve efficient and journey time reliability for all road users
- Create better access for local residents, workers and businesses owners.
Information was sought and collated from investigations and traffic simulations, looking at where the issues and journey time delays in Holmfirth are. This information was used to develop and test a number of improvement options, which led to development of a preferred access plan option. Details of all the options were presented to the public during the public engagement. The options were:
- Do nothing, leaving the roads as they are
- Low cost intervention, what would be possible outside of the Transport Fund
- Medium cost intervention – the preferred option
- High cost intervention, a scheme if money or land was not restricted
The proposed preferred access plan option included
- Building a new link road between Hollowgate and the A6024, Huddersfield Road
- Changing Victoria Street to one-way in order to reduce traffic flow
- Removing parking bays on Victoria Street to widen footpaths
- Providing two loading bays, and three disabled parking abys on Victoria Street
- Changing a section of Hollowgate to one-way traffic flow
- Banning the right turn from Hollowgate bridge onto the A6024, Huddersfield Road
- Modifying and changing the junction at Victoria Square into a mini roundabout junction
- Upgrading the existing zebra crossings on Victoria Street and Town Gate
- Landscaping, new trees and planting
- Replacing the carriageway, paving, lighting, signs and road markings
Engagement Exercise
From 4 March – 5 April 2019 a public engagement exercise on proposed plans for major road improvements to Holmfirth town centre, was open to the public. During this time residents, road users, businesses and community members were invited to comment on a proposed option of road intervention plans, visit an exhibition of the plans, or attend a drop-in event to meet and discuss the plans with Kirklees Council officers.
The first draft plans of all the options for the proposed improvements, were presented during the public engagement period for feedback on the preferred proposal and general comments on wider issues and areas for consideration.
Engagement events
An exhibition display was available for the public to visit for the duration of the engagement period (4 March – 5 April 2019). This was hosted at both Holmfirth and Huddersfield Library’s as accessible town centre locations.
In total over the duration of the engagement exercise approximately over 2,500 respondents participated: 1923 completed surveys, of which 474 were submitted in paper format, 1 petition with 553 signatories, 4 letters, 2 stakeholder reports and 114 emails were received. 6,680 unique visits were made to the engagement website, and engagement via Kirklees Council’s social media and communication channels meant that close to 84,000 individuals were potentially reached about the activity. There were over 9,000 visits to the engagement website to learn about the scheme during the duration of the engagement.
Analysis
The results of the public engagement exercise have been presented in full. You can view these in the documents library section of this website, or download a copy by clicking here (opens in a new tab).
Headline results
Overall the majority of respondents did not agree that the preferred town centre access plan proposal would achieve the aims:
- Four fifths of respondents disagreed (81.3%)
- Out of this, the highest proportion strongly disagreed (61%)
- Only around a tenth of respondents agreed (13%)
Conclusion
Without the backing of local residents and businesses clearly there is no possibility of delivering the Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan in its current format. Having listened to the issues raised at the engagement events, a different scheme which would still reduce journey times and increase capacity, alongside improvements to public realm and the aspirations of the Neighbourhood Plan is being developed.
Next Steps
As a result of the outcome of the public consultation Kirklees Council reconsidered the plans for Holmfirth. A revised scheme has been developed, informed by responses received. Revised plans were published in September 2019 and presented back for public engagement. This engagement has now ended and the response is being analysed. We recommend you sign-up to this page to be kept informed with progress on the Holmfirth Town Centre Access Plan.
You can view the previous stages of public engagement by clicking on the appropriate link below:
