Steve Gaunt Pontificates

Old Mill Buildings Part 2

On the face of it, I was wrong, look around Huddersfield and you can see the good use being put to all those old mill buildings that I advocated knocking down.
Lots of living space for the upwardly mobile, says the Examiner
Lots of places for the new people who will be working in all the new industrial and commercial units being built along Leeds Road. The Examiner headline read "A jobs bonanza for Huddersfield".

But wait a minute, lets get a grip of reality here and consider a few facts. First of all lets look at the new workplaces being built, it took me a while to stop laughing when I read the council are inviting all the bosses of Kirklees businesses (with more than 25 employees) to a meeting, where they will be asked to consider improving their terms of employment, so that they can complete with all the new business that will come into Huddersfield.

Well so far only one new building on Leeds Road (except for Mamas and Papas who were here already) has been pre let, and that is to a warehouse company, so it will be almost entirely automated and employ only a handful of people.

I know of one company with premises in Leeds and Huddersfield, who when considering combining there two factories, decided to move everything to Huddersfield and why?
Not because they wanted to take advantage of the local infrastructure but because they knew they could get away with paying minimal wages. Certainly none of those companys employees will be living in the new "luxury" apartments in the old mills.

Let me talk about the standard of luxury for a moment, Well every restored mill building I have ever visited still has the aroma of sheep grease brought about from a 100 years or so of soaking in that substance.

The flats in Brighouse so enthusiastically described on the TV seemed very small a vertical ladder to a sleeping platform. Hardly room to pan the camera around.

Most telling, and this can be applied to both the TV and the Examiner article was a lack of actual comment from the flat dwellers. We are told that these flats are so popular that many are already let, but where were the interviews with the happy yuppies. They were conspicuously absent.

Perhaps the truth is, why would anyone want to live in cramped smelly little flats in a town miles from where they work, with what can only be described as an appalling transport infrastructure, and no prospects of getting decent well paid job closer to where they live in the future?
The real reason for this rush to convert into flats, dare I say it might not be for the benefit of the tenants, but rather for the benefit of the owners?
Look at how many flats they intend to cram in and how small they are.

It is not just mill conversions that are suspect. Take for example the new buildings built near the university for the benefit of students, those residing in the new flats at the Wakefield Road end of Firth Street, have found themselves without the amenities they were promised.
Why were they built so much closer to the road than the factory buildings they replaced? How was planning permission obtained?

At the other end of Firth Street, the renovators still have not removed the scaffolding from the end where the stone window ledges were displaced by several inches either side of a crack running almost the height of the building.
Why?
Has the subsidence that caused the crack suddenly stopped?
Just around the corner the Oxfam warehouse is robbed on an almost daily basis and an appalling mess is left behind. Will this stop when these flats are opened?
Will the almost weekly attacks on people crossing the nearby footbridge stop?
Will people be able to leave their cars on Queen St South overnight and expect to find the windows intact the following morning

So why is all this conversion and building work being sanctioned?
As is usual with many of the decisions taken locally you have to suspect motives.

There is a lot we need to put right before enticing people to come and live in Huddersfield with outlandish claims about the town.Don’t get me wrong I believe in Huddersfield, and it can be made into a nice place to live, but simply letting profiteering property companies build lots of expensive, unwanted, Nuevo high rise housing may not be the right way to go about it.

As for my ideas, that may well be the subject of a future pontification

Your views on Steve pontificates.
I would be a hypocrite if I didn't allow any replies to my pontifications so if you want to contribute send your piece to steve_gaunt@huddersfield1.co.uk

Introduction	Local Transport
Old Mill Buildings	Old Mill Buildings 2
Jobs For Over 40's	The University Page
Kirklees Roads - Part 2	The Euro Debate
The UK Drugs Debate	Music Snobs
Aunty Beeb	Desert Island Disks
Fashion	The Internet
Response From Steve