A controversial development on Castle Hill may be moving a step nearer with the developers applying for a vital consent needed to build on the ancient site.

Permission was granted on February 10 2022, to build a single-storey above ground restaurant/café/bar including six en-suite bedrooms, public toilets and an exhibition centre about Castle Hill’s history stretching back 4,000 years.

The building – variously described as a much-needed facility, a monstrosity or as looking like a branch of McDonald’s – has been at the centre of an ongoing debate ever since.

But the planning permission only runs for three years so work needs to start by February 10 next year.

With time running out, some groups objecting to the plan believed developers the Thandi Partnership, run by Huddersfield brothers Mick and Barry Thandi, had not applied for Scheduled Monument Consent which Historic England manages on behalf of the Government.

Huddersfield Hub can exclusively reveal that the application for Scheduled Monument Consent has recently been submitted so a decision should be made before the permission deadline runs out.

A spokesman for Historic England said: “Castle Hill is a nationally important Scheduled Monument on account of its prehistoric origins, later modification with a castle and as the site of a medieval planned settlement. The later Victoria Tower is also a Grade II listed building.

“Any development on the site would require planning permission from Kirklees Council and also Scheduled Monument Consent which is administered by Historic England and granted by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

“Historic England is aware that planning permission has been granted, on which we provided comment. We have received a Scheduled Monument Consent submission and are in the early stages of considering this, in line with our usual statutory processes and timeframes.”

 

How the Castle Hill development could look next to Victoria Tower. Credit: One 17 Architects and Interior Designers.

 

In its earlier comments Historic England said more work needed doing on the application’s heritage statement regarding the “archaeological significance and potential of the application site.”

It added: “The public benefit aspect of the proposal remains unclear and unsubstantiated.”

Several groups object to the plan including Huddersfield Civic Society and Huddersfield & District Archaeological Society.

In assessing applications, Historic England says the Secretary of State aims to ensure that the significance of protected sites is safeguarded for the long term.

Historic England stresses that written consent must always be obtained before any work on a scheduled monument can begin, adding that: “Scheduled Monument Consent cannot be given retrospectively and undertaking works before consent has been given is a criminal offence.”

When the planning permission was given the go-ahead in 2022, Kirklees Council imposed 30 conditions.

These included that weddings or other events are banned without written permission from the council and people must book online first before going for a drink or meal at the venue, they can’t just walk in.

At weekends no more than 70 people will be allowed at the venue at any one time and coaches are banned from Castle Hill on Saturdays and Sundays. The venue must close by 11pm.

The council also insists that the toilets and interpretation room must open before the rest of the venue can begin to operate.

The history of Castle Hill stretches back 4,000 years. It began as an Iron Age hill fort before becoming a Norman castle and then a medieval hunting lodge. Victoria Tower – built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee of 1897 and finished in 1899 – is in green belt and can be seen for miles.

It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument and a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSI) in recognition of the range and variety of its flora and fauna.

 

 

A pub/hotel on Castle Hill was acquired by the Thandi brothers in the 1990s with plans to refurbish the building and remove later additions which had disfigured the building. Planning approval was given in 2002 but during the course of demolition works the tower became unstable.

Permission was granted to replace the original building but as construction progressed it became clear that the new building was larger than that for which permission had been granted. Work on the site was stopped.

Subsequently, an order was served for the demolition of the building. Since then, the Thandis have submitted several new plans but these were all rejected until the present application was approved.

The Thandi Partnership are leaseholders on the site as Castle Hill remains part of the Ramsden Estate which was bought by Huddersfield Corporation in 1920.

The planning agent for the Thandi Partnership was sent several questions by Huddersfield Hub but has not responded.

Written by ANDY HIRST who runs his own Yorkshire freelance journalism agency AH! PR (https://ah-pr.com/) specialising in press releases, blogging, website content, copywriting and ghost-writing autobiographies.

 

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