A leading councillor is calling on Kirklees Council to ensure damage to newly-laid paving in Huddersfield town centre is repaired without further delay – and that lessons are learned for the future.
Just a short time after new paving was laid in New Street, part of it had to be dug up by Northern Powergrid contractors for emergency repair works.
This was several months ago and the paving was replaced with tarmac with the word ‘temp’ painted on top.
Kirklees Council invested hundreds of thousands of pounds turning New Street into a ‘green street’ complete with three 40ft tall planters.
The finishing touch to the street was poetry embossed on stone and installed in the paving.
The council commissioned Marsden-born Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to compose the poetry, which has a Huddersfield theme.
The emergency works caused damage to some of the poetry stone too.
Clr John Taylor, who has just become leader of the Conservative group on Kirklees Council, said he’d reported the damage to the council months ago but nothing had been done.
“These ‘street scars’ have been there for a number of months now,” he said. “I have been challenging officers as to why this has not been repaired properly.
“There are a number of issues here. The council should have been clear with the contractors, before they were given permission to undertake the work, that they would be required to reinstate it as it was.
“The contractor could have carefully removed the paving and stored it and then re-instated it. This process should have been set out and agreed before any work was undertaken.
“It seems like no one had thought about the consequences of when someone would want to dig up New Street when they commissioned the original works.
“Now it seems that there are ‘on-going’ discussions with the contractors and the utility company which seem to have been allowed to go on for months.
“It is not clear who, if anyone, at the council is taking clear ownership of getting the matter resolved.
Clr John Taylor who has just been re-elected in Kirkburton
“All senior officers and members of the former Labour administration will have walked past this many times but no one cares enough about our town centre to have tried to find out why it was being left like that.
“I am hoping that by raising the issue and making the public more aware of the poor maintenance of our town centre that someone might finally take some ownership and make sure that the repairs are done.”
In response, a Kirklees Council spokesperson said: “Unfortunately, after the paving on New Street in Huddersfield was put in place, Northern Powergrid required emergency access to carry out repair works which were unavoidable and essential to ensure public safety.
“The current repair is temporary and means the area remains safe for pedestrians.
“We are currently working with Northern Powergrid to complete the repairs with the approved materials as soon as possible.”
