I’ve missed a couple of meetings because they’ve been at the same time as Calderdale Council’s Flood Commission of which I’m a member and that’s important to us in the valley. But this week I made certain that I attended the Town Council Development Committee. Some important issues:

Highways: a Calderdale Council Officer was present to talk about Highways issues (I’d hoped that I could ask about current status of bus and train services but that’s for another time, apparently). First, some residents asked about what sounds like inconsiderate parking by train users on roads round the corner from the station when the station carpark is full. Understandably, they were upset by this but it sounds as though Calderdale can help immediately with some “H” marks for entrances to drives etc while they start the process of getting yellow lines. Then a number of Councillors asked questions about parking, state of the roads, speeding and 20mph limit,  etc.

Planning applications: Several from people wanting to build small extensions for new kitchens onto the back of houses that have been flooded. I’ll encourage planners to make certain that they expedite them (but doing the process properly, of course).

Petition to give Local Councils the right to appeal planning decisions: Letter from the Yorkshire Local Councils Association seeking support for this. It’s always seemed to me to be unfair that applicants (for planning permission) can appeal but nobody else can. I shall be supporting this !

Neighbourhood Plan: Initial public drop-in  workshops have been arranged for this on Saturdays, each runs from 10am to 3.30pm:12th March: Fielden Centre; 19th March: St Peter’s Primary School, Walsden; 2nd April: The Old Library, Cornholme, 9th April: Town Hall