This was published last week: the High Court Judge dismissed the application by the site owners to set aside the Planning Inspector’s decision to refuse the appeal against refusal of planning permission to build a Sainsbury’s supermarket and flats on this site.

So I hope that, at last, it may be possible to start to plan positively for the future use of this important empty site in the middle of the town, between the Council’s car park (which currently has the market on it two days/week), the Health Centre and the Post Office Telephone Exchange.

This decision should confirm that it really isn’t possible to use this site for purpose that generates a lot of heavy traffic. I was sitting in a nearby house recently watching a large lorry trying to manoeuvre around the corner of the road. It just isn’t right to put any more lorries onto that road.

The local Town and Parish Councils are working on the Neighbourhood Plan and Calderdale Council is finalising its site allocations for the Local Plan. I’m hoping that a worthwhile use that will benefit the community will be found for this site

So what I’m doing next: today I’m talking with UCVR/Business Forum about what needs to be done to help shops and businesses badly affected by the floods get back on their feet.

As the Coouncil reopens and staff come back to work, I’m going to make certain that my list of things to start to get done is put intoo action. I’m concerned about the impact of flooding in certain areas of my ward: I’ve already emailed the Council (largely Highways) about these. I’m asking that parking charges be suspended in areas affected by flooding and I want to make sure that happens. I’m checking that the markets will take place this week especially in Hebden Bridge (there was a market in Todmorden yestedya). Hebden Bridge has also not got any working cash dispensers and something needs to be done about that.

I’m going to continue to walk and drive around my ward: I’ve heard from a resident of Old Town and want to check whether there’s a landslide on Heights Road.

Here we go again but there are some differences to 2012. It seems to be more localised and more serious. The centre of Hebden Bridge was devastated as were some other areas along the bottom of the valley. My son was trying to get home (with his family) on Boxing Day and took some mobile phone video footage of the volume and speed of water coming over the road and down the canal by the Golden Lion in the middle of Todmorden. On Sunday, I struggled to get along the valley road to go to a meeting about the flooding.

People have been brilliant. The community has come together but it’s still heartbreaking to see houses that were flooded in 2012, flooded again. This time we know how long it’s likely to take to get their houses habitable again.

And then there’s the shops and businesses, especially in Hebden Bridge and Mytholmroyd. The tide mark on the shops along Market St is at least twice as high as their floodboards in the doors. But they’ve cleaned out quickly and have started to put the buildings to rights. The question is what help they need to begin to trade again. From 2012, we’ve begun to get Business Forums going in each area and we need to build on this. I’d like to see some local capacity in this, some real help that doesn’t depend on busy business people having to do it all themselves. I hope that they’ll be open by Easter.

The Council (together with the Environment Agency, Yorkshire Water, Canal and Rivers Trust and Network Rail) now has to get down to the serious business of examining what happened and what’s needed to not only repair the damage but also give us more protection against future events like this. And taking climate change seriously has to be part of it, in my opinion.

And what if local people don’t want one ? And what about the villages ?

At the Cabinet meeting on Monday, Labour decided to set up Development Boards in towns in Calderdale, having tried it out in Todmorden. They haven’t evaluated the one in Todmorden so they haven’t learned lessons from it. It has only recently had four non-Councillors become Board members and meetings aren’t open to the public. Minutes are sometimes slow to be published so people don’t know what’s going on.

Most places have some form of local community group which brings interested people together to talk about and plan services. Sometimes it’s through the Parish Council (as in Heptonstall and Blackshawhead), or a broader but formal Partnership (as in Hebden Bridge, Mytholmroyd and Elland). Invariably, the public are welcome to attend, participate in and contribute to the meetings. Labour cited the lack of such a group in Halifax (although I thought that there was a “town team” there) but this is no reason for imposing their model everywhere. They say it’s flexible but there seems to be no means of negotiating it. They don’t seem to be reviewing what there is already so there could be a real risk of duplication (and nobody quite knowing who’s doing what). Recipe for a muddle and a mess !

There seems to be no thought given to villages – and even where there’s no Parish Council or formal community group, there are usually things happening and their own, local version of a village plan which could evolve into a Neighbourhood Plan.

So while there is undoubtedly the germ of a good idea here, it needs more thinking through. But Labour took it straight to Cabinet and the discussion there almost turned into a Scrutiny Panel discussion – and that’s where we hope to take it !

Labour confirmed at tonight’s meeting that the Council won’t be producing any more newsletters… so how are local people to know what the Council is (or isn’t) doing ? They also won’t be publishing Councillor attendance on the Council website and there was fairly low attendance at tonight’s meeting (but it is half-term).

Regrettably, the Town Clerk has decided to resign with effect from April 2016 (after 16 years service) so an appointment panel has been set up but they will take the appointment decision (unlike higher-level Councils where the final decision of the appointment of a new Chief Executive is taken by full Council).

At last the Town Council is making progress with developing a Neighbourhood Plan but Labour decided that there will be no LibDem representation on the Steering group, although it’s good to see the inclusion of many community groups. There is some progress with the Council nominating Rose St as a community asset to Calderdale Council. The decision appears to have been delegated to the Development Committee at its meeting next week.

For years, I’ve been concerned about developers trying to build on every bit of open land in Hebden Bridge. Whilst using previously developed “brownfield” sites to build the shops and employment space that we need, the Council (in giving planning permission) and developers do need to think about the impact on surrounding buildings and facilities.

A small plot of land, partly over the river, at the top end of Valley Road at the back of Hebden Bridge is a prime example of this. There was part of an old mill there but it’s now between a quiet cul-de-sac of houses, a children’s playground, and a new block of sheltered housing for older people. Not the place to build. That’s what we argued in the Planning Committee. The residents of the houses spoke out about the impact on them – the access will be through part of their road. I urged the developers to meet with them to work out the best deal both for the building period and so that the eventual occupiers become good neighbours.

And in Planning Committee, I expressed my concerns about the impact on the playground. Not a problem, said the developer. And then the next thing that I heard was from Council Officers asking for endorsement of plans they were agreeing with the developers to fence off part of the playground, remove equipment and pay what seemed to be a derisory sum of money in compensation – so the building work could begin. “It’s for Health and Safety” say the developer. Not good enough ! this shouldn’t be happening. The Little Park playground is a valued local service – parents, children and the Councils put a lot of time, thought, effort and money into renovating this important local service which is the only play area for most of the children in that part of Hebden Bridge, populated by terraced housing, much of which doesn’t even have a back yard ! The developers shouldn’t be doing this at all.

Really interesting workshop yesterday. One of those sessions that makes you go away thinking about it – a “wicked” problem requiring a “messy” solution but 8,595 children in Calderdale are not realising their potential. Various things are happening – notably we’ve had over £10m Pupil Premium since 2010 (and I’m proud to say that this is an achievement of Liberal Democrats in government) into Calderdale schools and we’re learning what has most impact on helping children’s attainment. Jim Davis from the Children’s Society told us that children are worried about “fitting in”, feeling that they belong just like any other child. So what can we do about it ?

just a few of the things that I’ve been doing so far this week …..

Markets Working Group: Whilst we had a productive meeting last week to finetune (I hope) the plans to move the market in Hebden Bridge, we had a meeting of the Calderdale Council markets group this week. What’s most important is getting the vision and the strategy in place to shape and guide what we want to do. Calderdale is a place of market towns (from Todmorden to Brighouse). While we’ve got to repair and update the market in Todmorden, we’ve also got to do some serious work to Borough market in Halifax which is a beautiful building whose potential is not realised to the full.

BEST group links local businesses with the Council: The new Principal of Calderdale College talked us through their emerging plans to develop the College in its important role of developing the skills primarily of our young people. There’s a seminar planned with UKTI, the government body that supports businesses wanting to export but an exciting piece of information was that 31 companies have benefitted so far from the Export support fund that we, the Liberal Democrats on Calderdale Council, set up through the Council’s budget.

Children and Young People’s Scrutiny Panel: It’s pleasing to hear that our children’s social care services are now improving to the point where it’s very likely that the Improvement Notice (issued by the government) will be lifted. That’s taken over 6 years of hard work (since the Conservatives ran the Council with Craig Whitaker as Lead Member for Children’s Services).

Well-attended and good to see so many local business/shop- people in Todmorden Town Hall early on a Wednesday morning. The big topic was a presentation by Calderdale Council’s tourism officer about the idea of a another/larger hotel in Todmorden. Establishing the need for this is critical to encourage interest from hotel companies. There’s about 100 bedspaces of various types (current small hotel, Band Bs, hostel and campsites etc) but without a sizeable hotel, we’re unlikely to get visitors, conferences etc on any scale. Undoubtedly there are potential sites around the town centre !

At the recent Town Parish Council Conference, there was an interesting presentation by Calderdale Council’s Highways office about their work. So I asked the question about gritting – essential to make sure that we can get about in the winter months (however long that lasts). The answer was that this year’s service will be as before but the standard (and cost) is higher here than in many places – approx 2/3rds of the road are gritted here – so the Council is planning on reviewing it.

So I went to the Economy and Environment Scrutiny Panel last night to speak out for us – a review is planned (last done in 2008/9) but it’s essential that our needs are taken into account. So watch this space and be ready to respond.

I also asked about the salt barn (a large barn to contain and protect the Council’s pile of salt and grit). Not much from the sound of it – caught up in the Council’s Review of depots. Watch this space, too.