Huddersfield Open Market: Council warned plans for Yorkshire market 'could do more harm than good'

Same Skies wants the local authority to address a number of points around the £16.5m plans that would see a revamped traditional market, wider food and drink offering and an events space with a stage and screen brought to the Northumberland Street site.

The council’s recently published designs also include a ‘Market Yard’ with demountable stalls and space for events to be held. Here, there would also be “affordable” workspaces for local makers and entrepreneurs to rent whose goods could then be sold on the market.

Same Skies says it supports investment in the open market and surrounding area in principle but wants the council to carry out its tests before pressing ahead to make sure the plans are the best option for the town. These come as a series of “common sense” questions including:

• What evidence did the council find to demonstrate that their plans will not lead to a loss of footfall?
• Can the council show how they recognised this as a strength of the current open market and show how they took account of preserving this existing diversity in drawing up their plans?
• What evidence has the council found to show that its plans will lead to more jobs than are currently supported?
• What evidence did the council find of demand for the business incubator spaces and support that it is proposing and how will it guard against unfair use of public funds to undercut existing providers?

The organisation also wants to see the five to ten-year financial projections for how the market’s event spaces will be filled, and how the council has considered the benefits of the existing second-hand market considering the cost of living crisis and climate emergency in its plans going forward.

Andrew Wilson, co-director of the think tank and Huddersfield resident said: “The answers should already be in a folder on somebody’s desktop in the Civic Centre and available at five minute’s notice.”

He added: “The open market definitely needs some TLC but it is the most successful part of the town centre at the moment. The place is rammed on a Saturday afternoon and it has some of the best street food in West Yorkshire.

“Any improvements should build on what is already there, and tread very carefully so as not to do more harm than good for the town.”

The council will be launching a consultation on its plans for the market later this year to allow members of the public, residents, businesses and visitors to the town to comment. It is intended that construction work will begin in 2025.