Resident's 'heartbreak' after Yorkshire trees felled outside market

Last week, some Kirklees residents expressed their anger after seeing that trees had been cut down outside of Huddersfield’s Queensgate Market. This comes as the council gets ready to begin the delivery of the Our Cultural Heart scheme this Summer.

The matter was discussed at Tuesday’s (Feb 20) Cabinet meeting, where a question was raised by Lindley ward councillor, Coun Adam Gregg.

He told the meeting he’d been contacted by a resident who expressed their “heartbreak” at the tree felling, and asked cabinet member for finance and regeneration, Coun Graham Turner, if there are plans to remove trees on Queen Street.

Coun Turner replied: “Those trees that were removed were part of the granted planning permission. It was always well-known that those trees would be removed. We went down there last Monday (February 12) in broad daylight – we didn’t do like some councils do in the dead of night or secretly – we went in full view of the public and took the trees down.”

Coun Turner went on to explain that the trees were “graded very low” and likely to have needed cutting down in the near future. He also highlighted that the “wonderful ceramics” by German sculptor Fritz Steller are now much more visible on the outside of the market.

As for Queen Street, he said: “Queen Street is not yet decided because we have yet to decide what we’re going to do with that part of the site – there’ll be further planning applications no doubt in the future as we decide what to do with that part of the site.

“As I say, we took them in full view of the public, everybody knew we were going to do it and when we’ve finished the Cultural Heart, there will be a significant net increase of trees. We won’t be planting whips. They are mature trees that are already in the pipeline to be planted.

“So actually we will gain when we’ve finished the project, so it’s a positive win-win for everybody – economic growth for Kirklees, Cabinet investing in Kirklees and we get more green space.”

A plot at Queen Street was originally set to house the new art gallery, but financial difficulties saw a new plan develop, housing the new gallery and a museum in the former library building at Princess Alexandra Walk. This freed up the Queen Street plot with its purpose yet to be determined.

The council had previously been in talks with Greenhead College about using the site for a new Science Technology English and Maths (STEM) block, but the college missed out on government funding. Alternative funding avenues are being explored but if these can’t be found, the site could be used for a hotel or housing.

However, Queen Street features in the later phase of construction, along with the urban park, museum and gallery, live entertainment venue, and 350-space car park. Before this is Phase One which is based around the major refurbishment of Queensgate Market.

This initial phase will see a food hall brought to the market building and a new, glass-fronted library in the east wing of the same building. Both will feed out onto a public square. Economic constraints recently saw an events space axed from the upper floor of the library.

The construction of Phase One is due to be finished in late 2025, with the other elements of the scheme to be delivered between 2026 and 2030.