Around £180,000 has been spent on demolishing a Halifax Landmark. Cow Green Car Park a multi-story car park in Halifax Town Centre has stood empty since 2013, when it was closed on Health and Safety grounds and today has been blown up, 45 years after being built by the former Halifax Borough Council and the Halifax Building Society who “originally leased half of the 500 spaces” according to the Halifax Courier. Also according to this local paper “The site is set to be put on the open market for development.” But will it?
On the 29th January 2016 regeneration plans for Halifax Town Centre and transport improvements were unveiled costing around £41 million. Part of these plans will see the creation of “mini-interchange at the rail station and west of the town centre” as outlined within a report put forward at a meeting of the West Yorkshire & York Investment Committee held on the 20th January 2016. But just where will this ‘West’ interchange be located? As the Western periphery of Halifax Town Centre is heavily developed, although it is possible for the West Yorkshire Combined Authority to acquire land by utilizing Compulsory Purchase Powers at their disposal. This would be very expensive due to the number of orders involved as the majority of sites are too small for such an interchange alone. Furthermore the majority of these sites are occupied by a number of businesses.
Cow Green Car Park, currently under the ownership of Calderdale Council and possibly one of the largest sites when compared to other sites in the area and is directly across the road from George St, a key location for bus services, serving Pellon, Mixenden and along the valley bottom to Hebden Bridge and beyond. This key location is also due to be pedestrianzed as part of this £41million regeneration scheme along with parts of Market St. So is this another ‘Elland Pool’ story? Which was closed and subsequently demolished under claims of ‘Health and Safety’ and coincidently occupied the preferred site for Elland’s new bus station, the site of which is still owned by Calderdale Council and has not been sold off for redevelopment.
The Yorkshire Blogger 