Priorities

Housing

What are the issues?

• Overcrowding and shortage of family homes
• Poor housing conditions – expensive to heat, disrepair
• Too many empty houses

What can the Plan do?

Directly, the main thing we want to do is to increase the amount of land available for new housing. Especially around the Queens Road/Gibbet Street area in the centre of the neighbourhood where there are large sites with mostly derelict and empty factories. This land needs to be re-zoned so some of it can be developed for family housing.

We also want to relax planning restrictions to enable more people to extend their homes to accommodate their families – both through attics with dormer windows and through rear extensions. But we need some design guidelines to make sure the appearance is satisfactory.

Indirectly, we want the plan to kick start a discussion with residents, landlords, developers and property owners about other solutions to housing problems including energy efficiency, community housing schemes and ensuring empty houses are brought quickly back into use.

Do you agree? Do you have other suggestions? Contact us to let us know

Open Spaces

What are the issues?

• Not enough open space or space for kids to play safely
• Lack of private gardens in most of the area
• No large open space for sports, dog walking and exercise in the north side of the area

What can the Plan do?

First, we want the plan to protect the open spaces we do have – and we need to know which ones you think are the most important.

Second, we want to ensure that any new development includes provision for gardens and community spaces

Third, we want to re-zone the Shroggs Tip area north of Pellon Lane from employment into a large open space for a wide variety of uses. A big space like this will complement the two lovely parks we have in the south (People’s Park) and west (West View Park)with an area in the north of the neighbourhood which will also serve the Ovenden area.

Do you agree? Do you have other suggestions? Contact us to let us know

Getting About

What are the issues?

• We have a street pattern that was created over a hundred years ago and is not suitable for modern traffic conditions or pedestrians
• The “streetscene” in Park Ward is dull and often unsightly – with a few exceptions
• Although most of the neighbourhood is a short walk from the town centre, the walking routes into town are unpleasant and often don’t feel safe

What can the Plan do?

Our top priority is to create one or more great walking links into the town but we’re not sure what is the best way to do this. Should some existing roads be closed to traffic? Or narrowed with wider pavements and trees/planting, benches etc. to improve the environment? Should there be one main walking route into town or should there be several which are shared between cars and pedestrians?

We also wonder whether some streets could be turned into play streets – but we know this is going to be controversial! The same applies to restricting parking, pedestrian crossings and introducing one way systems.

Of all the aspects of the plan so far this is the one we feel least sure about. WE NEED YOUR VIEWS!

Do you agree? Do you have other suggestions? Contact us to let us know

Shopping Areas – King Cross & Queens Road

What are the issues?

• Parking can be a problem for the King Cross shops
• Too many takeaways
• No real sense of identity for either area – haven’t found a new role to deal with the challenges of big supermarkets
• No bus service along Queens Road
• Shops on Queens Road are dispersed through a long stretch of road

What can the Plan do?

Directly, not a great deal but we can have some control over the kind of uses which are permitted when an owner wants to change the use from one type of commercial premises to another.

Indirectly, we want the plan to kick start a discussion with shopkeepers, businesses, residents and the Council about where King Cross and Queens Road should be headed and to encourage the kind of investment that will benefit the area. In particular, our vision is that:

• King Cross could become the “ethnic kitchen and dining room for Halifax”, with a variety of places to eat and specialist food shops – as well as other kinds of business of course
• Queens Road could be a centre for ethnic clothing and jewellery shops, as well as a hub for community services. There would be a local bus route the length of Queens Road

Do you agree? Do you have other suggestions? Contact us to let us know