Kirklees Council is to CLOSE Cleckheaton Town Hall at the end of August.

This is devastating news for all the community and cultural groups who use the hall. These include: the U3A who have over 500 members, the Spenborough Amateur and Dramatic Society which uses the main hall for two weeks each year for their productions; the junior society of the Spen Amateurs who put on their own shows; the Heckmondwike Players; various dance groups, and, of course, the famous Cleckheaton Folk Festival.

Meanwhile, the Council have no plans for repairing the ceilings in the main hall.

In July 2022 a piece of the ceiling above the stage fell to the floor. The Council were quickly informed and eventually scaffolding was erected on the stage to inspect the state of the ceiling. There were then concerns about the ceiling over the whole of the main hall. Nothing else has been done to repair the ceiling.

The result is that the wonderful Folk Festival was cancelled. Booked shows were moved to other town halls. Now the Council says Town Hall is to be closed until further notice.

Cleckheaton ward councillors have had meetings with senior council officers in the town hall to get some action. We have spoken with the Chief Executive and senior directors, we have emailed our concerns to senior directors.

The outcome is that we don't think the Labour run Council has any plans to quickly repair and re-open our Town Hall.

We have a paper petition circulating in town which has nearly 1,000 signatures so far.

Cllr Andrew Pinnock also helped organise deputations from the Folk Festival and from the Spenborough Amateurs to the Full Council meeting on July 12.

The campaign goes on until we get our lovely Town Hall fully repaired.