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January 2016
Historic building set to be brought back to life By Nicola Hyde
A DERELICT section of a Meltham building will be brought back into community use thanks to a funding boon worth almost £250,000. Kirklees Council handed the once-abandoned Carlile Institute to a team of locals in 2014 after a year-long battle to save it. But the poor state of the building has meant that only half of it has been brought into use so far – as office space, meeting space and post office. The £238,001 grant from Power to Change will mean the building can now be completely refurbished and that the initial business plan for the building can finally be realised – it will offer a space
for everything from meetings and parties to dance lessons and clubs. Disabled access will be provided for the first time in the building’s 125-year history. Community volunteer Richard Noon said: “We’ve only been using about half of the building’s floor space because the rest was just frankly horrific. “We are talking years of neglect and underfunding – everything leaked, even the windows, there was little to no heating and when you did have it on it’s very expensive to run because it’s so old. “We’ve been making do and mending with the parts of the building we could use – we’ve had an over 70s luncheon club on cold winter days
with water coming in through the freezing windows which isn’t that fantastic is it?” The Trustees have been working for almost six months on the grant funding bid and now the former Mechanics Institute at the rear of the building will be completely refurbished. There will be publicly accessible toilets on the ground floor for the first time since the former toilet block on Clarke Lane was closed. There will also be a phase of work to introduce a new mezzanine floor which will house the library’s IT centre, a relaxation nook and an informal meeting space. Richard was one of the driving forces behind the campaign to bring the building back to life – he first got
involved in the campaign in 2013. He added: “It was becoming an eyesore – something had to be done. “We sat in the pub and sketched out ideas on the back of a beer mat – it’s hard to believe that we’re now at this stage. “This grant shows we are a good bet. The library is moving in and now community groups have somewhere warm and inviting to go to. “Certainly by summer we should start to see the building used for the community like we always wanted it to be.” Now, they are working to become a charitable organisation which will allow it to access further funding and tax relief.
A runner who owes his life to Huddersfield's A&E department has organised a protest run to try to save the facility from closure. Holmfirth Harriers runner, Sean Doyle suffered two heart attacks whilst taking part in Huddersfield’s Park Run last year, leaving him with a six per cent chance of survival. The proposals to close Huddersfield’s emergency department were leaked at the end of January – it means patients needing urgent care will be sent to Halifax instead. See page 3 for more.
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