There appeared to be unanimous support for the idea of introducing some sort of "Museum" element into the development.

Many people associate the word with fuddy duddy exhibits in darkened rooms but we all had in mind something much more lively and interesting.

The important thing is to celebrate the Piece Hall itself and to explain how it came to be.

It is the last in tact cloth hall in West Yorkshire and thus becomes the perfect place to remember and understand the hugely important history of the textile industry which shaped our towns, villages and the rugged Pennine landscape itself.

Museums are not just about the past and we should be celebrating and displaying exciting new developments and artistic work in textiles alongside interpretation of the past with changing exhibitions and workshops.

We already have the skills and expertise at Bankfield but a town centre site alongside the Piece Hall would be absolutely appropriate and attract many visitors.

Many of us felt that Piece Hall and the surrounding area should become the cultural hub of Halifax, open in the evenings with places to relax, eat, drink and be informally entertained. Square Chapel already have plans to expand and build an extension linking it to Piece Hall and could become one of the first of these "satelite" connections.

My personal vision would include a visitor centre/museum on the site of the old Square Church, which could be a marvellous building fusing the old spire and remaining walls with a state-of-the-art modern structure and even encorporating the much-discussed fourth gateway into Piece Hall. It is desperately sad to see this site constantly vandalised with unsightly broken fences all round and equally distressing to have the old industrial museum sitting there sad and unused.

We now have a chance to tackle this area and to exploit the really extraordinary architectural gem that is the Piece Hall. The Heritage Lottery have indicated that they would support such a scheme and they would certainly be looking for a museum element and interpretation to be included. At last there is a real opportunity to develop this abandoned area and it really MUST be siezed.

I must stress that these are essentially my own personal thoughts but I think they reflect many of the ideas expressed at the Town Team meeting and beyond and are a good basis for further discussion.