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Date set to unveil plans for new hall: Aim is to complement town's meeting areas
PLANS to create a 200-seater hall for parties, dinners and public performances are about to be unveiled.
The aim is to provide a replacement for Hebden Bridge Civic and Co-operative Halls, which closed years ago.
Hebden Bridge Community Association expects to spend about 4 million on the new riverside building which will occupy the Garden Square car park, opposite the town's old health centre.
"We believe that our plans will give our community some of the facilities that are currently missing," said trustee Karen Houghton.
"We want to complement and not compete with the existing meeting spaces and meeting rooms in the town."
The community association was recently given the backing of Calderdale Council to take over and redevelop Hebden Bridge Council Offices.
Proposals for the car park and new community facilities will be unveiled on Saturday February 13, at an event in the newly named Town Hall 11am – 1.30pm.
"This is a major development which will still be here in 50 and perhaps even a 100 years," said Ms Houghton.
"But we have to be sure that what we are planning is what the town needs and that the architectural design is first-class, adding to the beauty of our town and not detracting from it."
The development will also include an enterprise centre designed for small businesses particularly involved in creative and digital work, as well as secondary rooms and meeting space.
Architects Bauman Lyons will provide more details at the open day but the hall will be built onto the end of the Town Hall with a new entrance foyer and atrium linking them.
The trustees hope that the new development will be funded partly through grants from Community Builders, and the European Union, although there will also be a need to raise significant money locally.
The association has already been in talks with both and has been awarded 75,000 to develop a business plan and architects' drawings.
If the two proposed funding bids are successful, planning permission could be sought as early as this spring, with building starting next year.
The completed facilities would be available for use from 2012.
More news from the town in our Hebden Bridge community section
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Weather for Halifax
Thursday 09 February 2012
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Light snow
Temperature: -0 C to 1 C
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