'Open Halifax Town Hall up to public' plea as refurbishment work of iconic Halifax building planned

Councillor Howard Blagbrough (Con, Brighouse) said he hoped consideration was being given to make Grade II* listed Halifax Town Hall – designed by Charles Barry of Westminster fame – more accessible for people to enjoy as part of reconfiguration and refurbishment work.

“At the moment it feels very closed to members of the public and it would be a shame,” he said.

“Whether we could look at something in relation to a mechanism – whether we could look into having a card (entry) on the private rooms, so that members of the public could go into the Victoria Hall, and display that and not go anywhere else?

“I’m very passionate about opening these buildings, ensuring everyone enjoys our heritage.”

Coun Blagbrough said when he was Mayor of Calderdale in 2016-17, a dinner party was held in the town hall and he would like to see more “commercialisation” of the building, though he knew it would need better kitchen facilities and would be a “massive ask”.

“It’s an amazing building, we could make quite a lot of money, I think – but it needs a lot of investment, I appreciate that’s probably way down the line,” he said.

Asset Planning Manager Siobhan Laheney said Halifax Town Hall was the council’s flagship building and commercialisation was an aspect to be looked into.

“We want to be able to utilise the town hall to its absolute full potential for the entire borough,” she said.

Accessibility was an important part of the refurbishment project and the aim was to make it a multi-functional building, she said.

Corporate Asset and Facilities Management lead officer Alan Lee said expectations had to be managed and the idea was to come up with an overall plan for future investment requirements.

“The reality is we haven’t got all the funds that we will require to deliver a comprehensive scheme,” he said.

“We do have ambition but that ambition has to be managed against the resources we have got available.

“Our key priorities are accessibility and we have also got to manage security.”