Here's how people voted in an online poll for a Brighouse Town Council

Following an online poll, residents have rejected the idea of introducing a Town Council to cover the Brighouse area.
Here's how people voted in an online poll for a Brighouse Town CouncilHere's how people voted in an online poll for a Brighouse Town Council
Here's how people voted in an online poll for a Brighouse Town Council

Councillors spanning across Brighouse, Rastrick and Hipperholme, in conjunction with Craig Whittaker MP, set up an online poll and have distributed surveys across the area to ask the views of residents on the idea of establishing a Town Council for Brighouse.

There were 84 no votes compared to 154 who voted yes. A total of 237 said they were unsure.

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After evaluating the results of the online poll and the surveys, which was completed by 575 residents, councillors found that only 27 per cent of respondents supported setting up a Town Council with 73 per cent of residents stating that they didn’t support the idea or were unsure about it.

Councillor Scott Benton (Brighouse, Con), said: "There are arguments both for and against having a Town Council for Brighouse and we said that we would listen to the views of local people on this issue before taking a firm view.

"Many residents have stated that they are concerned about the increase in their Council Tax that a Town Council would create.

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"Residents also stated that a Town Council would not make much of a difference on the big issues affecting Brighouse such as the plans for 4000 new houses, and the imposition of on-street parking charges because Calderdale Council would still have the final say on big issues such as this.

"Although people like the idea of having more local democracy I think that they were put off the idea when they learnt that the powers which the Town Council could have were very limited."

Coun David Kirton (Hipp & Light, Con) said: "In light of the views expressed by residents in our survey, we don’t feel that we can support a Town Council going forward as it is clear that the idea doesn’t have the support of most local people.

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"We will continue to listen to the views of residents on this issue but we feel that the views of the majority of residents should be adhered to."