Talking Politics column with Coun Martin Hey: Let's be ambitious and build a better Calderdale

Temperatures in May were truly exceptional, and indeed it's now being confirmed that 2026 was one of the top three hottest springs we've seen over the last 350 years … the other two being in 2025 and 2024. More on that later though.

After a tough election campaign, I'm pleased to say that the Green Party increased its councillors in Calderdale for the fourth election in a row. There's now seven of us representing areas all the way from Northowram and Shelf in the east to Hebden Bridge and Todmorden in the west. It's a great group of people and I'm working hard to help the new councillors settle in to their roles. As with all Green councillors, their focus will be on helping residents, protecting the environment and building a better future for all.

Any notion of a quiet start to the council year was flattened by the announcement that car parking charges were being introduced at our tiny car park in the middle of Northowram (one of a number of similar cash grabs across the borough). In our village, the result will simply be cars moving to park on the streets, jeopardising road safety further in what's already a dangerous area near the school. We’ve written to the new cabinet member responsible for car parks demanding that the changes are reversed.

And it's been something of a rocky start for the new cabinet, with the car park increases being followed in quick succession by the collapse of the proposed deal to regenerate the Shay. Whatever the merits or demerits of the proposal (which was offering some rare outside investment in the borough) the new administration's opposition to it has led to the council now “holding the baby” – if that's how you should describe an ageing sports ground with stands that have been unfinished for 20 years or more.

I know from my time in business that it's very tempting to end a project or initiative as soon as the going gets tough or costs overrun. However, once you make the decision to stop, you immediately get asked “What’s the plan now?” So whilst withdrawing support for projects and initiatives might seem an easy option, in reality it just leads to more problems. Given this, I am concerned when I hear Reform councillors opposing a wide variety of activities, including the town centre schemes in Halifax and Brighouse, road safety initiatives and in particular action to fight climate change (particularly alarming given the quiet abolition of the climate cabinet position).

Sitting behind many of these utterances is the new Cabinet’s commitment to review spending across all activities in the organisation. Whilst the official object of this work is to “reduce waste”, in reality this may end up being another round of local austerity after 15 years of non-stop cuts.

We believe this is the wrong way to go. We need to invest in our area, end cuts to vital local services and have the confidence to build a better Calderdale. Rest assured, we’ll be advocating for this ambitious approach in the coming year.