Calderdale Council's 2026 election count will be held in…Huddersfield
Preparations are already under way for Calderdale’s big “all-out” elections next year, including counting the votes in...Huddersfield.
Lack of a suitably sized venue means ballots for the 2026 Calderdale Council elections will be counted, and results announced, in neighbouring Kirklees, councillors have been told.
Calderdale’s results in recent times have been counted at North Bridge Leisure Centre, Halifax, but for the past three years since that venue’s closure pending demolition and £35 million rebuilding of a new centre on the site an alternative has had to be found.
From 2022, Calderdale’s count has been held in a huge marquee set up on the council-owned Mulcture Hall Road car park at Halifax.
By-election counts, for Calder and Skircoat wards, have been housed at Todmorden Town Hall and Halifax Town Hall respectively, but neither big enough for a full scale operation.
This site has been for sale but this time around the Returning Officer – Calderdale Council’s Chief Executive Robin Tuddenham – has been refused its use.
With the council’s building and asset management team confirming there is nowhere else within Calderdale large enough, an alternative venue is needed and the nearest most suitable venue has been identified as Huddersfield Leisure Centre, Calderdale Council’s Governance and Business Committee members were told.
Kirklees Active Leisure has confirmed Calderdale Council’s booking for Friday, May 8, 2026, councillors heard.
Electoral team officers said: “We have done it now to make sure we’re not left behind.”
Hiring a 1,258 square hall there will cost less than hiring the marquee has cost and it is bigger than both the old North Bridge hall and the marquee, they said.
With all three seats in each of 18 wards – including the new Salterhebble, Southowram and Skircoat Green ward, introduced in 2026 following Boundary Commission recommendations – to be counted, and counting itself being accordingly more complex, wards are likely to be determined in two shifts.
It is proposed that verification and counting for Brighouse, Elland, Greetland, Halifax Town, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden East, Hipperholme and Lightcliffe, Illingworth and Mixenden, Luddenden Foot and Northowram and Shelf wards would take place during the morning.
And following a lunch break, the remaining nine wards – Ovenden, Park, Rastrick, Ryburn, Salterhebble, Southowram and Skircoat Green, Sowerby Bridge, Todmorden West, Wainhouse and Warley wards will see verification and counting through the afternoon.