Issues of Halifax factory's future and air quality in village left unresolved

Senior councillors will come back to issues concerning air quality in a part of Calderdale and the future of a company which trains vulnerable people.
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When it met, Calderdale Coluncil’s Cabinet considered the future of the ISCAL factory and a scrutiny board’s recommendation that West Vale should be given Air Quality management Area status.

On the West Vale issue, the recommendation had been made by the council’s Place Scrutiny Board following a petition about the issue signed by more than 1,000 people.

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The scrutiny board meeting was controversial with claims made including one that the area had reached the nitrogen dioxide emissions threshold for the status to be applied in 2018 but allegedly monitors had been switched off for three months.

ISCAL (Industrial Services Calderdale) factoryISCAL (Industrial Services Calderdale) factory
ISCAL (Industrial Services Calderdale) factory

The wider context of sites around West Vale, which might see around 600 homes built, being included in the borough draft Local Plan was also raised.

Cabinet member for Climate Change and Resilience, Coun Scott Patient (Lab, Luddenden Foot) said a detailed report which would answer questions raised and provide more technical detail would come before Cabinet in May.

Coun Paul Bellenger (Lib Dem, Greetland and Stainland) said advances in technology made different monitoring systems affordable and Coun Patient said this should be looked into.

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ISCAL (Industrial Services Calderdale) is a printed, disposable manufacturing company producing dripmats, coasters, napkins, and other associated tissue products for the tourism and hospitality sector.

The Gibbet Street company’s main customers are hotels, bars, airlines, restaurants and cafes worldwide, and offers supported employment to people, many of whom have disabilities or mental health issues.

In November 2020, Calderdale Council’s Cabinet – the authority operates ISCAL – considered a range of options regarding its future, including closing it down and selling its order book.

Councillors were told budget savings of £300,000 were needed in the service.

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But it also offers value, training people – up to 200 each year – to help them move on to other jobs, and after leaving ISCAL 75 per cent of people who have attended there are still in employment 18 months after leaving the service.

Work completed by Leeds Beckett University has shown that for every £1 the council invests in ISCAL it gets a £6 return in the wider economy – a figure quoted by the council’s Cabinet member for Regeneration and Strategy, Coun Jane Scullion (Lab, Luddenden Foot).

Coun Scullion urged colleagues to support a recommendation that supports expanding the type of work ISCAL does and undertaking some detailed business planning to achieve this, and colleagues agreed.

They will come back to the issue in the summer.

ISCAL closed because of the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic but re-opened on July 19, 2021.

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