In terms of specifically enhancing community transport or enhancing public transport that’s slightly problematic for the Towns Fund because those tend to be revenue intensive projects. There was actually a project proposal put forward around demand-responsive transport which I thought was a fantastic proposal actually, but because of the other projects and because of its revenue basis it was difficult to take that forward.

What we have done with projects like that is we’ve had a chat with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, with a person called the Future Mobility Manager, and also with Calderdale Council to see if there’s another way of bringing a project forward on that. So we’re not proposing anything within the Towns Fund right now, but we are trying to keep that project alive to see if it can be delivered in another way.

It’s important to say, with regard to the enterprise hub in the centre of Todmorden and the Walsden gateway proposals, there is an idea that we could develop what we’re calling “mobility hub” type offerings in those locations. So they become interchange hubs for a whole range of modes of transport and electric vehicles are present.

We’re quite interested in an idea that’s not fully developed and won’t be fully developed before the bid goes in.

Hopefully, over the next 12 months, we can work on looking at having accessible electric vehicles, that can be used in a shared way and possibly as a car club car. And also as a pool vehicle or a delivery vehicle. We haven’t worked out the details of it but we have got some good precedents from other more rural communities actually where electric vehicles have been purchased which is used partly as a car club, partly as a community car scheme and partly as a pool vehicle for a business.

So we are all hoping to incorporate an electric vehicle element into the Enterprise Hub and Walsden Gateway aspects of it, but we haven’t worked up the detail of it yet. It could partly address some of those legitimate community transport concerns, although possibly in a slightly different way.

A1: First of all in terms of disabled access – and better access for all pedestrians from the town centre and various locations up towards the railway station – there is a station gateway and approach project that would be looking to improve pedestrian access there.

There’s also a more ambitious project relating to enhancing access and having a lift, but that one we’re not sure about the affordability.

There will be better enhancements to routes up The Rise and down Station Approach and looking at better links onwards towards the bus station and Community College and enhancing those links. I also still have on my To-Do List to find out about what Network Rail is doing about disabled access to the eastbound platform (Platform 2), so within the station itself, we’re still trying to confirm what’s going ahead there. That wouldn’t be part of our project that would be a Network Rail project.

A2: Network rail announced (I think in early 2019) that accessibility, i.e. lifts, were going to be put in place at Todmorden station under what I think is their four-year plan. The last time I asked, which I now see with horror from my emails was quite some time ago, I asked what was happening and when we could expect to see these lifts going in. I was told at that point I think it was going to be 2022 before they even started work. I have not heard that Network Rail has altered their plans, but as I say I haven’t asked recently. I suppose there is always the caveat now that lots of plans have altered because of Covid and I don’t know whether there’s anything that’s happened because of that – and whether it has in fact been pulled from the four-year or five-year plan. I hope not.

I noticed there were some comments about a station for Cornholme, and the answer is probably ‘chicken and egg’. The answer we got a few years ago was that the footfall didn’t justify a separate station. Of course, if there was a station there would be much more demand for people to live there. So I think this is a long term issue and before we could possibly get anywhere with the station for Cornholme we’d really have to up our game. And hopefully what’s happening with the Towns Fund Will be a stepping stone towards that day.

One of the proposals that haven’t been taken forward In this investment plan is around demand-responsive services. Whilst the project proposal was very strong it was predominantly a revenue funding project.

We are aware that improving local bus services and local connectivity is important. I’ve spoken to West Yorkshire Combined Authority who are doing some pilots Into new demand-responsive bus services.

They’ve been delayed by Covid they’re going to be doing their first trial in East Leeds this year and Calderdale have volunteered themselves for subsequent trialling. So we’re trying to ensure that that project stays in the background and Investigating ways forward for it in the future even though it won’t go forward as part of this Town’s Fund bid.

“The setts at the overflows need to be made cycle-friendly, very uneven and I have heard of a cyclist coming to grief this week on them. Secondly, please can we sort out the towpath at Bellholme the towpath is always flooded here. It is a drainage issue from Bellholme but it’s been bad for decades.”

It’s well known and well acknowledged that there are problems with the towpath. One of the elements of the scheme is from the Canals and Rivers Trust to make some of the weirs more accessible because most of the paths have been upgraded to Todmorden. It’s looking at enhancing from Todmorden to Walsden to provide a much more accessible route to connect to the Walsden gateway – the all-abilities cycling centre there and the river park. So that is being taken forward with the Canal and Rivers Trust to deal with those issues around uneven setts etc – and the costs we’re starting to generate for that to take that into account.

A plan was proposed for a hotel and that was specified as straw bale by the proposers. The construction method is indeed a popular idea.

Market evidence for the demand is what the government funders will ask for. Last-minute discussions are ongoing about how the board can present a proposal for any type of guest accommodation without solid market evidence of demand. And we are actively trying to help source that evidence.

The board are not having any direct conversations with builders about Lever Street as that is not our remit.

The size of the spaces we’re proposing are big enough to contain about 4000 people standing up for a festival. We understand that this is about the largest size of a festival that is held in the town. It’s very easy to overblow the size of a public space and make it look very empty if it’s not in use. So it’s a very fine judgment how big the public space needs to be.

We have two additional spaces which could be integrated – the space where the open market is at the moment which is elevated and an ideal stage area – and also the Rose Street car park opposite the Methodist Chapel. These two can be brought into the public realm for bigger events, so we did feel from an urban design point of view that this was the perfect size for a square for the town.

“Currently, we have a car park right in the centre of town and looking forward to the big changes in car use coming up in the next couple of decades with the phasing out of fossil fuel cars, this positioning of the car park may look very out of date. I have read that electric cars may lead to much less car ownership and more short term of hiring cars for example. Could the car park not be removed right from the centre and the far end of it be extended to create a large community space in amongst the shops and the market. It would still only be a very short walk from the car to shops.”

It’s a lovely space. We will have 12 months to develop the ideas and these comments will be incredibly helpful. It would be nice if people who have views and passions could join in the Citizens’ Assembly to help shape these projects in the way you want them to be shaped.

Yes, I think the idea is very much that there is a new civic space right in the heart of the town and we showed some images of how that could be achieved.

In terms of connection to the river that has been raised several times and there is an obvious place where a connection could be created. We’re showing a space next to the bridge which then continues across Pollination Garden which could be opened onto the river, but there is an issue there though.

There are some flood defences being installed by the Environment Agency so there is a negotiation to be had about whether these can be opened up. There’s a conflict between protection and enjoyment, So I think this is something to investigate with detailed technical design at the next stage.

Yes, I agree in many ways and there was a real desire among a number of Board members to do that. When we looked at the situation the owners of that block, which of course includes the Post Office and another couple of shops and the Onestop, have a number of long leases. So it’s very valuable to them and even if we managed to purchase the freehold in effect, we would then have to buyout the leaseholders and it became, one, very costly – in fact a significant part of the £25m – and two, we also began to have concerns about the deliverability of it within the time frame – because we’ve got to spend this money by 2024/ 25. So, unfortunately, it’s with regret we don’t think we’re going to be able to do that.

A1: No we haven’t considered it but as we move forward in the spatial planning for the town those blighted areas we’d want to do something positive about. It can be difficult when other people own sites – sometimes we don’t think about site ownership. Site ownerships that are within the council’s remit is one thing, sites that are privately owned by people outside the town makes it very difficult in time frames to deal with. But as passionate local Todmordians, we wouldn’t want to see blighted areas like that.

A2: Todmorden Civic Pride produced a document, a compilation of projects that they put forward as potential projects that we should look at and we’ve looked at some of them. Included in that document was that area and bringing access to the canal from that part of the town centre, so it’s not something we have ignored. We have got documentation and representation across that, but as Pam says it’s something that we’d look at in general, rather than as a specific project.

A1: The bottom line is this is a capital spend, this is a building spend and much of the support is ‘revenue’. As we move forward with these, we absolutely need to make sure we have other external funding streams in support of the initiatives we’re investing in. That gives us over the next 12 months opportunities to make representations either to West Yorkshire Combined Authority or to the Leeds City Region, or whoever is the appropriate funding body to make sure that we’re not just building white elephants but actually that we’re building opportunities through which the revenue streams from other people can begin to support local businesses, local school children or whoever it is. So it’s not to be lost but it’s all power to the elbow if every one of us to make sure that we’re finding funding streams in support of this particular programme.

A2: We do have a very active Business Network in Todmorden now – Todconnect – and I think some of their representatives are on this call. Whilst we can’t fund any actions by them I think the Board would be very supportive, in fact, one of their representatives sits on the Board, so they are connected in a real sense to the Board’s activities. That’s the channel that we can develop to ensure that small businesses get more support and that would be through the Business Network.

Funnily enough, I have had a conversation with our conservation officer exactly about this. I know that there are other places that have got a grant. In Sowerby Bridge they’ve got a grant scheme, so we contribute part. or Historic England contributes part, and the owners contribute part. I think it’s another one of those things as Pam says that’s a great idea, but not necessarily fundable through the Town Fund. But we will be working to see if we can get some other funding to support it.

“There are occupancy agreements in place for traders and it would be of great value to understand what the town’s aspirations are in regards to particularly the three fully occupied days of Thursday, Saturday and Sunday and how these would work with any town centre events?”

What we are talking about is a proposition where we want to pull investment from Government towards and then a lot of conversations about the details to make sure we are not dropping any of our prizes as we move towards something that the town deems to be an opportunity. So it’s not all worked out yet, but these are the sorts of comments we need to take on board as we move forward.

A1: It sounds hard but you’ve seen when we’ve got to get this bid in. We’ve got to get the bid in by 29th January. We really tried to encourage as many people as possible to put forward doable projects. If there’s something to be taken off that’s absolutely ready, I guess you could have a word with Karen, but fundamentally at this stage what we would then have to do is to start unpicking the entire plan, which would mean that we were in danger of not getting it over the line within the time frame which means that we are in danger of denying the people of Todmorden £25m. So it would be problematic at this stage.

A2: We saw it [Cornholme] as a priority when we first set up because it scores highly on the indices of deprivation in Todmorden – and so as an obvious place to try and put projects –  but unfortunately nothing came forward. Frostholme Mill was talked about, but as Tim said, someone’s already got it and they’re going to make more money by building housing on it than they are than by giving it to somebody to come up with a more innovative regeneration project. And we just didn’t get any other projects in the area at all and much as we’d hoped to, we weren’t able to put anything into the plan.

Can I just say about Frostholme, as with both the Queen’s Hotel and Onestop building, it would have been expensive, as it would’ve required us to buy it off the owner.

The advantage of the Murmuration Project up at Robin Wood Mill is that they will be renting space in a premises which has other things going on in it, so there isn’t that need to find the capital to actually buy the building, it’s a case of renovating that particular part of the building.

A1: Every new building project and even refurbishment projects will be subject to planning permission and compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act, So in a sense, it’s implicit in the projects.

Aspects such as Accessibility will be picked up in that way and things such as carbon reduction. If anyone has read the Towns Fund Guidance they will see that that’s a feature. So in any project, we’d be looking at those benefits as well.

A2: Just a general point that proposals for cycling would also make places more accessible for people of all abilities – for walking for people using wheelchairs or with limited mobility.

The intention and belief of the board is that diversity is something that needs to be addressed very seriously. As far as we’re concerned it’s something that needs to be key to the development of every project. So it’s not that there will be a project about diversity it’s that all projects need to be about diversity – and we will be seeking to ensure that we can build that in with the community as we go along.

There will be opportunities to become involved in projects through further consultations and more citizens’ assemblies. Our youth engagement advisor will certainly be looking at how the different generations can come closer together in activities.