Huddersfield

My Vision for Huddersfield

My Vision for Huddersfield

 

Great towns and cities are created by amazing citizens. There are many towns and cities in England, which boast great architecture and are a pleasure to look at, but as we have moved into the 21^st century we can already witness the decline in both their physical and social fabric.

My vision for Huddersfield begins with our people and an ambition to maintain and develop the first rate qualities of those who made our exceptional town what it is today.

 

When John Wesley came here in 1757 he said, "I rode over the mountain to Huddersfield. A wilder people I never saw in England."

Yet by the time Friedrick Engels visited in 1845 he could say it was "the handsomest town by far of all the factory towns in Lancashire and Yorkshire by reason of its charming situation and modern architecture."

Thanks to our founding fathers who built the town we had come along way in those 88 years. Since that time Huddersfield has become a bustling, modern university town with the potential to surpass all the expectations of those who went before us.

 

We will only be able to build on our past achievements by ensuring that we give everyone in our community the chance to develop their potential and their skills to the fullest extent. So my first goal is to enable us to become the most educated and skilled people in Europe.

 

We have the advantage of building on great foundations. Huddersfield has been renowned for its skills for almost 200 years, with its ability to turn these skills into innovation, creativity, enterprise and prosperity. Now in a much more competitive world we must reach even higher, as we face a future where there will be no jobs for the unskilled. In Huddersfield we also know how to develop and encourage business leaders and entrepreneurs and we must once again ensure that we nurture enterprise.

Creativity, innovation and enterprise have long inspired the richness of our musical, theatrical and cultural heritage. Today this sector, vibrant as it is in our communities, should be developed and celebrated with a far more adept focus on its potential for the future success and reputation of our town.

 

Pride in good design has long been central to Huddersfield's past. This generation owes it to our talented predecessors who were responsible for our churches, town halls, canals, railways and parks to resist being seduced by the unimaginative, the uninspiring or the expedient.

 

Any vision for Huddersfield must also embrace a healthier town, gone are the days of industrial smog and polluted rivers, yet there are many challenges to face and it is not just about good hospitals, but preventative health care and lifestyle choices.

 

Environmentally we must set ourselves some ambitious targets. We may have cleaned up our rivers, canals and streams but old tyres, plastic bags and graffiti blight them. Air quality still presents us with a serious problem, particularly in our valleys where heavy road traffic creates a critical environmental challenge. Above and beyond this we must strive to become the leading environmental town in Britain. Climate change and global warming are a threat to our lives and those of succeeding generations; we must dramatically reduce our carbon footprint to zero.

 

At the very heart of my vision is a concern about the way we create wealth in our town and how we retain it within our community. Too many of the businesses in this era of globalisation are faceless companies with no interest in anything but their shareholders and private equity. These corporations suck the wealth out of our town, invest little in return and many of them pay notoriously low wages.

 

Huddersfield was the first town in the world where ordinary people took control of their lives by creating cooperative businesses, shops, building societies, insurance and mutual aid schemes. Today we still have many small businesses where owners live locally, employ at good rates of pay and invest back into the community. We also have a university which is our largest employer, wealth creator and investor in our community. The challenge is clear, to promote forms of wealth creation which develop local talent, pay well and reinvest success back into the community.

 

Increasingly social enterprises are becoming a vital component of this mix, re-visiting and reintegrating the progressive principles of Thomas Hirst, one of our town's most famous sons.

For me, my vision of our future must embrace a moral purpose. Surely we should be planning for something better than a society based on selfishness and the primacy of self-interest. I am mindful that Huddersfield's Corporation motto was "Juvat Impigros Deus" which translates to "God helps the diligent" or "God helps he who helps himself." But there were always those who believed in social solidarity, the eradication of poverty, care for ones neighbours and the wider community. To achieve a successful, sustainable and harmonious community we need to foster a cultural and attitudinal change and return to those essential values that prioritise public and community service. A community that promotes contact and interaction between people from different backgrounds and breaks down barriers. Where young people are cherished, encouraged and nurtured and older citizens are respected, valued and maintained in a good standard of life. We need to uphold a civic identity that encourages cohesion and a sense of common citizenship.

 

Finally, I want us to have a renewed pride in who we are, pride in our past, our present and our ambitions for the future.

I have always admired the American Declaration of Independence where they proclaim the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

 

Our town should have the clear ambition to be the best place on earth to live, work and above all, be happy.

 

 

Barry Sheerman