Happy birthday, CALDERDALE!
| Published date | 29 March 2024 |
| Publication title | Huddersfield Daily Examiner |
Numerous film and television companies flocking to Calderdale recently have found its different terrains and character of its communities ideal for their purposes, and this exposure is also helping give Calderdale real brand identity as a whole.
That's also significant in economic terms, as recognition brings with it visitors - to Halifax's Piece Hall, to listen to the world-famous
Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band, or to walk the moorland surrounding Todmorden's landmark Stoodley Pike - spending money which supports local businesses and, in turn, the communities.
Calderdale Council is also releasing a special film, which will take viewers back to Calderdale in 1974 through archive footage from 50 years ago.
It will also feature the debut of a poem written especially for the borough's anniversary, highlighting the changes over five decades.
If the borough is now promoting itself on a wider stage as a cultural beacon, its beginnings were wrapped up in something much drier but no less important.
Back in 1970, Ted Heath's Conservative Party went into the General Election - and won - with a manifesto commitment to reform local government, where a massive reduction in the number and tiers of local government was deemed necessary.
A report on the issue was also accepted by Harold Wilson's Labour Party, which came to power in 1974.
Ultimately, the Local Government Act 1972 was the legislation which would see the changes come in on April 1, 1974, reducing the total number of councils in England from 1,245 to 412, excluding parish councils.
It set a pattern of two-tier metropolitan and non-metropolitan county and district councils which remains in use today in large parts of England, although the metropolitan county councils were abolished in 1986, and both county and district councils have been replaced with unitary authorities in many areas since the 1990s.
Since 1986, Calderdale Council has been responsible for most local government functions - county-level services were provided by West Yorkshire County Council until its abolition that year, when Calderdale became a unitary authority.
The 1974 changes were controversial in communities nationally, and this was reflected locally as Calderdale Council replaced eight former districts and part of a...
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