In Reply to: My geography coursework... posted by Leanne Holt on June 05, 2000 at 21:14:25:
Leanne, I have a small tourism brochure, which lists the attractions of Hebden Bridge. The date of the publication being the early seventies, however, these attractions seem to be few in number. The writer tries ever so hard to paint the town in glowing terms, expressing the hope that it might become a tourist centre one day... but it’s a rather desperate kind of optimism. For example, the silted-up canal is viewed as a liability, with no thought of renovation or recreational use. The writer says: “It is a hazard to young children, and moves have been afoot for some time either to make it into a local bypass road, or to culvert it”. Imagine how different the town would look if the canal had been filled in and converted into a road...
I live on the main road through Hebden Bridge, and the traffic is very heavy. Huge lorries hurtle through, often far too fast. Market Street gets congested, not helped by the cars parked along one side of the road. Ironically, this may help to keep traffic speed down. The narrow streets in the middle of town get far too much commercial traffic. If you spend half an hour in St George’s Square, and watch the traffic flow, you’ll wonder why we don’t have more accidents.
There is no room to build a bypass. Anyway, what’s needed is not more roads... but less traffic and fewer journeys being made. The whole of the Calderdale valley - from Halifax to Todmorden, say - is blighted by traffic. I shudder to think what the pollution levels are like in the centre of Hebden Bridge. Good luck with your project.
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