Hard hats in fashion for Saturday tour of Town Hall development

The contractors building the Hebden Bridge Town Hall extension will be opening the bright blue doors of their site adjacent to the main Town Hall on Saturday morning (Dec 3rd), to allow local people the chance to see for themselves how the development is coming on. 'Hard hat' tours will be running at twenty minute intervals from 10am until 11.40am.

"Recent weeks have seen major progress on the development, and the broad shape of the new buildings is becoming very clear," says Andrew Bibby, trustee of Hebden Bridge Community Association which runs the Town Hall. "Saturday's tours will be a great opportunity to find about more about how Hebden Bridge's major new public buildings are being constructed."

The tours are being led by Brian Fletcher, the contracts manager for Yorkshire-based contractors, Strategic Team Group (STG). STG will be providing the hard hats and high-visibility jackets for visitors to the site, but he warns participants to ensure that they come wearing strong footwear. Because numbers are limited, it is also advisable to pre-book places, with the Association's administrator Sue Graham on Hebden Bridge 845261.

The next few days will be busy times for Brian Fletcher and his colleagues, with some major deliveries of steelwork and other supplies to the site. For short times, it may be necessary to close temporarily access to Old Gate and Hangingroyd Lane, he explains. The road closures have been cleared with Calderdale's highways department, but Brian will be trying to do all he can to prevent too much inconvenience for residents. "I and the site team will do all we can to reduce disruption and keep things safe, and reopen the road as soon as possible," he says.

The construction work on the new Town Hall extension has been funded partly from support from the European Union for the region's economic development, through the Yorkshire and Humber European Regional Development Fund programme 2007-13. The programme provides investment support to help regions improve their economies and help local businesses, people and communities to improve their prospects.