New year, new Nimbys – it’s the first Nimby Watch of 2026, and we’re kicking off the year in the picturesque surroundings of West Yorkshire.
It’s a new year! The world is alive with possibilities; we can create everything anew and afresh – so where shall we start? How about the open market in Huddersfield, a charming town in West Yorkshire, home to a similarly charming Grade II* listed cast-iron framed building, which still hosts a market most days of the week.
I suppose you’re about to suggest it should be demolished and replaced with some high-rise housing? I do love high-rise housing, it’s true, but that doesn’t seem to be the plan on this occasion. Kirklees Council is proposing to restore, renovate and expand the market – so it has fixed stalls for things like butchers and fishmongers, removable ones for market days, a seating area so people stay longer and even a small stage for some live entertainment. The plan is for the market to open for longer hours, and on more days.
You seem to be selling this quite hard, which usually means there’s a catch. The old building’s going to get demolished and replaced with something that’s all concrete and glass, isn’t it? Nope, it’s a genuine restoration this time. The proposals involve repairing and restoring the existing shell, and restoring the building to its original red, pink and cream colour scheme. It’s all remarkably respectful.
Sounds expensive. Yeah, it probably is – but local residents won’t have to pay for it. The proposal is costed at £16.5 million, which Kirklees Council has secured from the Levelling Up Fund, meaning that it’s all paid for.
Hang on, wasn’t the Levelling Up Fund something the last government did? I feel like it’s been renamed at least once since then. It has. Kirklees secured the money for the renovation in early 2024, before the general election, and announced it was looking forward to consulting on its plans before beginning the works in 2025.
Ah. So… how are the works going, then? Obviously, they haven’t started. In fact, the council hasn’t even managed to submit formal plans for the renovation. It only managed to publish plans for the temporary site for the market last month, and now everyone is up in arms that it might not perfectly accommodate absolutely every business that sometimes makes use of the existing site.
Okay then, what’s behind all the delays? Well, naturally, there’s extensive local opposition to the plans, even though they are essentially just trying to restore an existing building, extend the scope and operating hours of the market, and modernise it for 21st-century retail. Dozens of locals have lodged objections with the council, and campaigners collected signatures for an open letter against the proposals.
How many signatures? And what’s the nature of the objections? Well, according to one headline written last month, ‘It is not just the people of Huddersfield against £16.5m market plan’, because ‘over 1,000 people have signed a letter in opposition – including some from Middlesbrough and Gloucester’.
Isn’t Gloucester about 150 miles away from Huddersfield? Yes. Yes it is. But where most of us would think that made the opinion of a Gloucester resident entirely irrelevant to these proposals, the Nimby mind is more creative. It proves, apparently, what a draw for tourists the existing market is, meaning that it must not be allowed to change in any way.
Other concerns included that people don’t want food markets because they compete with supermarkets, or that some existing stallholders couldn’t move over. Others worry that the market wouldn’t be viable if a local Tesco shut down and reduced the footfall, though it’s not clear what they thought the council should do about this.
If only there was some way to know whether a plan like the council’s could work in a medium-sized West Yorkshire town. It’s almost like you read my mind. Wouldn’t it be handy if there was an example like Halifax’s Piece Hall, which was recently transformed from a dwindling open-air market in a historic building into a mixed use food and tourist market that also hosts concerts – and has been a total triumph. And it’s only about 10 miles away.
It feels like you’re saying the proof this works is right on their doorstep. It does, doesn’t it? The Huddersfield Open Market is not so grand a site, nor a plan, as Halifax’s Piece Hall – but the concept is clearly sound, the council is trying to do everything right, and they’re still getting the Nimby blowback as if they’d suggested bulldozering the whole thing.
So is this a case of NIMBYism, or is it BANANAism – Build Absolutely Nothing Anywhere Near Anything? I think this one is something worse even than those. All that’s being proposed are renovations and expansions of an existing use. It’s the old architectural style. There’s a temporary building. There’s funding earmarked for it that can’t go on anything else. And yet it’s still locked up. I’m calling this the ETERNAL problem: Everything That Exists Remains, No Alteration’s Legitimate.
Hoping that catches on, are you? Maybe a little bit.
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