If one was being particularly cynical one might suggest reading a letter previously in the Tod News, which was written by Coun C.M.Baksa.
We do not need another old age home in Todmorden and should remind Halifax that we are not the old age centre for Calderdale.
This gives a clear indicating of a company being interested in developing the site for the benefit of our town and people.
The company who have expressed an interest in the site are Resilienti, The company director is Kerrie Whitely, who is their Development Director. As part of the original bid, back in 2010, put forward by Resilienti they did draft a very basic scheme to allow costings to be drawn up and an amount to be offered to Calderdale Council for the purchase of the site on Rose Street.
This scheme, because of its very nature, was not worked through in any great detail and was little more than an indicative scheme for the land. Should the developers be given chance to negotiate a purchase of the land from the council they would obviously then be in position to work up a much more detailed scheme, which would be more sympathetic to the towns requirements and would reflect interest from occupiers in the site.
It is understood that the company have a number of retailers who have expressed a strong interest in moving into the development and indeed have between 13,000 - 15,000 sq.ft of accommodation essentially under offer.
In addition to this commercial interest discussions have taken place with local interested parties in Todmorden with regard to other companies who would also be willing and able to take on accommodation.
I have suggested that they reconsider and perhaps make it a double storey to fit more in line with buildings around the vicinity.
I think that for some time there has been given an impression that there were no companies at all interested in the development of Rose Street when clearly there are companies with the ability to move forward on the land.
The process which Calderdale Council had to go through to market the site was particularly off-putting in a market place where the number of developers was restricted and speculative developments were not being pursued.
Market conditions have now changed somewhat however, an overly complicated marketing process would again, I believe, be off-putting to developers and I think that the direct conversation, with the company and the public, with a keen interest in moving forward should certainly now take precedence.
I felt confident Resilienti would be able to persuade local Todmorden Councillors that it is an excellent opportunity worth pursuing, and that I was sure the representatives of Resilienti would be more than happy to speak to the Todmorden Council to give their thoughts in relation to how matters could be moved forward in a way that would meet all parties requirements in being a major beneficial attraction to this important part of our town.
It should be obvious to all our residents this is a much better viability to increase foot-flow.
What’s wrong with our town representatives, one being Janet Battye, in allowing this nonsense.
Philip Walters
Todmorden