The electoral ward of Mirfield covers the town parish of Mirfield and is currently represented by three Conservative councillors: Martyn Bolt, Vivienne Lees-Hamilton and Kath Taylor.

The Mirfield branch Labour Party meet on the 1st Tuesday of each month.

Upset the Tories for as little as £1 per Month – Join Mirfield Labour Supporters’ Club

Mirfield Labour Supporters’ Club exists to support Mirfield Labour Party Campaigns in Mirfield. You may win back your subscription and more as half the Club’s income is returned to subscribers as prizes drawn at the monthly meetings of Mirfield Labour Party. The other half helps fund local Labour Campaigns in Mirfield.

For more details contact Michael Hutchinson, Hon. Secretary and Organiser.

Membership of the Supporters’ Club is separate from Labour Party Membership.

Chair:  Charlie Coates     Treasurer: Sandra Beetham      Secretary: Michael Hutchinson     Campaign Co-ordinator: Julie Spencer 

The Secretary may be contacted at 26 Gregory Springs Lane, Mirfield, West Yorkshire, WF14 8LE, or by phone on 01924 496588

Benefits for Mirfield and the Wider Community

Mirfield Labour Councillors played a leading role in:

Pioneering Concessionary Bus and Rail Fares before they were introduced by national government. These resulted in improvements in personal mobility. Labour’s policies were so successful that when West Yorkshire County Council was abolished it was able to pass an £11 million surplus above budget to Metro, the successor Passenger Transport Authority.

Establishing Opera North. This was a partnership between Leeds City Council, which owned Leeds Grand Theatre, West Yorkshire County Council, which provided significant funding, and English National Opera, which provided expertise. Michael Hutchinson was Vice-Chair of the County Recreation and Arts Committee so he was involved at the outset.

Founding the National Coalmining Museum (originally as the West Yorkshire Coalmining Museum) at Caphouse Colliery. Michael Hutchinson was Chair of the County Council Technical Services Committee at the time. His Committee reduced the museum’s costs by undertaking major site preparation works. Michael was also a member of the strategic policy steering committee, which considered all major funding proposals.

Grant-Aiding the new West Yorkshire Playhouse in Leeds and the West Yorkshire Sculpture Park in Wakefield District. Grant-aiding the Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield.

These cultural facilities continue to help meet local people’s needs and support tourism within the West Yorkshire Area.

Completing the reclamation of the Cuckoo Hill Mine spoil heap in Hopton and reclaiming many West Yorkshire areas of mining and other dereliction.

Support for Local and National Charities

Mirfield Labour Councillors have provided grants and support to many local organisations including Battyeford Sports Club, the Gearstones Lodge Trust and the Safe Anchor Trust. In conjunction with other Labour Councillors they also supported national British Charities when they were Providing Famine Relief in Africa.

Mirfield Labour Serving Mirfield People

Mirfield has elected Labour Councillors to West Yorkshire County Council, to Kirklees Council, to Mirfield Urban District Council and to Mirfield Town Council. In its final two years there were as many Labour Councillors on Mirfield Urban District Council as there were Tories.

Only Labour has ever defeated the Tories in Mirfield.

The successes of Mirfield Labour Councillors have been out of all proportion to their numbers and the time they have served. This success has often been achieved in co-operation with Labour Councillors from other areas.

Labour is good for you and for the local community.

Labour-led Campaign Saved Mirfield Showground

Mirfield Showground had been used for public events for many years when the owner, F. B. Lydall, a leading Conservative, decided he wanted to build houses on it. The community was outraged and the late Tom Megahy, then Leader of the Labour Group on Mirfield Urban District Council (UDC), led the campaign to ensure the land was bought with the help of a Compulsory Purchase Order by Mirfield UDC. This ensured the land continued to be available for public use and when the UDC was abolished the Showground passed to Kirklees Council, which paid off the debt..

Hopton Bridge Replaced

A routine engineering check found Hopton Bridge over the River Calder at the junction of Granny Lane and Hopton New Road was unsafe. Technically, it was unable to carry its own weight.

This finding was unexpected and so there was no budget provision for its replacement. A closure would have prevented traffic crossing the bridge towards the railway station and central Mirfield and caused congestion in Hopton. However, Michael Hutchinson, then Vice Chairman of West Yorkshire County Council Highways Committee, insisted that the capital to pay for an early replacement was found from the County Council’s capital reserves. As a result the bridge was quickly re-built.

Community Use for Former C. of E. Eastthorpe Infants School

Central Mirfield would have had a disused building in its centre but the Labour Town Council obtained a National Lottery Grant to change it into the West Yorkshire Print Workshop. This led to a partnership between the Workshop, the Town Council and the Church which crystallised into Mirfield Community Partnership, a registered charity that has brought environmental improvements and enhanced public use of and access to Lady Wood and the canal tow path. The Charity operates free of party politics. Its work includes the restoration of the sunken garden to Calder House in Newgate and open it for use by local people.

One Hundred Fewer Injury Accidents on Leeds Road (A62).

Michael Hutchinson, Labour Councillor for Mirfield, achieved a reduction in the number of crashes and injuries in the face of opposition from the Conservatives and, until the last minute, the Liberal Democrats by closing Slipper Lane to vehicular traffic. Michael says, “With accidents happening at the rate before closure, there would by now have been well over 100 injuries if there had been no closure and any one of them could have become a fatality.” At the time, the government ruled out the provision of finance for a more expensive solution to the problem.

At the time, the closure was unpopular with many motorists because the route offered convenient access to and egress from Mirfield. The number and frequency of crashes more than justified the closure: it seemed only a matter of time before there was a fatality. The Liberal/Democrats changed their mind to support the closure but by pandering to opposition to it, the Tories showed themselves unwilling to take difficult decisions in the public interest.

Hopton Primary School Playing Field

Labour Party Members have served on all Mirfield School Governing bodies. Michael Hutchinson was Chair and Kenneth Armitage Vice-Chair of Hopton Primary School when it acquired the field on the western side of the school and when the two separate Edwardian buildings were linked by an extension.

Michael helped other governors to plant the trees next to the path into Crossley Fields Junior & Infants School.

Hopton Private Streets Adopted

Whilst Mirfield Urban District Councillor for Hopton, Michael Hutchinson secured the making up and adoption of Hirst Street, Co-operative Street, Spencer Street and Regent Street as well as the two culs-de-sac at the top of North Street. Previously they had stony and muddy surfaces with washing-day post holes along their centres.

Labour Protected the Environment and Local Amenity

Labour lobbyed for all Mirfield School playing fields and green spaces to be safeguarded against development. They were successful because these areas are being designated as Urban Greenspace or Green Belt in Kirklees Council’s Local Development Plan.

Labour also secured Tree Preservation Orders for prominent, mature trees, notably in Hopton. In addition it obtained extra protection for the Hopton Green Belt by extending the areas designated as being of High Value Landscape. The existing High Value Landscape area in the Hopton Mills area was extended to the River Calder and that at Upper Hopton was extended around the village to Boyffe Hall. Unfortunately Mirfield’s Tory Councillors have failed to defend this and the designation is absent from the new Local Plan.

Action led by a Mirfield Labour Councillor protected Mirfield’s network of urban footpaths. Labour also laid the framework for Urban Greenways.

In central Mirfield Labour introduced dropped crossings to assist wheelchair users and people with walking difficulties and provided high quality street furniture, e.g. the street lamps.

A Labour Councillor also secured ramped access to Mirfield War Memorial to ease access for older citizens and those with disabilities who wish to lay wreaths.

Labour Town Councillors also secured local control of Mirfield’s Allotments from Kirklees Council to Mirfield.

Labour Re-United Mirfield

A part of Mirfield had been placed in Dewsbury West Ward, to the dissatisfaction of many of the residents affected. It was re-united with the rest of Mirfield because Labour representations persuaded The Boundary Commission that this was in the community interest. At the time the Conservatives sought electoral advantage by splitting Mirfield in two but Labour’s proposals were adopted instead. As a result, Mirfield was re-united. This means Mirfield has significantly more electors than any other Kirklees Council Ward but Kirklees Council has one ward and three councillors fewer than before.

Do You Ever Shop At Lidl in Mirfield?

Thank Labour for giving you the choice. Labour Councillors voted for planning permission for the original store to be built. The Tories voted against.

Protecting Mirfield Against Over-Development

When land was allocated for employment on the brown field site at Mirfield Moor (Mirfield 25), Labour provide for wide landscaped buffer zones to reduce the impact of development. These would have been placed next to Slipper Lane and behind the houses on Sunny Bank Road. Mirfield’s Tory Councillors, having previously falsely claimed that development would cover Mirfield Free Grammar School’s Slipper Lane playing field, failed to retain the buffer zones.

Mirfield’s Three Kirklees Councillors are all Conservatives. They have opposed development on various Mirfield sites but they have not been successful. There is a well-established pattern when it comes to development: Conservative Councillors raise objections but they are ineffective. We have seen this, for example, at the Butt End Mill, Woodsome Avenue, Sands Lane and Spring Place Mills sites– where next?

When there were Labour Councillors for Mirfield, they argued at the Public Inquiry that Wellhouse Lane was unsuitable for the extra traffic that any development there would generate. They persuaded the Government Planning Inspector to ban any developer from using Wellhouse Lane as an access to the Balderstone Hall Fields. However, the Inspector said development there could be given approval if a link road was provided from Greenside Road to Woodward Court. It has so far proved impossible to build this link road because the Gilder Hall Trust field stands in the way. We hope it will continue to do so.

Improving Local Traffic Flows

Labour played a leading part in persuading Kirklees Council to provide the bus lane on Leeds Road (A 62) near the Three Nuns. This gives priority to buses at the junction with the A 644 and is one of a number of measures intended to improve traffic flow on Huddersfield Road.

Reclamation of Taylor Hall Brickworks Quarry

This derelict site needed reclaiming, especially as a child had drowned in the pool at the bottom of the brickworks quarry. Labour ensured the County Council secured the site. It started to fill the quarry with inert materials and provided for the road humps to help control quarry traffic on Taylor Hall Lane and in the London Park Estate. Unfortunately Mrs. Thatcher’s Conservative Government abolished the County Council before the quarry was full and the waste disposal operation was privatised.

Whilst the filling operation was under private control, hazardous waste was buried amongst the inert materials. Mirfield Labour Party believes the part of the landfill affected should now be landscaped so the area can be recognised as Urban Greenspace and either be used for sport or as a nature reserve.

The area that was occupied by the brickworks kiln and the brick storage area are now occupied by the housing of Kiln Close. The street name reflects the area’s history and was proposed by Labour when the housing was being built.

Naming New Streets

When houses have been built, members of Mirfield Labour Party have been active in proposing new street names that reflect the history or character of the local area. Besides Kiln Close, other street names they have proposed include Spinners Way – after the textile industry, The Maltings – opposite a malt house site and reflecting one of Mirfield’s traditional industries, The Embankment – on a former railway embankment, Bracken Close – from Bracken Hill, Finching Close and Dyke Close after the name of the local stream, St Peter’s Close after a local church (now demolished) – and Heathfield after Fox Royd. (Royd means waste or rough grazing.)