A Question of Taste? - Ugarit Restaurant, Cross Church Street, Huddersfield

The Ugarit Restaurant

The old Estate Agents before Ugarit took over

Beauty like so many things is subjective, to a point.

If I was asked for a view on whether Cross Church Street in Huddersfield was one of the most beautiful streets in the Town Centre  I'd be hard pushed to agree to that one! It has some high points. I quite like the shop frontage for the hardware store, some of the pubs have made an effort to have attractive signage and quality fronts but then there are the dubious looking takeaways and other shops with tired old plastic signs.

The Ugarit Restaurant has recently opened on the street  offering Syrian and Lebanese dishes and it looks like they have made a real effort to improve the appearance of the building both on the interior and exterior. I was surprised to discover that the Council's Conservation Team in the Planning Service deemed the signage outside Ugarit to be a detriment to a listed building and ordered changes to be made. The Restaurant was formerly an Estate Agent with a plastic sign outside. No damage has been caused to any of the buildings features as a result of the restaurant sign going up. A short wander down Cross Church Street and the vast majority of people I believe would regard the Ugarit shopfront as a positive thing compared with some of the garish signs on display. I have used my right as a Ward Councillor to refer this matter to the Planning Committee to see whether other Councillors see this issue as I do. There are a number of times I've seen matters differently to the Conservation Team in the Council. I really don't regard myself as some sort of Philistine who doesn't appreciate the need to preserve important architecture but I do find it difficult on a number of occasions to appreciate their viewpoint like this one on changes to New North Road Baptist Church from a few years ago.

Ugarit is a business which will hopefully be part of an improvement to the Town Centre and I hope the Council will be seeking to help businesses like this get established and not be regarded as an obstacle.