Greens run New Year’s Day Bus Service for a record 31st year.

Sue & Andrew with the minibus

Newsome Ward Green Councillors are running a free, volunteer run bus service on New Year’s Day. 

The bus service runs from Berry Brow, through Newsome village, the Town Centre and up to Huddersfield Royal Infirmary. It has run for 31 years with only one break in 2020 due to the pandemic. Newsome Green Party Councillors Andrew Cooper, Sue Lee-Richards and Karen Allison all volunteer on the service. Sue’s husband Gideon Richards also helps with the driving.

Councillor Andrew Cooper said,

“We never thought, when we began the service, that it would still be going all these years later. We used to run a service on Boxing Day until services were reintroduced a few years ago. 

Andrew  & Karen putting up timetables

“People really appreciate the service. It helps them see relatives in hospital, do some shopping and nip out to see friends for a drink or a meal. Sometimes we pick people standing at bus stops who have no idea that there are no bus services running on New Year’s Day.

“Our New Year’s Bus service is something we look forward to each year. There ‘s always a new story each year of someone we have helped who would otherwise be stuck or having to pay for an expensive taxi. We are grateful to Kirklees Council who now loan us the minibus for the day.”

Timetable for the bus service

The Newsome Centre - Nearly there!

It was around 3 years ago that I and Councillors Karen Allison and Sue Lee-Richards were approached by the Church of England regarding the possibility of us taking on St John the Evangelist Church, in Newsome, for community use. It should have been a difficult choice. Taking on an old building with all the costs and upkeep that came with it. But it was a choice we couldn't walk away from. A large building in the centre of Newsome with huge potential for events, conferences and a community cafe, something the village lacks. A place where people could hold celebrations and come together as a community. We couldn't ignore that vision and started making plans.

We established a Community Benefit Society as the body we would need to purchase and develop the centre. We commissioned local architects, One17, to help us realise our vision for the building and to assess the maintenance and improvments we will need to make to the building. We have raised funding to pay for the building and carry out some essential repairs. We have secured planning permission from Kirklees for change of use from a place of worship to a community centre with ancilliary cafe. That is the short version of the story. There have been some frustrations and bumps in the road along the way.

We know that getting ownership of the building is only the beginning of the journey. The roof will need replacing. We have a variety of tarpaulins and buckets collecting rainwater from various points in the roof. The kitchen and toilet block are in a very poor state and we need a small extension and a refit to bring it up to modern standards. There's a lot more that we have planned including upgrading the heating and insulation, creating meeting rooms, removing the pews to give us a usable halls for dancing, exercise clases and events.

We have got local people together to discuss our vision for the building and to get their ideas and input. As local Councillors we have initiated saving the building for the community but now we will need the help of the community to ensure it has a sustainable long term future. There is a lot of work to do but it will be worth it.

If you can donate to our Crowdfunder it would be really appreciated

Make a pledge to The Newsome Centre (Phase 2) Proposal on Spacehive

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Motion to Kirklees Council - Permanent Ceasefire in Gaza

That this Council 

1. notes:

1. That East Jerusalem, the West Bank, the Golan Heights and Gaza are illegally occupied by Israel; and that Gaza has been subject to 16 years of blockade

2. That the Israeli government has been withholding essential resources from Gaza and bombing civilian targets, such as schools, hospitals, and media organisations all of which constitute war crimes

3. That under Article II of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, genocide is defined as certain acts “committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group” and that, under Article I,  the UK has confirmed that genocide is a crime under international law which it undertakes to prevent and to punish

4. the UK, at the UN Security Council on 18 October 2023,  refused to vote for “humanitarian pauses” to deliver lifesaving aid to millions in Gaza

5. The deep concern expressed about the conflict in Gaza by thousands of people in Kirklees.

6. The impact of conflict on displacing people from their homes makes them asylum seekers and refugees who then understandably flee to safer countries like the UK.

7. The Hamas attacks on October 7th when hundreds of innocent Israeli civilians and soldiers were killed and taken hostage.

2. believes:

1. All atrocities committed against civilians by Hamas or the Israeli Defence Force must be condemned and investigated 

2. All forms of racism, including anti-Palestinian racism, antisemitism and Islamophobia have no place in Kirklees and condemns any attacks on Palestinian, Jewish or Muslim people

3. All political leaders have a responsibility to try to prevent genocide, such as the annihilation of the civilian population of Gaza 

4. That Hamas should release all hostages.

5. The state of Israel is enacting a system recognised as apartheid by Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, B’tselem and the South African government

6. The only way to secure peace between Israelis and Palestinians is for a just political settlement based on the end of the occupation of Palestinian territories and an end to discriminatory apartheid policies, settler colonialism and ethnic cleansing

3. And therefore resolves to:

1. Ask the Chief Executive to write to the UK government, requesting it to 

1. call for an immediate permanent ceasefire and to vote for this at the UN

2. cease all arms sales to Israel and end military aid for Israel

3. call on Israel to resume negotiations with the Palestinians;

4. ask to push for an end to the occupation and all parties to adhere to United Nations Resolution 242

5. ask all parties to release hostages and prisoners held in “administrative detention”