Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale
—  Metropolitan borough  —
Coat of arms of Calderdale Borough Council
Motto: Industria Arte Prudentia (Industry, skill and foresight)
Calderdale shown within England and West Yorkshire
Sovereign state	United Kingdom
Constituent country	England
Region	Yorkshire and the Humber
Metropolitan county	West Yorkshire
Admin HQ	Halifax
Incorporated	1974
Granted Unitary Status	1986
Government
• Type	Metropolitan Borough
• Governing Body	Calderdale Council
• Leadership	Leader & Cabinet
• Mayor	Cllr John Hardy (Con)
• Leader of Council	Cllr Tim Swift (Lab)
• Chief Executive	Owen Williams
Area
• Total	140.5 sq mi (363.9 km2)
Population (2001 Census, 2007 population estimates; Religion statistics 2001)
• Total	200,100 (Ranked 79th)
• Density	1,400/sq mi (550/km2)
• Ethnicity	91.1% White 6.8% S.Asian 1.0% Mixed Race
• Religion [1]	69.6% Christian 16.4% No Religion 5.3% Muslim
Time zone	Greenwich Mean Time (UTC+0)
• Summer (DST)	British Summer Time (UTC+1)
Twin cities
• County Mayo	Republic of Ireland
• Musoma	Tanzania
• Strakonice	Czech Republic
Postcode areas	HX and parts of HD & OL
Dialling Codes	01422 (central core) 01484 (Brighouse/Rastrick) 01706 (Todmorden area) 01274 (Shelf area)
ONS code	00CY
Euro. Parlt. Const.	Yorkshire & the Humber
Website	www.calderdale.gov.uk

The Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale is a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, England, through which the upper part of the River Calder flows, and from which it takes its name. There are also some small river valleys that contain tributaries of the River Calder.

Calderdale is made up of the amalgamation of six former local government districts, spanning (from east to west), the towns of Brighouse, Elland, Halifax, Sowerby Bridge, Hebden Bridge and Todmorden.

Halifax acts as the borough's main commercial, cultural and administrative centre, with numerous high street chain stores, markets, central library, borough council offices, public transport hub, central police station and the further and higher education college, as well as other major local organisations.

The borough covers part of the South Pennines and is the southern-most of the Yorkshire Dales. However, not being part of the Yorkshire Dales national park, Calderdale is generally less well known than its neighbours to the north.

History[link]

Signpost in Calderdale

The borough was formed on 1 April 1974, under the Local Government Act 1972, by the merger of the then county borough of Halifax, the boroughs of Brighouse, Todmorden and the urban districts of Elland, Hebden Royd, Ripponden, Sowerby Bridge, and part of Queensbury and Shelf urban district, and also Hepton Rural District.

Suburbs and villages[link]

As well as the six towns, there are numerous villages and suburbs including:

• Bailiff Bridge, Bank Top, Barkisland, Blackshaw Head, Boothtown, Beechwood, Bradshaw
• Chiserley, Clifton, Colden, Copley, Cornholme, Cragg Vale
• Eastwood
• Fountain Head
• Gauxholme, Greetland
• Heptonstall, Highroadwell, Hipperholme, Holmfield, Holywell Green, Hove Edge
• Illingworth
• Kebroyd, King Cross
• Lee Mount, Lightcliffe, Luddenden, Luddendenfoot, Lumbutts, Lydgate
• Mankinholes, Midgley, Mill Bank, Mixenden, Mount Tabor, Mytholm, Mytholmroyd (town)
• Norland Town, Northowram, Norton Tower, Norwood Green
• Ogden, Old Town, Ovenden
• Peckett Well, Pellon, Portsmouth, Pye Nest
• Rastrick, Ripponden, Rishworth
• Salterhebble, Savile Park, Shelf, Skircoat Green, Siddal, Slack, Sowerby, Southowram, Sowood, Stainland, Stone Chair Stump Cross
• Triangle
• Upper Edge
• Wainstalls, Walsden, Warley Town, West Vale, Wholestone Hill, Wheatley

Education[link]

Two selective schools in Calderdale jointly administer an 11+ admissions exam: Crossley Heath Grammar School, Savile Park and North Halifax Grammar School in Illingworth.

Both schools achieve excellent GCSE and A-level results with both schools achieving a large proportion of A* to C grades at GCSE level. In 2005, the Crossley Heath School was the highest ranking co-educational school in the North of England.

The Crossley Heath School was formed when Heath Grammar School, an all boys' school given its charter by Elizabeth I of England, and The Crossley and Porter School, a mixed school founded with his brothers by Sir Francis Crossley, 1st Baronet which started as an orphanage, were combined in 1985. There are other schools in the area, including the Holy Trinity Church of England Senior School and St Catherine's Catholic High School, both of which are located in Holmfield. In January 2006 Holy Trinity was designated a Specialist College for Business and Enterprise, whilst St Catherine's, was designated a Specialist Technology College.

There are a total of 14 secondary schools in Calderdale [2] One, The Ridings School in Ovenden, was recently closed.

Calderdale College is the local further education college on Francis Street, just off King Cross Road, in Halifax. In December 2006 it was announced that Calderdale College, in partnership with Leeds Metropolitan University, would open a new higher education institution in January 2007 called University Centre Calderdale [3].

Local government[link]

The borough is divided into 17 wards and each is represented on the borough council by three councillors. Each councillor is normally elected on a first past the post basis for a four-year period which is staggered with the other councillors of that ward so that only one councillor per ward is up for election at any one time. Exceptions to this include by-elections and ward boundary changes.

The seventeen wards in Calderdale are:^[1] Brighouse; Calder; Elland; Greetland and Stainland; Hipperholme and Lightcliffe; Illingworth and Mixenden; Luddendenfoot; Northowram and Shelf; Ovenden; Park; Rastrick; Ryburn; Skircoat; Sowerby Bridge; Todmorden; Town; and Warley

Mayors of Calderdale

Public services[link]

Health[link]

The borough has two hospitals and one hospice.

Calderdale is part of the Calderdale Primary Care Trust, South West Yorkshire NHS Foundation Trust and Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust. The main hospital (part of Calderdale & Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust) is the Calderdale Royal Hospital, located by the main route to Huddersfield, in Salterhebble. It has specialist departments and Calderdale's A&E department and the Calderdale Birth Centre [4].
The hospital was built and opened in 2001, on the site of the original Halifax General Hospital, after that had merged with the Royal Halifax Infirmary.

Elland Hospital located by the Calderdale Way, is Calderdale's only private hospital. Formerly BUPA Elland Independent Hospital, it is now owned and operated by Classic Hospitals.

NHS Ambulance services are provided by the Yorkshire Ambulance Service.

Overgate Hospice provides specialist palliative care for adults in Calderdale.

Police[link]

Calderdale is served by West Yorkshire Police; their Calderdale Division H.Q. are based at Halifax police station [5]. Other police stations are located in Todmorden [6] and Brighouse which has recently reopened [7].

Fire and rescue[link]

West Yorkshire Fire & Rescue covers Calderdale and it has six fire stations in the borough. These are located at Brighouse, Elland, King Cross (Halifax Fire Station), Mytholmroyd, Illingworth, and Todmorden [8].

References[link]

External links[link]

• Calderdale Council website
• Calderdale College website
• Malcolm Bull's Calderdale Companion
• (Twinned with Calderdale) County Mayo,Ireland

Coordinates: 53°43′N 1°58′W / 53.72°N 1.97°W / 53.72; -1.97

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