'Reality check' call as senior councillor insists visitors coming to Halifax, Hebden Bridge and other Calderdale towns should be arriving by bike, bus, train or on foot

Creating more parking is not the answer to deal with crowds attracted to the area as it would not square with the council’s commitment to active travel, said Calderdale Council’s cabinet member for Climate Action, Active Travel and Housing, Coun Scott Patient.

But more needs to be done to make cycling, walking and public transport more attractive, he told councillors at a recent council meeting.

“It needs to be joined up – we need an integrated transport network and that has to work West Yorkshire-wide,” he said.

Coun Amanda Parsons-Hulse (Lib Dem, Warley) agreed with the goal but asked how people could be attracted away from their cars.

She said the council needed a “reality check” as residents were finding active travel challenging, whether that was cycle lanes hardly being used or parking being removed in small towns .

Coun Parsons-Hulse referenced a pre-Christmas weekend event in Hebden Bridge which saw the town jammed with people struggling to park.

“There needs to be an incentive or something to motivate people to want to get it of their cars, leave their cars at home,” she said.

“Simply removing parking, as we saw in Hebden Bridge, does not automatically equate to less cars being brought into town.”

Many, finding nowhere to park, simply drove away, she said. No park and ride system had been set up to plug the gap, and some businesses reported having to close as customers could not park close enough to do business for bulky goods.

To boot, parking attendants were deployed, ensuring people could go home with a ticket.

Coun Patient said: “It’s in my mind you could add additional parking by the hundreds and hundreds and what would happen is cars would fill those spaces so I don’t think adding additional parking is the answer to our ambitions when it comes to prioritising active travel.

“I don’t necessarily buy everyone saying that active travel isn’t an option for people.

“I see people whipping up Cragg Vale on electric bikes, people much older than me, so I do think there are options and different things we need to do to enable that.”