12. The First Decade
The First Decade
Wilsden Village Society’s first decade had been a time of tremendous activity on many fronts.
Many of its initial visions had become reality. A fine village hall was open and well used, giving rise to new clubs and activities. The squash club, in spite of teething troubles, was a popular addition to Wilsden sports facilities. Planning applications, some with potentially major impact on the appearance and future of the village, were being successfully opposed or sometimes supported by the society, often with cooperation from Bradford’s planners. Popular social events were taking place - galas, dances, outings of various sorts.
Now the society continued to operate but in a slightly lower key. For reasons outlined, the great Aire Faires had ceased and the last gala to be organised by the society took place in 1988.
The Good Neighbours group took over some of the social care aspects although the society continued to put on Christmas parties for senior citizens. Other new organisations began to fill the calendar. The twinning association, formed in 1981 as the result of a WVS initiative, put on Burns Night dances in the village hall and the gardening association formed in 1976 held at least one ceilidh. In terms of generating more reasons to spend leisure time within the village, the society had achieved its objective. Later, as the new Wilsden Band grew in skill and confidence, they added to the local entertainment scene with a series of band concerts in the village hall.
If the social, gala and village hall committees had worked themselves out of a job, that was far from the case for the society as a whole and particularly for the planning committee.
In 1979 projected cuts in public spending were announced by the Environment Minister Michael Heseltine. £5 million was to be cut from Bradford’s public services. The leader of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, Councilllor Brian Wommersley, pointed out to the Government the damage such cuts could do. Wilsden Village Society supported his view with a strongly worded letter from the predominantly conservative community to the Minister and Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Chairman Noel Bourke referred to conditions the village society had observed. He wrote “ People who travel widely consider that the roads in Bradford are among the worst in England. Wilsden Main Street is by common consent one of the worst in Bradford. The roads and pavements are never swept now. Many parts are completely covered with sand and salt applied during the winter. In some cases the accumulation is so bad that the drains have been blocked.” He went on to comment on the poor bus service and increased fares, long waits for serious repairs to council houses and more. He quoted from the official publication Regional Statistics 1979, showing how the Yorkshire and Humberside regions lag behind the rest of the country. He wrote “We venture to suggest that in this region we have standards of public service which would just not be tolerated in other parts of the country.” Local newspapers the Telegraph and Argus and the Bingley Guardian concurred with the letter’s sentiment that if cuts were necessary, they should fall on areas best able to cope with the consequences.
[Reading this in the village society’s records nearly 40 years since it was written, it is hard to see that treatment of the north of England has significantly changed.]
In August 1980 a headline in the Bingley Guardian read ‘Wilsden street saga ends.’ This hailed the end of three years during which Wilsden Main Street presented an obstacle course on road and pavement. The gas, electricity and Post Office telephone authorities all dug up parts of Main Street, each repairing the surface after a fashion, just in time for the next group to take it up again. Successive chairmen of the village society and its planning committee chairman Rodney Harrison contacted the statutory bodies and both district and county council many times, possibly not making much difference to the speed of the outcome but at least making local opinion very clear. After similar frustrating encounters over another road issue, Rodney eventually got an assurance that Wilsden and similar places on high ground would be placed first in the gritting order if winter road surfaces became bad. It took two years of repeated requests to get two additional litter bins for the village and just as long to persuade the Central Electricity Generating Board to fulfil their original commitment to plant trees to screen a booster station at Harrop Lane. The society made its own contribution to the environment by planting 40 new trees, a mixture of silver birch and alder, around the village in 1982 and by adding to the daffodil bulbs.
In 1983 the society added its voice to protests by many villagers at plans to re-open and extend Bank Top Quarry, leading to a decision by the county council to instruct the applicants to seek an alternative site. Councillor Pettit expressed delight and relief at the decision, saying that the plan could have done untold harm to the communities of Harden and Wilsden. Reporting on this victory, WVS chairman Ian Kirkbride added a cautionary note, pointing out that the county council had not gone so far as to place a definite ban on future development of the site.
Problems with bus services cropped up regularly and the village society organised meetings at which local views could be put and even succeeded in getting the traffic manager of the West Yorkshire Road Car Company to come to the village and admit that their service had been unsatisfactory.
