Challenge 2: Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council

Ernest Opuni:
So, we are in the town hall here in Halifax within the wonderful metropolitan borough of Calderdale, which is in West Yorkshire.

Bobsie Robinson:
The brief that we’ve set is ‘Destination Dean Clough’. And so the challenge is how can we link Dean Clough, the Piece Hall and Shibden Hall into this holistic destination offer?

Robin Tuddenham:
So, we’ve set the challenge in the context of our exciting year of culture 2024. We think Dean Clough is now the place we want to turn to, and we think the contestants can help give us ideas and challenge our thinking with new opportunities for Dean Clough.

Marelize De Beurs:
We did get a tour of Dean Clough, which is a fantastic mixed-use property with some small and independent businesses and an amazing array of artists and local cultural companies.

Hannah Barton:
We’ve been very lucky to visit the Piece Hall which is in centre of town. We learnt about all the different clothes that they used to produce the minimum size was like 27 metres. So, lots of historical knowledge. But just learning about the local area as well has been really nice, as people who are from this area very passionate about the area so it's been really nice to hear from them.

Faith Scott Deuchar:
I found it really interesting going to Shibden Hall which is an amazing fifteenth century hall that is directly owned and managed by the council which is actually not very common. And I’ve learnt a lot about the different marketing techniques that councils use to capture new audiences.

Kerry Challoner:
We’re just overwhelmed with ideas, and you have to hone that in, and I thought we’d be a bit better at honing that in this time, but clearly, it’s part of the process. So I’m learning that.

Adam Towers:
I think, what I’ve learnt is just how important and how powerful identity can be to local businesses. We’ve heard directly from small business owners just how valuable that uptick in trade has been all coming from renewed interest in Halifax thanks to new films, TV shows, films around the area.

Che-kwon Sterling:
I got to stay in the office. I explored some of the key areas for culture some of the best practises. I also was able to look at some of the strategies that we could put into place with connecting the three sites and it was a really insightful day.

Hannah Barton:
Hello, it is the end of day one. Team Dynamic have had a very busy day. Got to see lots of the local area, come up with loads of ideas of how we think we can tackle this challenge best.

Adam Towers:
It's the end of the evening now and we’ve just made our first full and final draft. We are ready to get a good night’s sleep and tomorrow morning hopefully head to a working breakfast. Really, really proud of what we’ve done today.

Michael Barrett 
Every challenge on the programme is different and a challenge on culture and local heritage can’t fail but to enthuse the contestants. They seem to be really excited by this Year of Culture and CultureDale for 2024, and how they can feedback into that.

Virginia Ponton:
We switch the teams at each challenge so that the contestants get a chance to work with each other, the different personalities, and the different skills. Hannah and Adam are doing a great job as team captains. Especially as this is a creative challenge, they’ve got lots of ideas, some of which are quite out-there so they do need to refine those.

Flora Wilkie:
Hi I’m Flora Wilkie, I work for the LGA and I’m subbing in for Helen. We just had a really lovely meeting with Councillor Courtney. Who told us loads about her ambition for Culture in Calderdale looking at what needs to change, how we can ensure that there is a long-lasting legacy of culture in Calderdale and thinking about some of the challenges that are presented locally.

Martin Chastney:
I think I’ve learnt quite a lot about how culture can be a pivotal part on how a town sees itself and how it projects itself. So, it’s really interesting to think in a slightly different way than I do usually.

Jack Pearce:
We just had a technical rehearsal which went really well although there were some issues with the colours on the projector so we’re going to have to amend some of the colours in the presentation. We also have some music playing and after a bit of a hitch we managed to get that working okay as well.

Ramisa Yazdani Biouki:
As part of our destination marketing plan, as part of Calderdale Calling, we thought it would be a good idea to try and encourage local communities, local people, to create content.

Hannah Barton:
Team Dynamics proposal to this challenge is a coherent marketing campaign across all three sites that focusses on the unique selling points of each site to encourage visitors to attend all three. And within that we introducing something called the CultureDale Card, which is a membership card for local residents to encourage them to visit cultural attractions across Halifax and the wider area and also a series of seasonal events that link the three sites together in an exciting way.

Adam Towers:
Calderdale already has fantastic cultural assets. The only issue is that there is a bit of severance. It’s physical severance, but it’s also metaphorical. People just aren’t aware that these assets are there. So, we proposed a series of capital improvements and also some partnerships to better communicate all of those different assets and bring them together.

Cllr Jenny Lynn:
We chose Team Dynamic. They had a film showing what it’s like going around Halifax, the idea of using influencers by filming themselves of the experience of going to visit some of our attractions. Team Victorious suggested we might want to do a light trail, which was really interesting. Both of them had quite rigorous marketing plans they wanted to put to us which we are certainly going to take a look at.

Adam Towers:
I’m feeling quite crestfallen. I think we had a lot of ideas, a lot of really strong ideas, but maybe we could have concentrated them a little bit better.

Hannah Barton:
Team Dynamic have won, and I feel really pleased, I’m surprised, but really pleased. What contributed to our success today? I think we worked together really quite well, when we were in the presentation, and we had quite a nice Q&A where we all got to answer a question and kind of bounced off each other a bit which I think showed we had a good understanding of our proposal.
 

2024 is a year of great importance to Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council and to Calderdale. It marks our 50-year anniversary, an important milestone that will allow us to reflect on what has been achieved in the last five decades, and the celebration of our Vision 2024 our aspiration for Calderdale, which we launched in 2018. Our vision for Calderdale in 2024 is to be a place where you can realise your potential whoever you are, whether your voice has been heard or unheard in the past. A place where talent and enterprise can thrive. A place defined by our innate kindness and resilience, how people care for each other, are able to recover from setbacks, are full of hope. Calderdale will stand out, be known, and be distinctive. A great place to visit, but most importantly, a place to live a larger life.

Talent, Enterprise, Kindness, Resilience and Distinctive are the five key themes driving our Vision 2024 for Calderdale. The Vision and our Council priorities set the framework for our performance management and our prioritisation. We consider how, together with our partners and communities, we can overcome the challenges ahead, celebrate our successes and strive to achieve our aspirations for our place, building on the progress made since we adopted the Vision in 2018.