Brighouse Town Centre Improvements - Your questions answered

A number of roads have been closed for construction work to begin on the western side of town: Commercial Street (between Gooder Street and Park Street), Market Street, West Park Street, Bethel Street (from Park Street to Thornton Square), Briggate (from Thornton Square to the Aldi exit) and Canal Street (from Bethel Street to Ship Street). ). These roads reopen September 2026.

Importantly, access will be maintained for deliveries with the Esh Construction team working closely with business and shop owners to ensure this can happen safely and efficiently.

There will still be access for shoppers, visitors and businesses on foot – the town centre is open for business as normal, even if it will look a bit different.

Esh Construction has their compound in Daisy Street Car Park. You’ll see a secure boundary and site cabins on the site. The rest of the car park, and all the businesses around the area are open as normal.

The UK Government awarded Brighouse £19.1 million pounds for very specific reasons – to improve streets and public spaces:

• A more attractive, safer and cleaner town centre so those who shop, visit and enjoy, spend longer, spend more and return often,
• A better, warmer welcome for those arriving on foot or bicycle, by bus or train, while retaining access for those who need to travel by car,
• A brand new market housing the traders of today and the entrepreneurs of tomorrow,
• A place to come together, providing an event and community space at the heart of the town in the historic Thornton Square, and 
• A focus on the future with investment in apprenticeships, skills and training - building on the town’s manufacturing heritage

How to achieve that has been shaped by over six years of extensive consultation and engagement to ensure the project balanced the aim that unlocks the investment – creating a place that is welcoming and pleasant to spend time, with a focus on people, while continuing to give vital access to the town centre.

The project has been over six years in development, and in that time, there have been consultations, open days and workshops in July 2020, May 2021, October 2022 and May 2023. You can see a full summary of the timeline of consultation and engagement.

Hundreds of people have been involved as part of these engagement processes, on issues like parking, traffic and access. The range of views has been broad – for example, some have suggested completely pedestrianising the town centre, whilst others have been against any pedestrianisation.

This has been led by the Brighouse Town Deal Board, made up of representatives from businesses and the community who all give their time and energy voluntarily, and to which we have recruited throughout the project.

We have had to balance and incorporate these views into proposals which met the ambition of encouraging more people to be able to safely shop, spend time and spend money in our town.

Substantial changes from the initial proposals have already been made based on feedback from the consultations and engagement exercises, and these are incorporated into the work.

The Brighouse BID has produced a map of car parks in the town centre – all of these are within just a few minutes' walk of any shop or business.

On-street parking is available until late September 2026 on: Bethel Street, Park Street, Commercial Street (from Park St eastwards), King Street and Bradford Road.

From late September 2026 access to on-street parking will be via the new western traffic loop (Commercial Street, Market Street and Briggate), and Commercial Street eastwards from Market Street, King Street and Bradford Road.

We will move work to the southern part of the town from the end September 2026, until spring 2027. We will close Bethel Street, Park Street, Park Row, Canal Street and Ship Street to traffic. Bethel Street car park will be closed for most of this period.

Importantly, access will be maintained for deliveries. The Esh Construction team work closely with business and shop owners to ensure this can happen safely and efficiently.

There will still be access for shoppers, visitors and businesses on foot – the town centre is open for business as normal, even if it will look a bit different.

Brighouse town centre remains open. There is a lot of on-street parking which remains available within the town centre. These spaces are accessible for cars from Bethel Street and Bradford Road and extend to Park Street, Commercial Street, King Street and Lawson Road. Diversion routes for parking or dropping people off in the town centre are signposted, and pedestrian access remains in all areas. On-street parking is still free for blue badge holders.

We know it is not currently possible to park on the streets in some parts of the town centre while the construction works take place. We hope for the vast majority all areas will remain accessible, and this was the feedback we had during the extensive engagement exercises, open days and drop-in sessions held in recent months and years.

If there are specific issues about access for particular reasons beyond the above, we can always look at anything extra that can be done. Esh Construction are on site daily and access for deliveries for shops and businesses, and the emergency services, is being maintained at all times. If there is a specific request, please contact the Brighouse Town Centre Improvements project team.

Esh Construction have split the planned work into three phases. The first phase, on the western side of town will be complete by the end of September 2026.

Works then move to the south of the town centre.

Work on the northern and eastern sides of the town centre will start spring 2027.

Yes.

It’s important to emphasise that the town centre is not being fully pedestrianised.

There will still be vehicle access for the vast majority of the town centre. 

The Town Deal investment is not just about the town centre improvements.

Brighouse’s new market is open, packed with stalls offering food, drink, crafts and much more, it’s quickly become an important hub for Brighouse.

Delivering the new market building is a key achievement of the Town Deal, as is a focus on skills and apprenticeships for the future, delivered in part through the Brighouse Industry 4.0 and Skills Hub.

We love Brighouse, and it is performing incredibly strongly as a town centre compared to many others. Brighouse had the opportunity to get nearly £20 million to future-proof the town – this is not money that would have been available for anything else, like filling in potholes for example, but is completely ring-fenced for the particular aims agreed by the UK Government.

Since that point, Calderdale Council and the Town Deal Board – made up of representatives from businesses and the community who all give their time and energy voluntarily, and to which everyone was able to apply to join, have spent over six years putting together the plans.

We’ve put together a timeline of the work that has been happening since 2019 when the Brighouse Town Deal began, setting out where we are now and what’s still to come.

You can also see the huge range of consultations, engagement exercises and discussions that have been had about the project over the years.

We recognise not everyone agrees with every aspect of the transformation, and we also know construction work will be disruptive, but we are determined to work with everyone to deliver a town centre to be proud of long into the future.

We have made some changes to the design of the Brighouse Town Centre Improvements part of project.

We no longer plan to add a cycle lane on Bradford Road. This will allow for 18 parking bays (including 2 disabled bays), instead of the 10 parking bays (including 2 disabled bays) in the original plans.

We have changed the design so that traffic will still be able to use Commercial Street to travel eastbound across the town centre once the project is completed. We will add parking bays here too.

Parts of Commercial Street, Market Street and Briggate will re-open fully to traffic at the end of September 2026. Loading and disabled bays and on-street parking will be reinstated. New traffic regulations will be implemented throughout the whole town centre and include where works have yet to be completed.

We will deliver these changes through a Temporary Traffic Regulation Order – a legal measure which allows the changes to come into force ahead of the full, formal Traffic Regulation Order which will be put in place at the end of the project.

Please email us. The project team will reply as soon as they can.

You can find out about The Brighouse Deal, the six years of consultation and engagement that have happened, and the other projects. 

You can find out about the Brighouse Town Deal Board, what it does and who is on the board. 

Details of other projects in Brighouse and across Calderdale, such as the A641 Improvement Scheme are available too.