THE CONTEXT

• We have been thinking about the outdoor space around the Hotel in the centre of Todmorden. For several years we have been talking to our community in Todmorden through local events, workshops to draw up the Neighbourhood plan, Todmorden Town Council Forums, The Todmorden Development Board and directly to Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council.

• We have joined in all collaborations of ideas that we can, and have worked with local landscape designer Emma Reed and Rosaly Kortz from Straw Works, to come up with two suggestions so far on how to develop the area around the Hotel.

• Our ideas are focused on providing a Town Centre for Todmorden. This would include placing the Hotel so that it can interact with both the existing Methodist Church and the Town Hall for the staging of joint events. Together with Todmorden Learning Centre in the former Todmorden College and the Hippodrome Theatre this would give Todmorden the ability to host much larger events that require accommodation for their participants.
  

• Our ideas for the Hotel include tiered steps around 3 sides so that people can congregate there for eating lunch, having a brew, chatting, and also watching events being held outdoors in the Pollination Street green area.
  

• We have deliberately not included a café or restaurant within the Hotel itself so that we can work collaboratively with the many independent cafes, caterers and restaurants of the town including outdoor market food stalls.

  
  

• Recently ideas have been put forward to gift the land to the Calder Valley Community Land Trust (CVCLT) so that it remains in the ownership of all of us, to include affordable and zero carbon housing for the elderly; to have pop-up market stalls and so on. The Todmorden Strawbale Hotel BenCom is able and willing to coordinate ideas for an overall design and raise the required money to apply for planning permission.
  

THE SETTINGS

EMMA REED