Copyright bbc
The HTCAP is a £10.3m scheme to create a more accessible town centre. It includes the demolition of the former market hall and extension of the adjacent Huddersfield Road car park. Mary McGuigan is among the retailers to have already shut up shop. "Footfall was down, sales were down," she tells the BBC. As well as being "cut off", Mary's plant shop, Plants in the Holme, was also subject to dust from the works and noise pollution "for months on end". "It was so debilitating," she continues. "There was nothing I could have done about it - it was so upsetting." The former business owner says the roadworks are "non-essential" and have been carried out at "a snail's pace". "It is a dire situation. "It is going to have a detrimental impact on businesses in the area - they are closing down or relocating."
