KEY NUMBERS IN BRIEF
£356,700 = Piece Hall surplus
£244,505 = New Calderdale Council borrowing
£450,000 = Calderdale Council SLA Grant
£3,684,505 = Total Piece Hall debt
When the council’s scrutiny committee met in January to consider the Piece Hall’s future funding the amount of surplus, the new council borrowing, and the record debt were not discussed.
At that meeting, the chair of the children and young people’s scrutiny board, Cllr Leah Webster, told the committee: “When we’re in a funding situation like we are and we’re making cuts to disabled children’s access to childcare… it’s very difficult then to be looking at this as something that’s not one of those nice-to-haves.”
The accounts record average staff numbers falling from 119 to 63, with the reduction falling overwhelmingly on casual and seasonal staff; a wage bill down from just under £3m a year to £2.2m -a saving larger than the surplus itself; marketing expenditure of £5,778 for the year; and repairs to the Grade I listed building reduced for the third consecutive year, to £78,294. In the same year, a “Restoration Levy” on gig tickets raised £143,000. No restricted or designated fund for the levy appears in the accounts. The £750,000 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, by contrast, is held in a named restricted fund and was spent in full.
The accounts also require a correction to our Part 1 reporting, which put the Trust’s loans at £3.4m. We can now reveal following inspection of the latest accounts that total borrowings across the Trust and its trading company stood at £3,684,505 at the September year-end -the highest in its history. Of that, £3,164,505 is owed to Calderdale Council, a figure confirmed in the council’s own audited accounts. The remaining £520,000 is owed to a lender not named in any filed document. During the same financial year, the Trust drew a further £244,505 of council lending, the first new council loan since 2020-21, in addition to the £450,000 annual grant.
From April 2027 the loans begin to carry interest and repayments, a larger annual sum than this year’s surplus.
In a statement to Calderdale Inside Out, the new council leader, Cllr Dan Sutherland, said the administration is investigating “what the Council was aware of regarding the Piece Hall Trust’s finances at the time the SLA was agreed.”
The Piece Hall Trust have been approached for comment.
Check out part 1 of our investigation below.
The Piece Hall, The Trust, The Council, and your money
I love the Piece Hall. Growing up I sold copies of the Halifax Evening Courier outside the Westgate entrance. I was there when the ‘Multi-Coloured Swop Shop’ turned up complete with Keith Chegwin and Maggie Philbin. And I’ve watched it transform from down-at-heel Saturday market to a unique and much-loved gig venue. So, for me, this is a bitter-sweet in…
Next episode: car parking in Calderdale -a major review is under way, we’ll be investigating the past, present, and future of car parking charge in Calderdale. And if you have a story you’d like us to look into get in contact: calderdaleinsideout@icloud.com
