Kirklees council has plans for the Piazza to become the Cultural Heart of Huddersfield.
Council chiefs revealed that they had purchased the Piazza shopping centre to repurpose the area as part of their ‘Cultural Heart’ plans.

This is part of a larger plan to rejuvenate several areas of Huddersfield Town centre over the next ten years, costing £250 million.

Huddersfield Cultural Heart is planned to be centred around the current library and art gallery. The plans show the retail buildings around the Piazza being demolished and the lawn area extended, creating a large open space for public activities.

The Grade 2 listed Queensgate market is safe from being demolished, but will instead be repurposed as a live events venue.

The council is considering converting the market into a 700-1000 capacity live music venue which will include creative studios and tuition spaces; this is planned to be completed by 2023.

Other projects as part of the Huddersfield Blueprint plan include:
• Enhancing Huddersfield train station with larger seating areas and new aesthetics, as well as converting St George’s Warehouse ‘s bottom floor into a car park.
• Refurbishment of the open market making room for parking space, more pop up shops and creative businesses.
• Refreshing St Peter’s gardens, planting more trees and including more benches 
• Refurbishing the derelict building on New Street South, as well as reducing clutter on pedestrian pathways and designating more green areas.
• Improvements to the bus station
For more information, go to : https://www.kirklees.gov.uk/beta/huddersfield-blueprint/pdf/huddersfield...

Artists rendition of the final Piazza Plans (image from Kirklees Council)

More than 2,000 new words have been added to the Scrabble dictionary this year.

The new edition of Collins Offical Scrabble compiled a wide selection of new vocabulary that will challenge players in scoring a high point word. 

Words like ''fleek'' and ''yowza'' adopted from modern culture and social media have made it to the new list, based on their trending status and spikes in usage. 

The words largely reflect the progressive world we live in, through gender-focused pronouns like "transperson" and political words including 'remainer', that was increasingly used during the EU referendum. 

Will these new words help you score an articulate victory?

Image credit: Image 1 by Olivia Russell. Image 2 by http://flickr.com/photo/48778414@N04/5933744655