Blackshaw Parish Council was created in 1894 out of the much larger and ancient Stansfield Township as part of a major national re-organisation of local administration.
The Parish Council has 7 Councillors, who are elected every four years with the next election scheduled for May 2012. The Council normally meets in Blackshaw Head Methodist Church although meetings could be held in the nearby Hebden Bridge Town Hall, as part of an agreement with Calderdale Council dating back to 1974. Meetings are held on the fourth Monday of the month except in May and December.
The May meeting is also the Annual Parish Council Meeting when the Chair for the year has to be elected. According to statute the Chair is still known as “Chairman”. The May meeting is normally held on the second Monday of May because Parish Council elections are normally the first Thursday in May after which the Council is legally required to meet within ten days.
The May meeting is preceded by the Annual Parish Meeting to which members of the public are invited. All meetings of the Parish Council are open to the Press, members of the public and at the discretion of the Chair everyone is allowed to speak. Meetings are publicised on the two official notice boards and via email to the Blackshaw Googlegroup.
The WayaHead Committee
The WayaHead Committee is responsible for developing the Parish Action Plan and meets on the second Tuesday of the month. The Chair of the Committee is usually not a Councillor. Being a small Council all the Councillors are members of the committee but they are usually outnumbered by local residents who become members by attending.
You can read/download a variety of documents in the PARISH COUNCIL ARCHIVE AREA
Information About Blackshaw Parish
Blackshaw is a predominantly rural South Pennine Parish within the area of Calderdale Metropolitan Borough Council and is a part of the Calder Valley Parliamentary Constituency. The bulk of the Parish is part of the Calder Terrace moorland fringe and upland pasture framed by the moorland tops, Noah Dale, the wooded Colden and Jumble Hole Cloughs and crossed by the Pennine Way. The Parish stretches from the valley settlement of Charlestown on the busy A646 between Hebden Bridge and Todmorden to the high moorland plateau on the border with Lancashire at Hoof Stones Height (479 metres high). The upland settlement of Blackshaw Head sits on the ancient trans-Pennine “Long Causeway” 12 miles from Halifax and 7 miles from Burnley. On 1 December 2009 there were 399 people registered on the electoral roll for Blackshaw and 323 for Charlestown. It is estimated that there is a population of approximately 1,000 people.
The Parish has one Church, known as Blackshaw Head Methodist Church or Chapel, and one pub The New Delight.
The area is served by two primary schools, Colden Junior and Infants and Hebden Royd, both of which are just outside the Parish Boundary.
There are no shops in the Parish but the nearby award winning “Mays” farm shop at Colden provides an excellent service not only delivering newspapers and magazines but also providing an invaluable delivery service to the elderly and housebound.
You can see the Google map of the area HERE
