Road Closure at Charlestown: What we know.

Updated 22 January 2025

The road will be opening under a 2-way lights system from 6am, Thursday 23rd January.

Updated: 10 January 2025

A further update from Calderdale Councillor Sarah Courtney on Facebook, through her and Calderdale Council’s communications with Yorkshire Water, states that, due to further complications during reapirs and recent extreme weather conditions, the reopening of Halifax Road is delayed.

The new hopes are that a partial road reopening under 2-way managed traffic lights is possible from Monday 27th January.

Updated: 6 January 2025

Following an update from Calderdale Councillor Sarah Courtney last week, it was stated that the plan is to work towards re-opening the road under 2-way managed lights, from Monday 13th January.

Updated: 20 December 2024

The road closure at Charlestown near Callis Bridge, towards Hebden Bridge has been a cause of many issues with traffic and has been well documented in the recent days.

With this situation being managed by Yorkshire Water and Calderdale Council as the Highways Authority, they are the appropriate bodies to lead communications, but we’ve compiled a short list of contacts and information that we hope will be helpful.

Jonathan Timbers, Israr Ahmed and Sarah Courtney are the Calderdale Councillors for the Calder Ward and have all been posting updates on the closure and are in contact with Yorkshire Water to keep on top of what’s happening. We recommend following them on Facebook as they are likely to be the best sources of information.

The road is accessible right up to the road closure, there is no through road to Hebden Bridge but it’s important to note that the businesses along this stretch towards Hebden are still open for custom during this time.

We’ve been advised that more signage has been delivered/ is in transit, which we hope will help alert people that businesses are still open, whilst directing to suitable diversions.

We advise following the official diversion route of Littleborough/Cragg Vale, the A58, or the M62 between Milnrow and Ainley Top for HGVs. These roads are much more suited for heavy use.

Rural areas like Cross Stone, Blackshaw Head, Colden and Heptonstall are unsuitable for heavy traffic. These are narrower country lanes and can be difficult to manoeuvre even when the roads are quiet. Residents in these areas are noticing severe traffic, deteriorating roads, and blockages due to unsuitable vehicles, so we strongly advise against using these routes.

West Yorkshire Metro announced that the buses to Halifax will divert over the A58 route, and Tetley’s bus company are running a shuttle service from Todmorden Bus Station stand D, to the Eastwood area. It will operate between 9am to 5pm and departs Todmorden at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour.