Residents and organisations are being invited to share the places they would take visitors to experience the best of the town and its communities.

People and organisations across Huddersfield are being invited to nominate their favourite places to take visitors for a walk.

The routes do not have to be scenic, rural or even particularly well known. They could be through a neighbourhood, a town centre, a park or anywhere else that local people care about.

The initiative has been launched by Same Skies, a think tank dedicated to West Yorkshire, as part of an effort to understand what matters most to people across the region.

Once routes have been nominated, Same Skies will join local residents on their walks, with the people who suggested them acting as guides and sharing their knowledge and experiences.

“We are inviting people to invite us for a walk,” said Andrew Wilson, director of Same Skies.

“Our guides will be the experts in their area, and we want to learn from their knowledge and experience. We want to hear about what they think is fantastic, just as much as what could be improved.”

Learning from local people

Same Skies was founded in 2015 and has been joining walks led by local people since 2020.

The organisation says the walks have provided an invaluable opportunity to hear about the wealth of activity taking place at grassroots level across Huddersfield.

It now plans to use the walks to identify issues and opportunities shared by communities across West Yorkshire, while bringing groups from different areas together to develop potential solutions.

“Same Skies takes a citizen-led approach,” said Andrew. “We believe it’s grassroots organisations that have the most to offer for the future of our region. That includes locally-owned commercial businesses, alongside community and voluntary groups.”

Andrew said Same Skies’ role is to identify and champion these organisations, while encouraging regional and local institutions — including Kirklees Council, the NHS and the Mayor of West Yorkshire — to support the work already being carried out by communities.

“We want the first question that anybody in Kirklees Council or the Mayor’s office always asks to be: ‘What are local people already doing about this, and how can we help them do more of it?'” said Andrew.

Walks to form part of new regional initiative

The Huddersfield walks will also form the first stage of a new edition of Same Skies’ Alternative Manifesto Process (AMPlify).

The initiative aims to generate new ideas and highlight existing good practice that could help shape the work of local councils and the Mayor of West Yorkshire.

More than 350 people took part in the first edition of AMPlify, contributing more than 800 hours of their time.

The process resulted in 18 solutions being championed by Same Skies, including new approaches to tackling run-down high streets, the housing crisis and care for older people.

“We will be bringing together the experience of grassroots organisations from different parts of West Yorkshire, along with the best academic research and professional expertise, to create new solutions for the future of our region,” said Andrew.

Looking ahead to the 2028 elections

The new AMPlify process will run for 18 months and is expected to be completed ahead of the 2028 local council and Mayor of West Yorkshire elections.

Same Skies says it will then invite candidates standing in those elections to pledge their support for the solutions developed by citizens in Huddersfield, should they be elected.

Residents and organisations who want to take part are being encouraged to nominate a walk and share the places they believe tell the story of their community.