The Pakistanis in Huddersfield

Huddersfield is the largest town in Kirklees and the headquarter of Kirklees Metropolitan Council, situated with easy access to City of Leeds, Bradford and Halifax in West Yorkshire.

Huddersfield has a large concentration of Pakistanis compared to others areas in Kirklees, for example, Dewsbury, Batley, Heckmondwike which also have relatively less but a significant number of Pakistanis.

In Huddersfield the Pakistanis are mainly concentrated in the areas of Birkby, Crosland Moor, Hillhouse, Lockwood, Moldgreen, Paddock, Springwood and Thornton Lodge.

The Huddersfield PCA is located in the Thornton Lodge area within an easy reach of Lockwood and Paddock areas. Thornton Lodge, Lockwood and Paddock combined have the largest concentration of Pakistanis in Huddersfield.

The Historical development of HPCA

A major research carried out by the Huddersfield University in 1997 into “The Development Needs of the Pakistani community in Huddersfield” identified the Pakistani community as being the most deprived, least involved, and lacking in support and essential services. The ‘community sector’ base was judged to be too narrow thus restricting the scope for volunteering, emergence of fresh ideas and, more seriously, new personalities. A handful of the existing community organisations were just about keeping a number of small projects ticking but these were proving to be totally inadequate against the expanding needs of the community. These projects were also too parochial in their approach, scale and resources. The very style of these structures alienated and kept away the most creative minds of the community particularly the young people and women.

The report suggested a fresh approach to developing a viable community infrastructure for the Pakistani community, cable of moving with the time, imbued with skills and confidence to take forward aspirations and needs of the community into the new millennium.

Following the research report, a working group comprising of representatives from the Voluntary Action Kirklees (VAK), Kirklees Racial Equality Council, Huddersfield Pride Ltd, Kirklees Metropolitan Council and representatives from the Pakistani community ( both from the existing organisations and some new faces) was established to take  forward the recommendations of the report. After much deliberation, the Working Group agreed to the formation of Huddersfield Pakistani Community Alliance, an umbrella platform to spearhead the implementation of recommendations in the research report. The Voluntary Action Kirklees was given the task of supporting the development of the Huddersfield Pakistani Community Alliance with an initial funding of two years for a full time development post.

For the Voluntary Action Kirklees, this represented a major challenge and a unique opportunity for developing and strengthening its links with the Pakistani community. However, if this was to happen, VAK would need to identify and set aside significant resources for this purpose. At the same time, if the initiative was to fulfil its potentials, it had to be nurtured in the full knowledge of the community’s unique cultural, social, and political experiences and its unique ‘mind set’.

With the financial support from the Huddersfield Pride, VAK was able to appoint a fulltime development worker to support the development of the Huddersfield Pakistani Community Alliance Over the last five years, Huddersfield Pakistani Community Alliance has matured into a solid organisation with an excellent work ethics and a track record of successfully developing, managing and delivering a number of essential projects. The organisation also through its leadership programme and its Pakistani Youth Forum has been very successful in engaging, encouraging young people and developing new talent in volunteering and community work.