No regrets over 'natural churn' closures comment

A SENIOR councillor who blamed "natural churn" for the decline of Huddersfield's high street earlier this year says he does not regret his comments despite some backlash.

- By ABIGAIL MARLOW

Earlier this year, the town centre saw a raft of closures, with big names like Beaverbrooks, Footasylum and The Slug and Lettuce, KFC and BrewDog closing down. The level of departures was branded a "crisis" by Leader of the Green Group, Clr Andrew Cooper, who wanted to know the council's plan for addressing the problem at a Cabinet meeting in February.

At the time, Cabinet Member for Finance and Regeneration, Clr Graham Turner, put some of the closures down to "natural churn", leaving Clr Cooper "flabbergasted".

Councillor Turner's earlier comments were brought to the attention of Full Council this week as Almondbury ward councillor David Longstaff (Lib Dems) said he had received a lot of negative feedback from members of the public in response.

In a written question, he asked Clr Turner whether he regretted his comments, to which Clr Turner replied: “Je ne regrette rien” - ‘I regret nothing’.