Cash injection seals plans for new festival

Councillors on the Batley and Spen District Committee last week agreed to handthe full requested sum over to help the event prosper.

This means the ambitions of organisers from the Cleckheaton Writers Group and Friends of West End Park to host a broad range writers during the festival can become a reality.

If they were to run the four-day festival without a grant, only four to six acts would be have appeared.

Main organiser Karen Naylor said: “We are hopefully having 17 or 18 acts altogether. We’ve got lots of different things to appeal to the whole family – that’s the point of the festival.”

She has also drafted big new names like Mark Wright, who pens Doctor Who books in conjunction with the show and Joanne Harris, writer of Chocolat.

The festival will mainly take place at Cleckheaton Library, with a children’s event due to take place at West End Park’s new outdoor classroom currently being built.

Cleckheaton Literature Festival runs from May 7-10.