MP Calls for Replacement Hostel
Tom Levitt, MP for High Peak and a member of the All-Party Parliamentary Youth Hostelling Group (or Westminster Local Group, as I suppose we might call it), has a beef with the YHA. When Buxton YH was closed in 2002, the YHA made a commitment to find a replacement in the town. Nearly six years later there’s still no sign of a hostel in Buxton.
According to a report in the Buxton Advertiser, Mr Levitt has voiced his disappointment at this delay:
I am very disappointed. I know the YHA has been looking at a number of premises in the town and they still believe Buxton can play an important strategic point in their youth hostel network.
But although they have had support from High Peak Borough Council in trying to find the right location they haven’t been able to find a suitable site or building, so far.
Of course, suitable properties – and the money to buy them – don’t appear by magic. Maybe the downturn in the property market might place one or two more of them within YHA’s reach.
Buxton’s certainly somewhere that should have a youth hostel. Not only is it an attractive spa town on the north west edge of the Peak District, it has important bus and rail links for car-free visitors. Let’s hope this gap in the network can be plugged soon.
One thing’s for sure though – we won’t see a Coldingham-style community buy out of the old hostel. It’s been demolished and replaced with a block of flats!
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I hope if they do find somewhere it’s closer to the centre of town. 30 years ago I used to go to Buxton most Fridays and if it was raining I used to get soaked between the bus station and the hostel :)