A further public consultation evening will give local residents a say on plans for a new headquarters for Holbeck Police on Elland Road.

The proposed site of the new Holbeck Police HQ

The ‘community involvement event’, which will take the form of a drop-in session, will be held in the Reaney Suite at Leeds United’s football ground on Monday, March 5 (7pm-9pm). The police have already held several meetings to discuss the proposals.

The new HQ would replace outdated facilities at Millgarth, the Bridewell and on Burton Road.

In a letter to residents this week, police say activity will ‘soon’ start on site as a number of trees need to be felled before the spring nesting season so wildlife isn’t disturbed.

Tim Shepherd, senior project manager, writes:

“Tree removal/management will be part of an overall landscaping scheme which will be agreed with the Local Authority and will ultimately ensure that there is no loss of amenity to the surrounding areas. We can confirm that more trees will be planted than will be felled as a result of the final scheme. We can also reassure you that work to trees subject to Tree Preservation Orders will only take place with agreement from the Local Authority.

 ”We would like to apologise in advance for any inconvenience caused; please be assured that we will take all reasonable measures to minimise any disturbance caused while the works are carried out.”

The scheme is still to go before councillors to receive planning permission.

The developer behind The Greenhouse could resurrect South Leeds Sports Centre

Innovative Leeds’ sustainable developer Citu is celebrating again as the team picked up their 30th award for Greenhouse, their pioneering low carbon development in Beeston.

Greenhouse was cited by judges at the Leeds Architecture Awards as “a successful and courageous undertaking” as the development netted the award for Best Altered Building.
 

Greenhouse was born out of 1930’s workers lodge Shaftesbury House, which Citu transformed into a modern, high tech, low carbon mixed use development, now often referenced as ‘a building of the future’ and houses a community of 250 residents and 50 office workers.
Shaftesbury House was earmarked for demolition when Citu registered interest in the site, after being derelict for 10 years.

Citu Director, Chris Thompson said:

“It’s great to win this award and we’re really proud of what we’ve achieved with Greenhouse. It was important to us to utilise as much of the original building as possible and having stripped it down and built it back up again, it now has a real future.

“The design of the building is key to its identity but we were also keen to ensure the internal structure contributed to the overall vision. The courtyard was in existence in essence and we loved this layout of the original building. With the deli, gym and allotments that are now incorporated within it, this space now provides a real community hub that’s at the heart of the building.”

A whole host of renewable technologies are at work to make Greenhouse the multi award-winning low carbon development that it is including an open loop borehole and ground source heat pump system; solar thermal panels; wind turbines and grey water recycling.

Fancy swallowing some live snails to eat the phlegm off your chest and cure your TB? Or perhaps taking mercury to cure syphilis? Perhaps some liquorice could cure your whooping cough?

Those were two of the 19th century ‘quack’ cures the Middleton Life history project crew discovered during their trip to Thackray Museum yesterday.

The museum highlights the health and wellbeing of people living in Leeds from the early 19th century right through to modern day. It covers a time where there was no sanitation or clean water, when people lived in cellar dwelligns with their livestock and when working class people had a life expectancy of just 25 years.

We followed the plight of Hannah, a real girl from Leeds who lived in a cellar dwelling in 1831. She worked at Marshall Mills in Holbeck with her mother and broke both her legs in an accident there. Her mother waited 10 days before carrying her to the new LGI where they amputated her leg – without anaesthetic and in filthy conditions. Sadly she died 10 days later from infection.

In 1890 one in seven babies in Leeds died before their first birthday due to the poor conditions.

Some of the conditions people lived in just 150 years ago were shocking. Conditions in Middleton would have been pretty similar.

More recently Middleton Life member Christine Thornton recalled her father having all his teeth pulled out on the kitchen table in their Middleton home.

Members enjoyed their fact-finding trip about how life – and health – used to be. Next week we’re off to the National Coalmining Museum. For more information about Middleton Life, contact John Baron on 270 6903.

It’s run on community spirit, goodwill and little money – but Middleton Park FC is providing a lifeline for around 170 players of both sexes aged from four to 47 years old in Middleton and Belle Isle.

Curiously for a club called ‘Middleton Park’, its base isn’t in the famous stretch of parkland, but rather in Cranmore Drive in Belle Isle. Founder Wayne Dixon says the club’s named after Middleton Park High School which used to be near the leisure centre, and also after the Middleton Park electoral ward it covers.

Wayne started the club in 1994 in a bid to get youngsters off street corners and give them something to do. He said:

“I love football, and it all started when I was having a kickabout on some fields in Middleton and some kids asked if I would start a team up. Things went from there. We were run out of my mum’s shed to begin with, then we moved to a big green container. We’ve now taken over the Cranmore and Reylands Community Centre as a base.

“We’re run solely by volunteers, everybody gives up their time for free to run 11 teams. We welcome people of all backgrounds – girls, boys both welcome. We’ve got around 30 different nationalities here. We make this a community space where everyone’s welcome.”

Coaching kids with special needs is in the pipeline. And the clubhouse is also available to hire.

The club will be hosting a club social evening for all the family on Saturday 25th February. Everyone welcome to enjoy the disco and much more from 6pm-11pm at our clubhouse on Cranmore Drive.

For more details about the club visit their website or call 0785 2311717.

A new healthy cooking course has started to help people improve their cooking skills. It runs every Monday at Cross Flatts Primary School. See the poster below for more:

The Hunslet Club  is hosting a night to remember for all Northern Soul lovers. Saturday 25th Feb, 7pm until late. A Northern Soul DJ will be playing Mowtown & footstomping, flipping, spinning and handclapping northern soul with a wooden dance floor and bar.

The music that became dubbed Northern Soul started in the early Seventies and became a major craze. The dancers who dazzled with back flips, head stands spins and splits were as important as the music. Tickets are £5, available from the club reception in advance or on the door.

The Hunslet Club has become a popular venue for parties, entertainments and wedding receptions.

 

Councillors on the South Inner Area Committee have continued with their commitment to St Luke’s Cares by agreeing to support the scheme for an additional six months.

Councillor Angela Gabriel (Labour, Beeston and Holbeck), chair of the committee, is delighted her colleagues have approved funding for £28,301 to help St Luke’s with their youth club provisions throughout South Leeds.

 The aim of the project is to provide a mix of youth activities for young people aged 8-12 years. The money will allow this to happen across several sites, including Cottingley Youth Club, Beeston Village Community Centre and at the Balmorals in Hunslet in addition to allowing a youth bus service to operate.

 Cllr Gabriel said she was delighted that families throughout Beeston, Holbeck, Hunslet and Middleton will benefit from the funding, which she believes will help to make Leeds a Child Friendly City.

Cllr Gabriel said:

“One of the best aspects of my role is to chair a committee when we get to approve decisions like this. It is an absolute pleasure to support St Luke’s Cares for an additional six months with the invaluable work they do for youngsters across South Leeds.

 “The activities are well organised and pitched at the right level. I am really impressed with the young leader and life skills programme which targets young people at risk of committing crimes and encourages them to become positive local community leaders.

 “Our vision for Leeds includes making Leeds a Child Friendly City with Stronger and Safer Communities and the work St Luke’s Cares does really does go hand in hand with those aims.”

South Leeds Sports Centre in Beeston

Campaigners fighting to get South Leeds Sports Centre reopened will today lobby councillors before a meeting of the full council at Leeds Civic Hall.

Councillors are meeting to set the budget in Leeds for the next financial year – a budget which sees the council attempting to save £55 million and cut 400 jobs. Full details of the proposed budget can be viewed on the Labour-run council’s website.

SPLASH campaigner Sally Cieslik said:

“If you can make it please come to the Civic Hall at around 11.45am today to lobby councillors about cuts and remind that we want our Sports Centre reopened.

“Please meet at the back of the Civic Hall (opposite the Rose Bowl). Banners etc are welcome.”

 

Splash has also announced that the next meeting to organise its 1st April Olympic walk to highlight closed buildings in the area is on Monday 27 February at Hillside at 7.30pm (half an hour later than usual). 

The sports centre closed in November 2010 following a lengthy campaign to keep it open. Council officials cited falling user numbers and budget cuts as the main reasons for its closure.

Andy Hardy, the traffic manager at Middleton Railway, has written this guest post about a special anniversary and the biggest event in the railway’s history in June.

This year, on June 24th the Middleton Railway will be celebrating an important anniversary. On that day 200 years ago, the first commercially successful steam locomotives designed and built by John Blenkinsop and Matthew Murray started work hauling coal from the colliery into Leeds.

 

Since then, steam locomotives have played an important part in the history of the Middleton Railway. To celebrate this important anniversary the Middleton Railway is pleased to announce two further visiting locomotives for its “200 Years of Steam Gala” on the 23rd and 24th June, making it the biggest event in the railway’s history.

 

To accompany the already announced visit of Steam Elephant from Beamish, the railway has secured the oldest working standard gauge locomotive to run on the world’s oldest working steam railway. Furness No.20, built in 1863 by Sharp Stewart & Co will be the first tender locomotive to visit the railway in preservation, and will join the railways fleet of home-based engines running an intensive service of passenger and freight trains.

 

The organisers are also pleased to announce that the Vintage Carriage Trusts locomotive Bellerophon will also be visiting the event. This locomotive built in 1874 will allow the Middleton Railway to operate 5 locomotives over one hundred years old, along with a replica locomotive, celebrating a design of nearly 200 years of age.

Other locomotives in traffic will include all the available home fleet, featuring the first gala appearance of the NER H Class 1310, along with our two resident Manning Wardles, Matthew Murray and Sir Berkeley.

Our Engine House museum will also be filled with steam, with three amazing live steam layouts in operation. We hope that 200 live steam model locomotives will be run over the weekend to celebrate the 200 years since steam operation began.

As is normal with our galas, we plan to have a display of traction engines and other steam vehicles on display in our carpark long with other related transport stands and displays.

For those who like ale, the Leeds Brewery Company will be providing refreshments on site. Look out for our own special beer “Middleton Pioneer”.

For more information and latest news, see the events website at: www.middleton2012.com

Please feel free to ask any questions or make any suggestions.

Hope to see you there.

The pioneer of council housing in south Leeds - whose legacy can still be felt in Middleton, Belle Isle and across south Leeds even today - has been commemorated with a historic blue plaque marking his achievements.

St John and St Barnabus Church

Social reformer the Rev Charles  Jenkinson (1887-1949) was also vicar of Holbeck and was responsible for driving the clearance of many of the slum dwellings in the area during the 1930s and replacing them with state-of-the-art council housing. Jenkinson was also the person responsible for the Belle Isle estate and Middleton.

The plaque is on St John and St Barnabas Church, Belle Isle Road, where he moved his congregation to from Holbeck. It was unveiled by the Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Rev Alan Taylor.

In a press release, director of Leeds Civic Trust Dr Kevin Grady said:

“Charles Jenkinson was a very controversial figure in his day, his housing policies were described as ‘The Red Ruin of Leeds.’

“He joined the Council in 1930 with an absolute determination to better the housing conditions of working class people, like his parishioners, who were living in the inner city slums of Leeds. The results of his relentless zeal were the groundbreaking provision of the internationally famous Quarry Hill Flats and the greenfield council housing estates around Leeds.

“Through this work and his subsequent chairmanship of Stevenage New Town Development Corporation, he became a figure of national stature in the sphere of housing improvement.

“The plaque is being placed on the church of St John and St Barnabas, Belle Isle, because he moved here with his parishioners when they were decanted from the slums of Holbeck to the newly-built Belle Isle Council housing estate.”