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Little Woodhouse Community Choir

Photo of St George’s Church courtesy of Dryrot

Staff from Santander help to create a forest garden on Bedford Fields

Bedford Fields is the large area of green space located at the top of Woodhouse Cliff. City of Leeds school now occupies the bulk of the site, and in recent years, the remainder has become badly overgrown with brambles and nettles. But now with help from the staff of Santander in Morley, permaculture enthusiast Joanna Dorman is transforming the area into a forest garden.

The aim is to plant the area with fruit trees with an under-planting of ground cover bushes. Several are already well established and are surrounded by herbs such as borage, hyssop and comfrey. Alder and gorse have also been planted to fix nitrogen in the soil.

A hard-working Santander team member

The team from Santander worked extremely hard this afternoon to help further clear the area, uprooting bramble roots and nettles with energy and enthusiasm, undaunted by the blazing Autumn sun and temperatures reaching into the mid twenties. They also brought wood chippings onto the site so these could be laid onto cardboard that will be used to prevent re-growth from any bramble and nettle roots that might remain in the earth.

Team Santander

Festival of Britain – documentary film

The documentary “1951 Festival of Britain, Brave New World” will be shown on BBC2 at 8PM on Saturday 24th September 2011. It will include footage from “Travelling Exhibition” local film-maker Eric Hall’s short film about the visit of the Festival of Britain Land Travelling Exhbition to Woodhouse Moor.

Plan to remove a section of 30 year old hawthorn hedge at the bottom of Belle Vue Road and replace it with a fence

The history of the hedge

When Barratt Developments was given planning permission in October 1979 (ref 79/26/01088) to build a small housing estate at the bottom of Belle Vue Road, the planning authority imposed the following condition:

Garden/planted areas where they abut footpaths to be used by the public shall be demarcated and bounded by walls, hedges or fencing of a type or style to be approved in writing by the city council before erection or planting and together with the planting and landscaping shown on the plan hereby approved, shall be provided by the developer concurrently with the erection of the houses hereby approved or within one planting season of the commencement of building operations on the site, whichever is appropriate.

And so it was that a hawthorn hedge was planted at the top of the steep grassy bank at the bottom of Belle Vue Road. The hedge borders the entire length of the footpath known as Kendal Walk.

View of Kendal Walk with the hedge on the left

The current planning application

The developer Rushbond has applied for planning permission (reference 11/03649/FU) to replace a section of the now 30 year old hawthorn hedge with a metal railing fence (here are the details). If the scheme goes ahead, Kendal Walk will look less like a country lane, and in the Spring, Summer and early Autumn, people walking along the affected section will no longer brush against protective hawthorn fronds as they pass. Instead of experiencing this close contact with Nature, they will be exposed to the uninspiring view of the tower blocks that comprise the Little Woodhouse student village.

View of the hedge from Belle Vue Road

The argument for removing the hedge

It is being claimed that roots from the hedge are causing the clay sub-soil beneath a two storey extension to 6 Kendal Rise to dry out. It is further claimed that this drying of the sub-soil has led to subsidence of the extension. The claim is based on the finding of a lab report dated 22 September 2009 that a sample of soil taken from 6 Kendal Rise on 8 September 2009 contained roots of the sub-family “Pomoideae.” Because the sub-family Pomoideae includes hawthorn, the inference is that the roots are from the hawthorn hedge. But are they? Several of the gardens of the Kendal estate were planted with hawthorn trees, and the plan that was approved on the 16th May 1980 shows that approval was given for a hawthorn tree in the front garden of 6 Kendal Rise, just in front of where the two storey extension is now located. If hawthorn roots have been found beneath 6 Kendal Rise, it is far more likely that they originate from this on-site hawthorn tree, than from the hedge, as the hedge is further away and on the other side of a tarmac path.

Extract of plan approved 16 May 1980 with added explanation

More likely reasons for subsidence

1. The two storey extension was built too close to a steep slope.
2. The foundations for the two storey extension are not deep enough. Where hawthorn roots are present, foundations should be to a depth of 2.1 metres (see this guide).
3. Covering over the side garden with the two story extension, and the back garden with a very large garage, will have caused the clay sub-soil to dry out.
4. Raising the level of the front garden by adding additional soil to it will have helped the clay-sub-soil to dry out. And by adding even more weight to the top of the slope, the additional soil will have have increased the likelihood of subsidence, already made highly likely by locating the two storey extension on the edge of the slope.
5. Satellite imagery taken on 30 May 2009 shows that at that time, the front garden of 6 Kendal Rise contained a very large cherry tree. This was located very close to the house itself, and has since been cut down, though the remains of its massive trunk remain visible. This tree will undoubtedly have caused drying out of the clay sub-soil.
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   Satellite imagery taken on 30 May 2009 showing a large cherry tree in the garden of 6 Kendal Rise

Possible reasons to refuse this application

1. Hedges are easy to maintain, whereas fences fall down if they are not maintained.
2. Fences are subject to vandalism.
3. This is a very windy hillside. Hedges diffuse winds.
4. Hedges reduce noise.
5. Hawthorn is the perfect hedging for nesting birds.
6. Birds can roost in hedges. They cannot roost on metal railings.
7. Hedges support insect life.
8. In Spring, this hedge is covered in beautiful scented white May blossom, and in Autumn with colourful red berries, which birds such as blackbirds love to eat in the Winter when food is scarce.
9. Hedges renew themselves every Spring. Fences become tatty and covered in graffiti.
10. The hedge is situated at the top of a steep grassy bank. The roots of the hedge will be helping to stop the earth from falling down the bank. This is probably why the hedge was insisted upon by the planning authority as part of a soft landscaping condition when planning permission was granted to build the Kendal estate.
11. The hedge is a planning condition imposed by the local authority on the developer when planning consent was granted in October 1979.
12. The proposed fence would block a path down the grassy bank that people have been using for the past 30 years.
13. Hawthorn is a native British species which can live up to 400 years. Planners often insist on native species when attaching soft landscaping conditions to planning consents.
14. Hawthorn does not have a large root system. This may explain why it is so often planted immediately adjacent to paths and houses.
15. The hedge has been a prominent and highly valued feature of the local landscape for 30 years. People would miss it.

Information about Hawthorn

gardenguides.com (online article)

The Love of Money

It’s three years since Leeds Girls High School left for Alwoodley. That’s three years in which local children could have been playing on the tennis courts and green spaces of the Leeds Girls High School site. The reason this hasn’t happened is because the School is determined to get as much money as possible for the site even though it no longer requires the land itself (having been allowed planning permission to build a new School on farmland acquired very cheaply at Alwoodley).

Three years ago, the School submitted planning applications to build on the Headingley site, and when these were refused last November, the School appealed against the refusals. And that’s where we are now.

Over 1,300 people objected to the School’s planning applications, and over 1,000 people signed a petition asking for the playing fields to be acquired for the use of the community. The heads of the five local primary schools have all asked for the same thing. And all the local councillors have objected to the planning applications and both MPs.

Given the overwhelming desire of an entire community to acquire this open space for the use of some of the most deprived children in the city, it’s hard to believe that anyone within the community would set out to thwart the community’s aspiration simply in order to obtain money.

A couple of years ago, following lobbying from Headingley Development Trust, INWAC councillors agreed that any off-site affordable housing contributions arising in any of the four INWAC wards should be paid to Headingley Development Trust. At last August’s meeting of Plans West, the School’s representative announced that the affordable housing contribution from the Leeds Girls High School site would amount to £1.7 million. So, if the planning applications had been approved, HDT could have expected to receive £1.7 million. And if the School’s appeal is successful, HDT will similarly benefit.

The School’s barrister made much at today’s hearing of the fact that the Headingley and Hyde Park Neighbourhood Design Statement refers to desirability of there being “new development in a landscaped setting” on the Leeds Girls High School site. The Headingley and Hyde Park Neighbourhood Design Statement was produced by Headingley Development Trust.

The School’s barrister said today that it’s quite possible that should the School win the appeal, that it will sell off the site piecemeal. If this happens, there will very likely be fresh planning applications, and Headingley Development Trust may have to wait quite a while before it sees its money – if indeed it ever does see it.

Thoughts at the Leeds Girls High Public Inquiry

At the Inquiry today

At the Inquiry today. the School appeared to have accepted that there’s a shortage of courts in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse, and Headingley areas, but maintained that if parents here were serious about their children playing tennis, they would drive them to tennis courts further afield. The School also maintained that the children themselves could travel by bus to these other courts.

The School’s website lists 25 tennis courts at its Alwoodley site and says that they are all to be floodlit. According to Lawn Tennis Association figures, that’ll be enough tennis courts to cater for 1,500 tennis players. Currently the School has 2,207 pupils. That means that the School expects 68% of its pupils to be tennis players. This compares with the Lawn Tennis Association finding that just 2% of the population play tennis. In terms of tennis courts, that’s an over-provision by the School of 3,400%

John the Baptist said, “Let the man who has two coats give one to the man who has none.” But even though the School has 25 tennis courts out at Alwoodley, built on land acquired cheaply at green belt prices, they’re not prepared to part with any of the courts they no longer require at Headingley, for anything less than market value.

Public Inquiry highlights Leeds University’s failure to provide tennis courts for its 33,000+ students

In response to evidence provided by the community which shows that Hyde Park and Woodhouse, and Headingley wards are severely lacking in terms of tennis court provision, the School is claiming that this evidence should be adjusted to exclude the large student population living in the area. The community’s evidence took the form of charts using Lawn Tennis Association standards applied to local population data. In response the School has supplied charts which are identical in every respect to the community’s except that they exclude the area’s student population. The School is arguing that the area’s students should be using the University’s own tennis facilities.

But what and where are these facilities, and are they adequate for the university’s 33,000+ student population ?

Using the LTA standard, which reckons that 2% of the population plays tennis, the university should be providing either 16 un-floodlit courts or 11 floodlit courts for its 33,000+ students. But instead, the university provides just 6 tennis/five-a-side football courts at Weetwood. So there are just 6 courts, and student tennis players are having to compete for their use with five-a-side football players. That the university is not providing sufficient courts, or even accessible courts is demonstrated by the fact that the university men’s and women’s tennis teams advertise organised tennis and coaching on Woodhouse Moor and at Batley, outside Leeds.

The university’s failure to provide adequate tennis provision for its students is a tragedy not just for its students, but for local people who are having to compete with students for the use of the already inadequate public tennis courts on our local parks.

The tennis court shortage within a one mile radius of Leeds Girls High School

The area shaded yellow on the above map shows all the ‘output areas’ within an approximate one mile radius of Leeds Girls High School (output areas are small geographic units used by the Office for National Statistics to show population related data based on census information).

At the time of the 2001 census, the output areas within a one mile radius of Leeds Girls High School contained 52,307 people. According to the Lawn Tennis Association, about 2% of the population plays tennis. This means that the area shaded yellow contains 1,046 tennis players. The Lawn Tennis Association has found that one outdoor un-floodlit court can service the needs of 40 tennis players. Within the yellow shaded area, there are 9 usable courts (6 on Woodhouse Moor and 3 in Burley Park) and 4 unusable courts (on the Elida Gibbs Recreation Ground). This all means that the area within a one mile radius of Leeds Girls High School requires an additional 17 outdoor un-floodlit tennis courts in order to provide the minimal number of courts to service the tennis playing population.

This evidence was today placed before the Inspector at the Leeds Girls High School planning inquiry.

Conservation Area Appraisal – This afternoon’s meeting at Wrangthorn Church Hall

This afternoon’s meeting was very well attended and began with a talk given by Tony Ray. This was followed by a question and answer session in which Phil Ward answered questions and also listened to residents’ concerns about enforcement issues relating to Conservation Areas. In response to these concerns, it was pointed out that getting the Conservation Area established is a starting point, after which, enforcement becomes a possibility.

It was a lively and good humoured meeting, and after it was over, almost everyone I spoke to told me what a good idea they think the Conservation Area is.

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