Month: June 2011

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.

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.

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 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.