Local residents came to Wrangthorn Church Hall this afternoon to protest against Leeds City Council’s plan to establish barbeque areas on the Moor. The plan involves sinking forty concrete slabs to a depth of 60cm on the most attractive part of the Moor in the hope that barbeque-ers will use the slabs to barbeque on instead of burning the grass. Council officers have costed the scheme at £20,000. On a hot day there can be 5,000 people on the Moor and hundreds of barbeques. Officers were unable to suggest where the excess over forty should conduct their barbeques. Leeds City Council seem to have forgotten that they distributed concrete slabs in this very area three years ago but barbeque-ers used the slabs to provide a stable base for wine glasses and bottles instead of for barbeques! They said the closing date for getting forms back to them by is the 23rd April. Many residents pointed out that their own streets had had no survey forms delivered. One of the council officers said if people haven’t had a form, they should email him and he’ll send them one. The question was then put to him “What about the people who should had a form but don’t know they should have had a form?” He seemed unable to provide a response to that question.
Events
Friday’s Barbeque Consultation at the Students’ Union Building
Our councillors are proposing two very large barbeque areas. These will be covered with concrete slabs in the hope that people will rest their barbeques on them. It wasn’t made clear what will happen if people don’t use the slabs or if they barbeque outside the designated areas. They don’t know yet how much all of this will cost if it’s implemented.
10,000 survey forms are to be issued to all households within 800 metres of the park’s perimeter. Included with the survey forms will be prepaid return envelopes. The councillors who’ve made the arrangements for the consultation process are Councillor Penny Ewens (Lib Dem, Hyde Park and Woodhouse), and Councillor Jamie Matthews (Lib Dem, Headingley). At the meeting, there was a display illustrating what’s being proposed, and two Parks and Countryside officers were present to answer questions. Also present was a Students’ Union representative who explained why he believes people should be allowed to barbeque in the park.
While the consultation was going on, a bonfire was blazing on the Moor. Even though fires are currently illegal on the Moor, the people who instigated this one were able to enjoy their blaze with impunity. Given that no action is ever taken against such people, one wonders what the current consultation exercise is all about. Do they think that by making barbeques legal, the problem will go away ? If so, it reveals that for our councillors, the problem is not barbeques – it’s local residents complaining about them, and our council’s failure to uphold the law in our local park. To see photos of the bonfire and its aftermath, and read about it, please go to Woodhouse Moor Online.
Meet Chris Dickinson, INWAC’s Maine Man
I met Chris Dickinson at this afternoon’s consultation event that was held at Wrangthorn Church. Chris is our new local Area Management Officer in charge of the team which provides support to the twelve local councillors who together form INWAC (Inner North West Area Committee). Chris is a native of Maine, who has managed to retain his charming accent, despite having lived in the UK for quite a number of years. He’s very keen to work with residents and councillors to make this a better place for everyone, and with all of his American energy and enthusiasm, I really believe he could succeed.
This afternoon’s event was well attended and there were plenty of people there from council departments and the police to answer questions. There was also a very interesting and attractive display of the Little Woodhouse Neighbourhood Design Statement. This will eventually be published by the council as a Supplementary Planning Guide which then ought to be used to inform planning officers and councillors when deciding whether to approve planning applications.
Leeds City Council want us to tell them what their priorities should be !
There’s to be a consultation event on Monday the 16th March between 2.30pm and 6.30pm at Wrangthorn Church, Hyde Park Corner. The council says it’s a chance for us to “influence local decision making by setting local priorities.” Forever the optimist, I’ll be going along to tell them what needs doing since they don’t seem to know, in the hope that maybe they’ll listen and actually do something. If nothing else it’ll be a chance to meet our local councillors (yes, it seems they are still alive), and put questions to them and our community police officers. Will I see you there ?
Barbeque areas are being proposed for Woodhouse Moor
In response to the clamour of protests from local residents about last year’s mayhem on Woodhouse Moor, when trees and benches were burnt in bonfires, as both the police and Leeds City Council failed to enforce the no-barbeque byelaw, the council has responded – not by taking steps to enforce the byelaw, but by first getting the byelaws changed to make barbeque areas possible in principle, and now by proposing barbeque areas on Woodhouse Moor. There’s to be consultation, but apparently, it’s not aimed at local residents. There are to be two consultation events :
Friday 20th March, 5pm – 7pm at Leeds University Student Union Meeting Room 2 (upstairs in the ARC).
Thursday 26th March, 3pm – 7pm in the Bowls Pavilion, Woodhouse Moor. For a map showing the location of the bowling greens, please click on the words highlighted in green above.
Clearly the views of local residents don’t matter to our councillors, and neither does the waste of public resources given that between the 1st May and the 10th June 2008, the fire brigade was called out to Woodhouse Moor 29 times to extinguish fires (at a total cost of around £66,000 given an average call-out cost of £2,289). This contrasts with just three call-outs to Roundhay Park in the same period.