Tonight’s meeting was arranged by Sphere, a non profit organization dedicated to the promotion of sport. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss Sphere’s bid to be allowed to use the Chestnut Avenue sports facilities on behalf of the community. Speakers included Martin Oxley (Futsal Project Coordinator), John Davison (Futsal Community Coach and local resident), Will Ryder (Active Learning), and Sophie Michelena (Development Trust Association).
Martin Oxley I’ve met with School governor Ken Morton who was very receptive to what we’re proposing. Without planning permission, the value of the playing field is about £12,000. No one is maintaining the site. When we inspected the sports hall, we found 9 inches of water on the roof with leaves blocking the flow of water into the drainpipes. The swimming pool’s filtration system doesn’t work and would need to be replaced. Black mould is everywhere and there are issues with salmonella and legionnaires disease. Also because it was it was a single sex school, there are only single sex changing rooms.
Cllr Martin Hamilton The School will be waiting for the outcome of its appeals on the Main School and Rose Court sites before deciding on whether to submit planning applications to develop the Chestnut Avenue site. Meanwhile, a perfectly good building has been left empty. Why can’t the School allow the Community to use it, on at least a 6 month, 9 month lease? They have nothing to lose, and if anything, this will give them brownie points with the public.
Sophie Michelena So far, the School has not considered anything on a non commercial basis. But since the recession hit, “meanwhile leases” have been used to allow property that can’t be sold, to be used for community use. “Meanwhile leases” protect both properties and landowners.
Tony Green That’s a fantastic idea. Who will be responsible for insurance?
Sophie Michelena The group would pay insurance and local rates.
Amit Roy Leeds Girls High School has always had the best facilities in the city, but they have been behaving like locusts. We looked after them, respected them, but like locusts, when they leave, they gobble you up.
What will be here in the future? In a hundred, 200 years. Will there be any grass anywhere? We are blessed in this area in terms of the groups we have. The students leave a little bit of themselves behind.
Bill McKinnon Do we have an idea of the costs involved with the swimming pool, in terms of fixing it and running it?
Amit Roy These facilities are on the doorstep of the local schools. The savings they would make by using these facilities could be used to offset the cost.
Tony Crooks What about affixing solar panels to the roof to reduce costs? Some businesses are doing this, using the electricity, and selling the excess.
Sophie Michelena In the last few weeks, grants of up to £150,000 have been talked about for developing facilities and pitches for the use of sports. The full details have not yet been released.
Sue Buckle This area has some of the worst development in Leeds. It is more densely populated than Moss Side in Manchester and Tower Hamlets in London. The area needs the project and needs the pool.
Local schools would support this project. They have just 29% of the government recommended amount of playing playing pitch space.
Woodhouse Moor is the most intensely used area of green space in Leeds. Small groups play cricket, football, basketball, because there’s nowhere else for them to play. The community needs more green space. There is a real need for what you are proposing, including the swimming pool.
Will Ryder We are looking for partners We will be looking for declarations of interest from other groups…
Martin Oxley It would be a requirement for the groups involved to be active in the community in terms of giving something back, e.g working in the local schools.
Nigel Republica Internationale adult and ladies football club would be interested in using the pitches. They would provide an income stream. However it is the community that takes priority. We need to get local volunteers involved.
Man How does the community get involved?
Martin Oxley We make sure the community is involved by all the groups using the facilities doing a degree of community coaching in the area.
Lady 1 So that the facility is not overwhelmed by clubs from other areas, we should have people involved from the local community on the board of directors, i.e from the local schools, so people in the area have a voice on its direction.
Martin Oxley No one particular group would have control It is a quite open project.
Lady 2 Will there be open access to the sports pitches? i.e Will it be open for people to just turn up and play?
Martin Oxley There may be health and safety issues with that, either in principle or practice.
John Davison It would be good to have some open access for let’s say a father and son, or other people turning up to play. I don’t know how it would work in practice. The facilities may get messed up, with dog mess, broken glass etc.
Sophie Michelena Maybe we could have the fields or one of the fields with open access for one day a week?
Sue Buckle The Royal Park Community Consortium are totally behind you. We feel this would be good for the RPCC and good for HEART.
Martin Oxley We can do something really good that will be self sustainable. We will try to do what people want.
What is the latest news?
Hi Dan. The latest news is that Sphere has agreed to include the six tennis courts on the Main School and Rose Court sites in their bid. Meanwhile, the School has put the Chestnut Avenue site up for sale, but on the basis of its value as development land. What will happen is likely to be determined by the outcome of appeal hearings that concluded on the 23rd June. The appeal hearings were against the council’s refusal to grant planning permission to demolish and re-develop part of the Main School Building and to build on Main School and Rose Court open space. If the inspector determines that the land must remain as open space, then it’s quite likely the School would be prepared to sell the land to Sphere at its value as playing fields. The School may also then be willing to part with the sports facilities on the Chestnut Avenue site at a realistic price. We’ve been told that we’ll know the inspector’s decision by the end of August.