HYDE PARK AND WOODHOUSE ONLINE
what's happening in our area
The above photograph
The above photograph shows trolleybus wires cluttering up the view of the sky and beautiful buildings in Salzburg.
If the NGT trolleybus scheme is built, trolleybus wires will run all the way from the city centre, through the Headingley, Hyde Park and Woodhouse Moor Conservation Area, and on to Holt Park.
The traffic queues that daily stretch all the way from Headingley Hill to Hyde Park Corner are soon to become a thing of the past. And the jam that stretches from the city centre to the junction with Clarendon Road is also to be consigned to history.
The highways engineers behind NGT have come up with a scheme which will transfer both traffic jams onto the stretch of the A660 that crosses Woodhouse Moor. Currently this is a dual carriageway where traffic flows freely. And as a dual carriageway, it is much wider than the stretches of the A660 to either side of it which daily become jammed with traffic. By cleverly progamming the traffic lights on the the A660, the highways engineers hope to get traffic quickly off the narrower stretches of road, and onto Woodhouse Moor using what is known as a “vehicle stacking system.” By this means, the trolley bus will be able to travel more quickly along the narrower stretches of road to ether side of Woodhouse Moor.
It’s a sad indictment of Leeds City Council that it’s prepared to exploit an inner city park and expose its users, including families with young children, and students, to the emissions produced by stacked traffic.
The emissions produced by stacked traffic.
Annn article in the Yorkshire Evening Post informs us that the NGT trolleybus An article in the Yorkshire Evening Post informs us that the NGT trolleybus scheme has been given the green light, but fails to mention that the proposed route will take it across Woodhouse Moor.
The original idea behind NGT was to get people out of their cars and onto public transport. But somewhere along the line, the planners have lost sight of that. Incredibly, the reason they want NGT to run across the Moor, is so that inbound motorists won’t be held up by the trolleybus at the junction of Woodhouse Lane with Clarendon Road. Don’t they realise that if motorists are held up by the trolleybus at this junction, that’s just the incentive they need to get them out of their cars and onto the bus?
Woodhouse Moor is the only one of our inner city moors to have escaped the motorway building frenzy of the sixties and seventies. Now it too is to be sacrificed to the motor car.
The developer Holbeck Land is proposing to build a large convenience store in
The developer Holbeck Land is proposing to build a large convenience store in the Headingley, Hyde Park and Woodhouse Moor Conservation Area. The store would be located on the south side of Victoria Road immediately adjacent to 63 Victoria Road. 63 Victoria Road was formerly known as Ash Grove Villa and is a listed building dating back to the first half of the 19th century. Ash Grove Villa is pictured below.
The developer Holbeck Land is proposing to build a large convenience store in
The developer Holbeck Land is proposing to build a large convenience store in
You can object to this application either by submitting a comment via this link, or by sending an email to : planning@leeds.gov.uk, or by writing to the Development Enquiry Centre, The Leonardo Building, 2 Rossington St, Leeds, LS2 8HD. If you send an email, please be sure to include your postal address.
The heads of the five local primary schools all want the swimming pool and
The heads of the five local primary schools all want the swimming pool and sports hall on the Chestnut Avenue site to be acquired for the use of their children:
Brudenell Primary School 9.6.08
Quarry Mount Primary School 9.6.08
ting was held
This evening’s meeting was held at the Cardigan Centre. It was attended by four representatives of the developer; Ian Barraclough, John Barraclough, Stuart Natkus, and Matthew Fuller; five councillors; John Illingworth, Janette Walker, Neil Walshaw, Martin Hamilton and Javaid Akhtar; the community planning officer, Ryan Platten and forty one local residents.
Martin Oxley from Futsal came and spoke about how given the chance he could make the site available for the community to use for sports purposes. He said there is plenty of money out there in the form of grants. He said he’s done it before and can do it again.
Amit Roy said the School hadn’t just moved the goalposts, it had moved the entire playing field. He compared the School to locusts, determined to consume everything in our area, and to leave nothing behind.
Mavis Whitbread pointed out that there was an article in today’s paper about how people at Holt Park are complaining that they’ll be without a leisure centre for 11 months while a new multi million pound leisure centre is built to replace their old one, whereas the people of Hyde Park have never had a leisure centre, and now the only swimming pool and sports centre in the area will be pulled down if the current planning application goes ahead.
Councillor Illingworth said that life expectancy in the Holt Park area is 11 to 12 years longer than life expectancy in the Hyde Park area.
Another lady said that whereas the developers claim their development will attract families to the area, the reality is that by building on Hyde Park’s last remaining green space, existing families will be driven from the area.
In response to a promise by Ian Barraclough to include an orchard in the development, Christine McQuillan said her grandchildren don’t need an orchard to sit in and get fat, they need a swimming pool.
It was pointed out from the floor that the swimming pool and sports hall are protected from demolition by a planning law which says that before land with existing sports facilities can be built on, those facilities have to be replaced elsewhere, and the School hasn’t replaced the swimming pool and sports hall with new ones either at Alwoodley or anywhere else. Councillor Hamilton said he would look into this.
At the end of the meeting, residents voted to reject the current planning application, and to establish an action group whose aim will be to ensure that the site remains as a playing field and that the swimming pool and sports hall are made available for use by the community.
You can read a full account of the meeting here.
South Headingley Community Association is holding a public meeting to discuss planning application 12/02491 which proposes building on the Chestnut Avenue playing field off Victoria Road. The meeting will be held at 6.30pm on Wednesday the 1st August at the Cardigan Centre.
The Chestnut Avenue site has been unused since the High School moved to Alwoodley to join the Leeds Boys’ Grammar School to form The Grammar School at Leeds. Now Holbeck Land and Chartford Homes, having paid a deposit on the site, want to:
South Headingley Community Association is strongly opposed to the proposal because
You can object to this application either by submitting a comment via this link, or by sending an email to : planning@leeds.gov.uk, or by writing to the Development Enquiry Centre, The Leonardo Building, 2 Rossington St, Leeds, LS2 8HD. If you send an email, please be sure to include your postal address.
After several days of wet weather, there were blue skies and sunshine today After several days of wet weather, there were blue skies and sunshine today for Unity Day. There was just a little light rain in the late afternoon, and then some heavier rain just before the event closed at 7pm.
As in the past, there was something for everyone, cake stalls, bric-a-brac, and music to dance to for those feeling energetic.
This afternoon saw the launch at Leeds Civic Hall of the Leeds Parks and this This afternoon saw the launch at Leeds Civic Hall of the Leeds Parks and Green Space Forum. The event was attended by over 130 people including Councillor Jack Dunn, deputy head of Environmental Services, Paul Bramhill head of Green Space, Sarah Royal, chair of the Birmingham Parks and Green Space Forum, representatives from the city’s various Friends groups, and various council officers.
Speeches were given by Sean Flesher, the officer in charge of Parks and Countryside, Councillor Dunn, Paul Bramhill and Sarah Royal. Coucillor Dunn said how green space has never been under such pressure from developers as it is now, and that he hopes the Forum will enable leeds to better resist that pressure. Mr Bramhill said the the Bristol Forum had helped Bristol to resist an attempt by Bristol City council to sell of 50% of the city’s parks. Sarah Bramhill told us that there is now a national Parks and Green Space Forum representing the various city groups.
Localocal resident Martin Staniforth was present at this afternoon’s meeting ofLocal resident Martin Staniforth was present at this afternoon’s meeting of plans panel West, and has kindly agreed to let us publish the following account of what was said in relation to the School’s latest planning application.
“I attended the Plans Panel West discussion on the latest application this afternoon. This was a preliminary discussion and no decisions were made on the application.
Panel was chaired by Cllr Taggart in Cllr Harper’s absence. Tony Clegg from the Planning Dept outlined the key changes from the earlier applications and flagged up the issues which were of concern to officers and on which Panel’s views were sought (these are contained in the paper for the meeting, a link to which was circulated by Ryan Platten on 6 June).
There was a fairly lengthy discussion but three key points arose. First Cllr Akhtar raised the issue of retaining tennis courts but was told firmly by Cllr Taggart that he did not intend to reopen discussion on this issue which had already been dealt with comprehensively by Plans Panel and the Planning Inspector.
Second, the issues raised by officers were all agreed by Panel members and there will now be further discussion with the School to seek to resolve them. Panel members were particularly concerned about:
Panel members felt they were being asked to take too much on trust.
Third there was discussion of whether affordable housing should be provided off-site, as previously agreed, or on-site, now that the affordable housing requirement had been reduced to 5%. Local councillors spoke eloquently in favour of an off-site approach, and Cllr Taggart supported this in principle. Other members were less persuaded. Officers were asked to do further work particularly on what a 5% contribution would purchase off-site before the application returns to Plans Panel (which may be in July).
There was no discussion of other issues.”