south leeds life

South Leeds

Issue 1 – Autumn 2011

YOUR COMMUNITY MAGAZINE FOR COTTINGLEY, BEESTON, BELLE ISLE, HOLBECK, HUNSLET & MIDDLETON

Life

YOU'RE LOOKING GOOD, HOLBECK & BEESTON!

We need your photographs,

so get snapping!

ASIAN WOMEN'S GROUP in Race For Life

THE BIG ISSUESWhat next for Hunslet

Cemetery & South Leeds Sports Centre?

FREE MagazinePick one up!

www.southleedslife.wordpress.com

2 www.southleedslife.wordpress.comSouth Leeds Life 3www.southleedslife.wordpress.com South Leeds Life

Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre is an exciting new facility in the heart of Middleton

It includes:* Affordable hotdesking facility

from only £5.25 an hour* Meeting rooms, hall and

multi-purpose room all available for hire

* On-site business advice and support

For further information contact Judith Hickman / Kathryn Scarr, Health for All on 0113 2706 6903, email [email protected] / [email protected] or visit www.healthforall.org.uk

Our aim is sim-ple - to increase people’s access to the dozens of local groups, organisations

and services (our unsung heroes and heroines) and to highlight the area’s community spirit at its best. We’re here to give you a voice and help you tell your story - and to celebrate your achieve-ments and champion members of the community who get things done.

This is YOUR magazine and we want your contributions, be they articles, photographs or ideas - South Leeds Life can only be as good as you make it.

This magazine’s been a long time coming - the need for a commu-nity newspaper or magazine was first mooted some 15 years ago by myself and Beeston resident John Hardy. In 1999 I produced, with Health For All, a pilot copy of a community newspaper called the South Leeds Independent and we did a second pilot in 2001. A few years later we produced the South Leeds Free Press commu-nity newspaper which some of you may remember.

Finally we’re here with South Leeds Life, showing that with a bit of patience and a lot of per-sistence, even the longest held dreams can come true.

You may also wish to take a look at the South Leeds Life blog, which is written by a team of vol-unteer local people and groups.

The blog - www.southleedslife.wordpress.com - brings you the very latest news and information about what’s going on in our community.

Back to our first issue, and we’re showing our support for all the wonderful events in our local parks and the fantastic work of voluntary organisations like Friends of Middleton Park and Friends of Cross Flatts Park with our Park Pride campaign.

We’re also previewing the open-ing of the new Tenants Hall Enter-prise Centre in Middleton. We’re also casting our eyes over two important campaigns in the area - to reopen South Leeds Sports Centre in Beeston and for im-provements at Hunslet Cemetery. The fantastic community work at the Hardy Street mosque is cel-ebrated, as are the achievements of the Kushy Dil women’s group and the Asian ladies who’ve set up their own allotment plots to ‘grow their own’.

Oh, and I do hope you’ll join in with the Looking Good Holbeck and Beeston project - we want your positive photos of the area and the people who live in it.

To tell us what you think about South Leeds Life (or to contribute to the next issue), contact John Baron on 270 6903, email [email protected] or via twitter @johncbaron - I’ll be glad to hear from you.

About South Leeds Life

Editor: John Baron

Contributors: Christie Andrews, Dawn Austwick, Emma Bearman, Hilary Benn, Leanne Buchan, Toshal Bhatia, Vikrant Bhatia, The Bridge group members (Ian, Alan, Janet and Michael), Lucy Chadwick, Michelle Cunningham, Gosia Denham, Leanne Drinkall, Dave Florence, Angela Gabriel, Al Garthwaite, Sherriden Hall, Lynn Hill, Gillian Holding, Phil Kirby, Richard Lancaster, Tahira Latif, Lindsay Macgregor, Shabana Mohammed, Jeremy Morton, Mahboob Nazir, Alia Nessa, Stephen Peacock, Carol-Ann Reed, Jayne Rodgers, Kylie Rumney, Kathryn Scarr, Alan Shaw, Jason Slack, South Leeds Youth Hub members (Caitlin Wilson, Shelleyanne Elliott , Rachel Lyons and Chelsea Laycock), Cath Stone and Richard Weaver.

Contact

Telephone: 0113 270 6903

Write: John Baron, Health for All, 2 Acre Road, Middleton LS10 4LF

Email: [email protected]

Social Media

Twitter: @southleedslife

Blog: www.southleedslife.wordpress.com

Flickr: www.flickr.com/photos/southleedslife/

South Leeds Life magazine is published quarterly by the South Leeds Information Project - a project which is managed by Health for All, a community health development organisation working in partnership with local people to improve their communities.

Any views expressed in this magazine are those of the individuals and/or groups concerned and do not reflect the views of Health For All or its staff. South Leeds Life magazine is independent from all political parties and adheres to the Press Complaints Commission’s code of conduct.

We try our best to avoid mistakes, but occasionally they may slip through due to the hectic production process. It is our policy to correct or clarify any mistakes or factual errors in the next available issue.

Have you thought about running your own business?

Are you looking for a new office space or a venue to run a community group?

You’re Looking Good Beeston and Holbeck!

Join in our new photographic project - we want your photos!

Pages 4-5

On the run with the Race for Life

Bangladeshi women’s group Kushy Dil raise money to help beat cancer

Page 9

Residents continue Beeston sports centre fight

What’s the latest in the Splash-back campaign?

Page 15

Family Matters in South Leeds

Check out our four-page pull-out on intensive family support

Pages 19-22

Parks Pride

Join our campaign to support local parks, including Middleton

Pages 24-25

Summer of fun - in pictures

Photos of events in Cottingley, Belle Isle, Beeston and Holbeck

Pages 30-31

Cafe culture’s alive and well

Belle Isle’s got a terrific community cafe!

Page 33

INSIDE GUIDE

Welcome to South Leeds Life!By John Baron

Hello and welcome to this first-ever issue of South Leeds Life, a new community magazine which provides a guide to news, views and events in YOUR community. There’s such a lot going on in the area!

Advertisement


Ian, from CottingleyI really like my community. I like the people and I have good neigh-bours. I am friends with the community police officers Jon and Dave. At The Bridge I like playing pool and snooker but especially football and tag rugby. I am a big Leeds United and Leeds Rhinos fan. On a Friday I go to the United Bar for pie and peas.

I am also a member of the walking group and on Mondays I enjoy boxercise.

I enjoy having a cup of tea with my friends here. I am good friends with Wasim, who owns the shop next door to the centre. I go there quite a lot. Wasim brought his family to our recent open day.

Alan, from HunsletI really like living in this area and I like The Bridge. I like drama and took part in a radio drama project that we recorded at South Leeds Community Radio. We wrote our own scripts for two one-act plays and helped to compose a jingle.

I also like playing football and I go to Elland Road to watch Leeds United.

I have a girlfriend, Leanne, and I’m also a committee member of a learning disabilities forum, where I can make my views known.

Janet, from MeanwoodArts and crafts are what I enjoy most. At the Bridge I have decorated mugs and T-shirts, made table decorations and worked on a group mosaic and bunting for our open day in July. I also enjoy working on my scrapbook and baking.

I bake most weeks with my friend Linda who I look forward to seeing every Tuesday at The Bridge. We have a good catch up. I am baking lemon drizzle cake at the moment. We taste it here and then take some of it home which I like.

I have been married for six years to Paul and I work at St Anne’s cleaning the kitchen. I do my own housework and ironing, I hoover my own bedroom and do the dusting.

Michael, from CottingleyI like being on the computer a lot. I also enjoy nia (a form of move-ment, with elements of tai chi) and I like doing the karate chop while I’m doing it. I also enjoy the Tuesday walking group, boxercise and arts and crafts. On Fridays I play football then go to the United Bar in Holbeck for pie and peas.

It aims to give a face to a great community often dogged by a poor (and outdated) reputation and provide a real view of local people and places.

Looking Good is about showing what the people who live and work in the area are proud of, a snapshot of daily life and what is genuinely unique about the places we live.

And we want YOU to get involved. Help, support and equipment can be provided, so don’t worry if you’re not the world’s best photogra-pher - neither are we!

Anyone can take part in Looking Good Holbeck & Beeston, from professional photographers in-spired by architecture and nature in the area to local residents and groups who want to share their story, and businesses trading in the area. The subject can be any-

thing you like as long as it’s local to Holbeck and Beeston.

Perhaps you’re interested in the different religions and cul-tures, or you’re a member of one of the many community groups in the area, or perhaps it’s the area’s history that captures your imagination. Whatever it is, this is a chance for you to show a differ-ent side to your local community.

The Holbeck & Beeston project is being launched with the help of volunteers Beeston resident and blogger Phil Kirby, South Leeds Life magazine editor and journalist John Baron and council officer Leanne Buchan (formerly promoting the Holbeck Urban Village project).

There’s already a website - www.lookinggoodleeds.org.uk/hol-beck-beeston/ - with pictures posted on it and a group pool on photo sharing website Flickr

You’re Looking Good, Holbeck and Beeston!By Leanne Buchan, Phil Kirby and John Baron

Looking Good Holbeck & Beeston is a new project which aims to use photography to show our community and its people in a good light.

where you can share your pho-tos. We hope to put on an exhibi-tion, too.

The Bridge group for people with learning disabilities at Hol-beck Community Centre has already got involved. A group toured around Holbeck Urban Village, the moor and around St Matthew’s Community Centre taking pictures of parts of Hol-beck they liked. And we’ve got photographs of Holbeck Gala by

Leanne Buchan - oh, and there are pictures from David Foster on an Urban Gardening Weekend at Shafton Lane Allotments to inspire you too.

The project is part of a city-wide initiative started by photography group Exposure Leeds (there are also ‘Looking Goods’ in Armley, Bramley and Chapeltown). There are no editors or specific agen-das, just volunteers to help main-tain the website and to help you share your photographs.

So if there’s a great gem hiding away in Holbeck that you’d like to shine a light on or bustling community in Beeston you think needs to be highlighted get in touch with one of us at the fol-lowing addresses:

John Baron: [email protected] or telephone 0113 270 6903

Phil Kirby: [email protected]

Leanne Buchan: [email protected]

Members of The Bridge group for adults with learning disabilities have taken some photographs for the Looking Good Holbeck and Beeston project - and already have some of the photos on the wall of their Holbeck Community Centre base. Some of their photos of Holbeck are printed on this page. This is what some members had to say about their group and community...

Contributors to Looking Good…Local residents and groups who have already taken part in the project and have photos printed on this page include: John Baron, Jonathan Bliss, Leanne Buchan, The Bridge group, David Foster, Alison Neale and Mark Rivers. Why not join in yourself? It’s open to all! Phone John Baron on 270 6903 or email [email protected]


Inspired to dig for successTaking part in outdoor projects with Menspace has inspired one local man to set up his own business.

Kenneth Cullingworth, 23, and his friend Michael are hoping to set up a gardening business after being inspired by some of the activities at Mens-pace. Kenneth told South Leeds Life: “We did some work up at Middleton Family Centre and in Belle Isle – there was a lot to do at Middleton and I really enjoyed doing it, there was a big improvement at the centre at the end of it so I thought about set-ting up a business.

“I enjoyed cutting the grass and I felt good that I’d done something good that’s giving something back to the community.

“It’s all come through Menspace, they’ve really helped me.

Kenneth, who also helped to build a wall at the front of Holbeck Community Centre during his time with Menspace, has been distributing leaflets in the community to advertise his services.

Dennis has Holbeck in his heartBy John Baron

When Holbeck resident Dennis Kitchen retired recently, there was no sign of him taking things easy.

Community-spirited Dennis, who’s lived in the area for more than 20 years, now gives up two days a week as a volunteer helping out with local group Menspace, which encourages local men to get out into the community and make a difference.

South Leeds Life caught up with Dennis – who’s also been involved with Holbeck in Bloom and Voice of Holbeck groups – as he worked on build-ing a raised flower-cum-vegetable bed at Holbeck Community Centre on Elland Road. He was work-ing ahead of the national ‘In Bloom’ judges visiting Holbeck to judge the area’s floral displays.

“I really enjoy doing things in my own community and trying to make a bit of a difference,” he said.

“Menspace encourages people to take part in out-side activities and meet other like-minded men.

“We have got a plot at Lady Pit Lane allotments which we use regularly and we meet every Sat-urday morning at Two Willows. Fathers can bring their kids to the creche or spend a little time on

their own with them to give the rest of the family a break. It brings a different aspect to people’s lives and I enjoy helping out there.”

Dennis said that Menspace has been running since January and deals with men’s health issues. He added:

“Typically many men are stressed and depressed if they’re out of work. Menspace is an outlet to meet other men and do some light outdoor work.”

For more information on Menspace, contact Rich-ard Lancaster on 0793 1659434.

Breaking news: Health for All has been awarded a grant of £96,000 over three years from the Henry Smith Charitable Trust, with assistance from Leeds Community Foundation, to support the work of Menspace.

Climb every mountain.. SOUTH LEEDS: Nine intrepid Health for All staff and supporters climbed the three highest peaks in Yorkshire in a 24-mile walk in less than 12 hours, earning themselves membership of the exclusive “Three Peaks of Yorkshire” club, writes Dave Florence.

They did this to promote healthy activities and to raise funds for Health for All and raised about £200. Well done Emily Godfrey, Richard Lancaster, Ajay Sharma, Richard Weaver, Rupert Limon, Gavin Parker, Jan and Mark Brookes and Vicky Bradshaw. Watch the video: www.southleedslife.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/video-walkers-join-exclusive-three-peaks-of-yorkshire-club/

Residents have a voice BEESTON: A new residents’ forum has been launched over the summer by local people. Beeston Hill Residents’ Voice first met in June and now meets the first Tuesday of every month at Building Blocks on Tempest Road (7pm).

School’s good report BELLE ISLE: Clapgate Primary School on Cranmore Drive has had a very successful Ofsted report, which has recognised the many strengths at the school.

Also recognised was outstanding provision at foundation stage, good and outstanding teaching and that all children make good progress while at the school.

That’s right, you could be writing for South Leeds Life magazine or providing video for the online blog. Or we can help you set up your own blog, Facebook page, YouTube channel or twitter account to allow you or your group the chance to tell your story.

We can help you to tell your story – whether it’s sharing your life as a carer, you’re trying to lose weight or quit smoking, or whether you want to let other people know what’s going on in your community.

We can offer you all support, equipment, training and help you need.

If you or your group is interested, contact John Baron on 0113 2706903 or email [email protected] for a friendly and informal chat.

Connect and share your experiences with others and with other communities.

Everyone has a story to tell!YOU could be a community reporter!

NEWS IN BRIEF

Mast opposition BEESTON: Members of Beeston Forum have opposed plans for a 17.5m high mobile phone mast with six antennae and equipment cabinets at the edge of Cross Flatts Park.

O2/VodaFone have submitted the application for a mast on the footpath at the edge of the park on Beeston Road, near its junction with Parkfield Avenue. The planning reference number is 11/03023.

The forum meets the first Thursday of the month at Beeston Village Community Centre. Visit: www.beestonforum.btck.co.uk/

Special on menu BELLE ISLE: The community cafe at Belle Isle Family Centre offers a pensioners’ special every Wednesday. It costs £3.50 for a main course, pudding and tea/coffee.

You can also meet new friends at the Friday luncheon club, which also costs £3.50. The centre is underneath St John and St Barnabas Church. Contact 2774819.

Women’s keep fit BELLE ISLE & BEESTON: Women-only salsa and keep fit classes for all ages are being held in Belle Isle and Beeston each week.

Monday sessions are at the South Leeds Youth Hub in Belle Isle (5.15-6.15pm) and the Thursday classes are at St Mary’s Church Hall, Beeston, 6pm-7pm.

More details from Ajay on 0798 4386236.

Voice of Holbeck HOLBECK: A residents’ group which encourages local people to get more involved in their community meets on the last Thursday of every month. Voice of Holbeck meets at Cleveley’s Court at 7pm. All welcome.

Up for a cuppa? MIDDLETON: A monthly coffee morning is held on the second Wednesday of every month at Middleton Methodist Church, Hopewell View, 10am-noon. Pop in and have a cuppa.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Youth hub’s a summer sizzlerThe South Leeds Youth Hub is an exciting new facility built especially for young people in the south Leeds area.

Built on the site of the old Merlyn Rees high school in Belle Isle, the Hub provides young people from all of south Leeds with somewhere to go, something to do, someone to talk to and something to say.

The Hub is made up of seven zones, including a mechanics’ workshop, a hair and beauty salon, a state of the art recording studio and a performance and chill out zone. Local schools are already taking advantage of the fantastic facilities available and are hosting their off-site learning here.

The summer has been a busy time for the Hub, with local young people accessing activities in dance, music, mechanics, hair & beauty and sports. We also hosted our first performance with Glee Club at the Hub and a Summer Sizzler outdoor gala.

The Hub will be running after school sessions in dance (in association with DAZL), music, arts & crafts, sports, hair and beauty from 16th Sep-tember. Don’t miss out! Book your place on 0113 3367773.

Here’s what young people think:The Hub is a fantastic place for young people to go. We go a couple of times a week and really enjoy it.

We do loads of things such as cooking, sports, art, beauty treatments, dance mats, chill out, Xbox Kin-nect, pool, table tennis, skate ramps and trips out. We get all of this for 30p a session!

If we didn’t go to the Hub we would get bored. We keep off the streets by going to the Hub.

The youth workers are a laugh but keep us on the straight and narrow. They give us information on loads of things such as getting a job, revision tech-niques, alcohol and drug awareness.

Caitlin Wilson – age 13

Shelleyanne Elliott – age 16

Rachel Lyons – age 18

Chelsea Laycock – age 17

Built and owned by Leeds City Council and paid for by the Big Lottery Fund, as part of the My-place programme, the South Leeds Youth Hub is a Youth Service led project working in partnership with Health for All Leeds, 4Children, NHS Leeds, Land Securities, and Hunslet Boys and Girls Club.

Details of all the Hub’s sessions can be found on the website www.southleedshub.org.uk. You can also follow us on facebook or twitter (@southleedshub).

Glee-ful song and dance at hubBy Lucy Chadwick

The South Leeds Youth Hub hosted an amazing evening of song, dance and live music with the Glee Club at the Hub performance on Thursday 11th August.

The South Leeds Youth Hub hosted an amazing evening of song, dance and live music with the Glee Club at the Hub performance on Thursday 11th August.

Talented young people from across south Leeds came together to create an unforgettable evening of entertainment.

After a full week of rehearsals under the direction of Dazl and You Can Rock, the young people put on a fantastic performance showcasing songs from the TV series for an audience of over 150 people from the community and local Councillors Judith Blake, Kim Groves and Neil Dawson.

Glee Club at the Hub were supported by dance groups from Dazl including Junior Hip Hop and Mini Pom boys group and live local band Cryptic Shift.

The atmosphere on the evening was electric with the audience fully supporting and appreciating the young performers with claps and cheers of encouragement.

The young people’s confidence grew with each performance and the final applause brought the house down.

Glee Club at the Hub will continue with sessions starting on 16th September with another perfor-mance scheduled for December.

Young people interested in joining the Club should contact the Hub on 0113 3367773 for further in-formation. “Don’t stop believing…”


South Leeds Youth Theatre had an exciting end of term by per-forming at West Yorkshire Play-house in their original play called ‘stand in the place where you live’.

We had 350 people in the audi-ence so it was a real buzz. We rehearsed from January until the performance on 14th July, ex-ploring our thoughts and feelings about what our play title means.

Our piece explores what its like to live in South Leeds; things we see, hear and do: more im-portantly we explore how all our own experiences create the place we live. We used personal stories, sounds and images as our inspiration and worked with the young people whose names and many others who were not on stage tonight.

South Leeds Youth Theatre meets every Wednesday, term time only at New Bewerley Primary, Bismark Drive, Beeston. 7-12yrs meet 4.30-6pm and 12-19yrs meet 6-8pm.

We are free provision and all groups are run by professional theatre makers. We go on trips such as the theatre, ice skating, rock climbing, cinema and bowl-ing.

If you would like further infor-mation, please contact Michelle or Sara on 0780 709 1835 or email [email protected]

Kushy Dil ladies enjoy Race For LifeBy Toshal Bhatia

A group of Asian women from south Leeds have put their best foot forward and taken part in the Race For Life at Temple Newsam.A packed public meeting was

told that multi-million pound proposals to transform the old greyhound track site off Elland Road would be in an ideal posi-tion to offer a better service to local residents, and would lead to better crime detection rates.

Chief Supt Mark Milsom, divi-sional commander for City and Holbeck, said the new site ‘was as near as perfect’ for the force as it had good road links, would help police Leeds United games better and bring together a range of services under one roof.

Milsom acknowledged that Hol-beck police ‘probably weren’t good neighbours’ at their current Burton Road site because a lack of parking meant an overspill into neighbouring roads, but there

would be no such problems at Elland Road. He also floated the idea of setting up a cafe run by the community at the site.

The station would have 40 cells, 416 parking spaces and a com-munity cafe. There would be one entrance for the public and an-other for offenders signing bail.

Here are some of the comments made at the meeting by local residents:

- “Does it have to be ultra-mod-ern? Can it not just be a build-ing that is landscaped and not too OTT? Modern buildings are great on Canary Wharf but we’re talking about Heath Road in Beeston and 1930s semis – we’re not after awards, just a functional, welcoming building.”

- “It’s a great idea for a commu-nity cafe in the ownership of the community. The building needs to be welcoming and accessible for all – including disabled peo-ple. Perhaps a small group of disabled residents and commu-nity representatives could form an expert advisory group?”

- “The possible designs look like the worst example of 1970s comprehensive school design.”

- “It needs to be a building that’s inviting for local people.”

- “You should take a look at The Greenhouse development in Beeston Road. It is a modern, cutting-edge eco-building and there are facets there that could be used.”

Despite some quibbles, most people at the meeting seemed to show little major opposition to the proposal.

A detailed planning scheme is expected to be submitted to the council by November this year. The current Holbeck Police Sta-tion, on Burton Road, would be sold.

- WATCH the police video about the proposals over at South Leeds Life blog: www.southleedslife.wordpress.com/2011/07/10/community-cafe-plan-for-new-holbeck-police-hq/

- LETTER: The need for proper public consultation over the proposed development of land near Elland Road is the subject of an open letter by Beeston Forum.Check it out: www.southleeds l i fe .wordpress .com/2011/08/10/letter-from-beeston-forum-on-el land-road-development/

Morrisons shopping trips HOLBECK: Do you have problems with your shopping? Holbeck Elderly Aid (HEA) might be able to help with a scheme to help older and disabled people with their shopping at Hunslet Morrisons.

HEA has a fully accessible minibus, suitable for wheelchair users, and can provide door to door pick ups and drop offs for £3. More information on 245 5553.

Clean slate HUNSLET: Feel-good furniture shop Slate is now based in Low Road, Hunslet for all your quality used furniture, TVs, electricals and beds at bargain prices. It opens 9.30am-4pm Monday to Saturday. Call 270 4005 for details.

Vision to improve area BELLE ISLE: Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation (BITMO) wants to work for a neighbourhood that has opportunities for residents to be involved directly in how services are managed, that has Belle Isle as a place where people want to live and that has properties of quality.

Tenant participation is important to BITMO - call Lynne Spirrett on 214 1825 or check out www.belleisletmo.co.uk.

Funky fun bus SOUTH LEEDS: Eduplay’s funky fun bus is available for hire. The double decker bus is ideal for creche provision, community events, galas, promotion events, weddings and galas. It features a dance floor, music, karaoke and disco lights, mirrors and a maze, a ball pool and slide, noughts and crosses and biff n’ boff bags. More information on 0113 277 8965.

Massive lunch MIDDLETON: About 300 people turned up to the ‘Miggy’s Massive Lunch’ event, at Middleton Primary School. Food and refreshments were provided, along with activities for young children such as face painting, bouncy castle, karaoke singing and den building.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Pupils remember green-fingered JanetteBy Jeremy Morton

The following article originally appeared in the Yorkshire Evening Post. I am a governor at New Bewerley and although the commemoration was a while ago I was reminded of Janette’s great contribution to school at the end of year assembly.

As part of her work as a teaching assistant, Janette Parker encouraged her pupils to take an interest in gardening. Mrs Parker sadly lost her six month battle with cancer last July, but the gardening club at New Bewerley Community School in Beeston – which she founded – continues to flourish.

It was an emotional day when pupils, parents, teachers and governors dedicated a special memo-rial bench in the garden which she loved. A collec-tion was held to raise money for the bench, with pupils writing special letters about their memories of Mrs Parker to go with their donations.

Teacher and friend Georgina Barnes, who went to University with Mrs Parker, paid an emotional tribute to the inclusion assistant describing her as a “witty, intelligent woman”. She said “She gave so much time and patience to the children she sup-ported. They grew to love her. The gardening club which would never have been established without her help and commitment still flourishes today.

“I truly miss this wonderful woman with whom I spent many happy times – she gave me laughter and kindness. We were truly lucky and blessed to have known this lady.”

Public meeting hears new police HQ plans

A community cafe run by local residents could open at a planned new divisional headquarters for Holbeck police.

Standing in the place where we liveBy Michelle Cunningham

The place where I live isn’t physically boundIt’s the place where the love and the laughter is found

Members of the ‘Kushy Dil‘ - Bangladeshi women’s group - took part in the summer event to raise money to help beat cancer. A number of women in the group have had relatives suffer from the con-dition and wanted to raise money to support the charity Cancer Research.

The women had trained for the event with a walk-ing group in Cross Flatts Park.

Members of Kushy Dil - which translates into ‘hap-py heart’ - regularly take part in activities including healthy cooking sessions from different cultures, arts and crafts as well as exercise like walking or zumba.

The group increases the ladies’ confidence, self esteem and helps them with information to ac-cess services they might not know are available to them, such as health checks, childcare and more. The group is mainly for Bangladeshi women, but as people bring their friends to the group there are more and more women coming who aren’t neces-sarily Bangladeshi.

Kushy Dil meets Monday afternoons, 1-3pm at the Building Blocks off Tempest Road, Beeston. For more information, contact Thamina Begum on 0798 4101394 or 271 7231.


One of the organisers, Mahboob Nazir from the ‘Jamia Masjid Abu Huraira’ Mosque in Hardy Street, said: “The aim of the event was to bring the com-munity together. The aim of this project was to use sports and other leisure activities as a method of engagement for disconnected communities, creat-ing safe spaces where commonalities can be shared and differences can to be respected.”

The event, which included a parent and children match, a competition, bouncy castle and free re-freshments, was a partnership with the Kashmiri Muslim Welfare Association (KMWA) at the Hardy Street mosque, Yorkshire Cricket Board, Hamara Centre, Leeds Jewish Representative Council, To-gether For Peace, HYIP, West Yorkshire Police and was supported by local councillors.

Cross Ingrams meeting HOLBECK: Cross Ingrams Area Residents Association (CIARA) held its AGM at the Ingram Gardens Community Centre on Tuesday 13 September.

Discussions included vehicle crime, metal theft, prostitution, highways, library provision, allotment vandalism, SouthLeeds Sports Centre and the PFI.

The next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday 22 November. Contact for CIARA is Steve Peacock at [email protected]

Polishing up on Polish HOLBECK: Holbeck Neighbourhood Policing Team are polishing up their Polish skills to build better links with the local community. Police officers and PCSOs are having free language lessons from police volunteer Maggie Wiercigroch to ensure they can communicate with the growing Polish community living in the area.

Youth activities MIDDLETON: Want somewhere to go and something to do? If you enjoy music, dance, sports, arts and crafts or just want to chill with your mates? Friday Night Project at Middleton Sports Centre. Ages eight to 13 years meet 8-7.30pm, 12 to 18 years meet 7.30-9pm. Details 276 0837.

Everyday support for women BEESTON: Women Making Choices is a group which sees women from the local community supporting each other with everyday issues. It runs Tuesdays (10am-noon) at the Two Willows Children’s Centre in Cardinal Square. It costs £1 a week and includes breakfast and a creche. More details on 2709432.

Crime and grime BEESTON HILL: Residents attending a Beeston Hill Residents’ Voice meeting have marked on large-scale maps the locations of crime and grime issues in the area - they will be used to check hotspots for these issues.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Hamara’s community cafe BEESTON HILL: Hamara in Tempest Road has a community cafe where people can enjoy good-quality food. It runs Monday to Friday, 11.30am-1pm. More details on 277 3330 or email [email protected].

From its humble beginnings in a small office with two part time staff working solely on one project, Hamara has grown to be the largest ethnic minority organisation in the voluntary and community sector in Leeds.

WMC’s 100 years BEESTON: Having seen four monarchs and 22 prime ministers come and go, Rowland Road Working Men’s Club is celebrating its 100th birthday this year.

The club still opens seven evenings and three afternoons a week and it is hoped that a new housing development under way nearby will bring new members to replace those who have sadly passed away or moved from the area.

Warrior art BELLE ISLE: Join Tai Jutsu, the warrior art of self defence, to help build confidence, improve fitness and lose weight. It runs at South Leeds Youth Hub alongside Shotokan karate from 6pm to 7pm every Wednesday. Details 0796 3502424.

Saved by the Bell HUNSLET: After receiving a report that the old school bell had been stolen at Hunslet Children’s Centre PCSO Sarah Holman contacted local scrap dealers, Morley Waste Traders in Pepper Road who have very kindly donated an old pub bell to the centre.

Garden help for elderly HOLBECK: Do you need help with your garden? If so, Holbeck Elderly Aid might be able to help. For further information contact Lesley at HEA on 245 5553.

Gala contact HUNSLET: To contact Hunslet Gala, use the exclusive enquiry line 0845 475 2041 (local rates apply) or 0113 2177781. 2012’s gala could be held on the last Saturday in June.

NEWS IN BRIEF

Mosque opens its doors to wider communityWords by John Baron and Mahboob NazirPhotographs: Mahboob Nazir

A Beeston Hill Mosque is operating an open door policy and welcoming the wider community.

The people at ‘Jamia Masjid Abu Huraira’ Mosque in Hardy Street are working hard to ensure that the facilities are not just open to the area’s large South Asian population, but also to people of all backgrounds, religions and ethnicities.

Recent events include talks from diabetes experts, how to save energy in the home and a visit from council officers to discuss problems with litter and anti-social behaviour. The Mosque also hosted a joint Christmas/Eid party last December and this summer has held charity car washes. An arts and craft group meets every Saturday morning.

School pupils and teachers are also regular visitors to the Mosque to learn about what it means to be a Muslim.

There are three strands to the facilities on Hardy Street - a Mosque, a community centre and a Com-munity School (also known as a Madrasa in Arabic).

KMWA’s vice chairman, Mahboob Nazir, leading on the ‘Community and Social Activities’, said: “Mosques play an important role in their local com-munities, not only as centres for religious worship for Muslims, they also play a role in supporting local volunteering, social activity, social justice cam-paigns and supporting local economies since they provide a focal point for donations and giving and these support the less fortunate in society.”

He added: “My role is to bring down the barri-ers that people may feel towards a Mosque or the Islamic faith. I believe we are one community and

we should be celebrating our commonalities rather than focusing on our differences.”

Mahboob said the young Imam, Qari Muhammed Sajaad Rumi, is a huge asset to the organisation and uses prayer times to talk to young people about their social and ethical responsibilities.

“When the English Defence League were march-ing through the city centre, we partnered with the council and the police and put on a free event for the whole community - Asians, whites and blacks - with free food, PlayStations, sumo-wrestling and five-a-side football with the local police. This was diversionary event to keep people away from the tension area and prevent them from getting into any kind of trouble.”

Mahboob also said “Islam teaches us to respect other religions”. The Mosque is also part of the ‘Beeston Hill Faith Trail’, which sees people of dif-ferent faiths visit their places of worship, including the local Church and the Sikh Gurdwara, and learn about different religions and cultures.

The Mosque, which was set up 25 years ago after converting an old flour mill owned by the Co-op, has plans to expand its facilities further down Tem-pest Road, off Stratford Street/Lodge Lane.

Mahboob said he would welcome contact with anyone in the community. He can be reached on 0113 2718050 or emailed at [email protected]

Owzat! Park cricket match bats for unityPhotographs: Mahboob Nazir

Cross Flatts Park in Beeston was the setting for a special game of ‘interfaith and intergenerational cricket’ as families from all faiths, ages and different backgrounds came to the park to play together.


Hunslet Cemetery was treated to the clean-up by the cem-etery’s dedicated community ac-tion group, Friends & Relatives of Hunslet Cemetery. The group were joined in their efforts by lo-cal councillor, Geoff Driver, and the council’s Parks & Countryside department.

Councillor Geoff Driver (Mid-dleton Park) said: “The Friends group has done a fantastic job of looking after this cemetery and they can be extremely proud of

their efforts. We hope that there will be regular events of this kind throughout the year and we are always on the look-out for new volunteers to lend a helping hand.”

The Friends group is aiming to re-store the cemetery to its former glory and recently held a passion-ate meeting to give people a say about the improvements they’d like to see at the vandal-hit cem-etery.

The Friends have more than 1,200 followers on their Face-book page, and an online peti-tion – which currently has more than 400 signatures calling for more security and maintenance in the cemetery - can be found here: www.gopetition.com/peti-tion/38643.html

Leeds council has pledged to work closely with the group. Rothwell Neighbourhood Po-licing Team recently made five young people clean up Hunslet Cemetery after they were found damaging gravestones.

Run jointly by the Cupboard Young People’s Service in part-nership with South Leeds Com-munity Radio, the £9,000 ‘Sharp Solution’ project will work with youngsters to tackle some of the causes of the problems, such as gang culture.

Cupboard co-ordinator Alison Chandler stressed there wasn’t a problem ‘as such’ with gun or

knife crime in the area but said the project ‘aimed to keep it that way’.

She said the project would work with four groups on a rolling 12-week programme until the end of March, with the first six weeks looking at some of the issues surrounding what makes young people join gangs.

Work will include looking at is-sues such as territory, status, rep-utation, enemies and revenge. The project aims to raise young people’s self-esteem, which will allow them to resist peer pres-sure; have increased ability to take responsibility for them-selves; better able to negotiate safer boundaries and be able to plan safe outcomes and maintain positive relationships.

The final six weeks will see the young people work with South Leeds Community Radio at Hill-side, taking what they’ve learned on the course so far and using it to produce radio drama, music or dance.

The project is financed by the Home Office through the Com-munities Against Gangs, Guns and Knives Fund.

Improving the Cottingley estate COTTINGLEY: The Holbeck Neighbourhood Policing Team (NPT) and partners are aiming to improve the Cottingley estate by tackling issues affecting the quality of life of local residents.

The Cottingley Closer Communities project kicked off with a community cleanup, and will focus on crime, grime, housing and environmental issues across the whole estate for six months.

There will also be monthly community meetings at Cottingley Tenants and Residents Association, at Cottingley Primary School, on the first Monday of every month. The first one is on Monday, 3 October.

Takeaway concerns DEWSBURY ROAD: A local councillor is calling for no more fast food takeaways in an area of Dewsbury Road, following a recent planning application for a new premises.

Councillor Angela Gabriel strongly opposed the planning application requesting the change of use of a shop unit to become a hot food take away on a parade of shops close to the Broadway pub. She said there were already too many takeaways, which affect the character of the area.

Police drop-in sessions COTTINGLEY: Got a local problem with crime or anti-social behaviour? Holbeck NPT drop-in sessions will be held at Cottingley Children’s Centre on 5 October, 9.30am to 11am).

Go on, keep fit! BELLE ISLE: Women-only keep fit classes for people any age run at South Leeds Youth Hub in Middleton Road every Monday, 5.15pm-6.15pm. Donations welcome or just turn up. Details 271 7231.

Back on track MIDDLETON: Middleton Railway is back up and running as normal following disruption caused by thieves earlier this summer. Hundreds of people attended the recent railway autumn fair. More details at www.middletonrailway.org.uk

NEWS IN BRIEF

Community spirit shines through with cemetery clean-up

A community has joined together in support of their historic cemetery by organising a community clean-up of the local landmark.

The Cardinal Youth Club in Beeston was set up by communi-ty campaigner Yvonne Crowther on the Cardinal Estate back in 2001.

A street celebration, which was held in Cardinal Square, included stalls from local organisations in-cluding Beeston in Bloom, a Bed-ouin tent, and bouncy castles, slides, a stock which saw wet sponges thrown at PCSOs and a host of other attractions.

The Youth Club provides activi-ties including IT, sports, arts and crafts and advice on health and lifestyle issues.

It also leads a campaign against guns, knives and violence with its TAG’S campaign.

For more information, contact Yvonne on 0113 2762020.

Ten up on the Cardinals

Members of a youth club in south Leeds have celebrated their organisation’s 10th birthday with the wider community

New youth project tackles guns and knives

A project to sway teenagers away from gun and knife crime is being set up in South Leeds.

New enterprise centre is just the business!By Kathryn Scarr and John Baron

Have you ever thought about running your own business?

Volunteers hit the airwaves in South LeedsBy Al Garthwaite

South Leeds Community Radio gives a voice for everyone living and working in South Leeds.

Want to turn a hobby or interest into something more? Do you have an existing business that could benefit from some help and support?

Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre is a £1.6 million state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Middleton which offers an exciting opportunity for new and existing businesses in the local area. If you’re con-sidering working for yourself and would benefit from some additional advice and support then the new Centre could be just what you are looking for.

The Centre, which is owned by Leeds City Council and run by Health for All, will be officially opened by MP HiIlary Benn and Leeds City Council leader Keith Wakefield on 28th October 2011.

Situated on the former Tenants Hall site, Health for All’s head office, the centre will include office and meeting/training rooms, hotdesk facilities as well as providing a range of on-site business support services.

There are three dedicated meeting rooms for hire and a large hall which can be split into two for community events/functions, group activities or

conferences. There is also a multi-purpose room complete with kitchenette, toilets and an outdoor area which is also for hire.

Judith Hickman, Enterprise Operations Manager for Health for All comments: “The new centre will enable enterprise to play a key role in Middleton and south Leeds. The facilities will provide the perfect space to enable local people to come to-gether and support each other through community groups whilst also accessing external services.

“The Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre has been de-veloped for the people of Middleton, so we would welcome people’s views on how we can build on the centre and the provision of services for the community.”

Development of the Centre is being funded by Central Government and the European Union’s European Regional Development Fund (ERDF).

For more information, contact Judith Hickman or Kathryn Scarr on 0113 270 6903, email [email protected] / [email protected] or visit www.healthforall.org.uk

We broadcast 24/7 over the internet, so log in to www.southleedscommunityradio.org.uk for a unique mix of music, drama, what’s on, informa-tion programmes and live shows presented by vol-unteers from your own community.

Volunteers are always welcome, including com-plete beginners, so whatever your age and back-ground, and whether you want to be a presenter, interviewer, technician, DJ, administrator or pro-ducer, or if you’re not sure but would like to be involved, do contact us.

New this autumn: we are running courses for peo-ple in the area who want to learn a wide variety of skills. Courses for people aged 19 upwards start towards the end of September or early October, and include:

* Radio Production and studio techniques - morn-ing and evening classes, with one especially for women.

* English (ESOL) for women, using media tech-niques to help you learn

* Radio and creative media for people with learning difficulties and disabilities.

We also aim to run after-school and holiday clubs for children and young people - again, contact us for details.

Why not hire the South Leeds Community Radio Roadshow to play at your event or festival? Vol-unteers play music to suit every occasion, and the roadshow includes a free PA for all your announce-ments.

* Contact us: South Leeds Community Radio, Hill-side, Beeston Road, Leeds LS11 8ND tel: 0113 387 6464 or email: [email protected]


Council ‘open’ to talks over future of centre

Leeds city council says it is still ‘exploring all options’ for the South Leeds Sports Centre site.

Beeston councillor and executive member for leisure Adam Ogil-vie told South Leeds Life: “I wel-come the continued interest in South Leeds Sports Centre from SPLASH campaigners and people in the area.

“Clearly there is interest in the site from Children’s Services at the Council in terms of a new primary school for the area and my view if that were to pro-ceed is that there would have to be leisure use open to the local community as part of the school plan.

“I am also in discussions with an organisation who have expressed an interest in reopening the sports centre to see whether that may be an option as well as exploring whether a new school and a sports centre could be an option for the site. I am more than happy to keep people informed as things move forward.”

Leeds City Council leader Keith Wakefield has said he hasn’t given up on South Leeds Sports Centre and said the facilities are in ‘mothballs’.

He told the YEP: “I have lived in Beeston, I know it’s an area of high deprivation and social need.

“I’ve always been quite sympathetic on the closure debate. As a council we have taken one of the big-gest financial hits in the country and are having to save £90m, so it would be hard to promise that the centre will reopen.

“It’s in mothballs at the moment, but we haven’t given up on it. We are prepared to talk to the com-munity about all options.”

A spokeswoman for Leeds City Council said: “The decision to close South Leeds Sports Centre last November was taken because it was costing the council £25,000 per month to run due to low and falling visitor numbers over the last few years.

“We are exploring all available options for the site and are still keen to hear from anyone interested in taking over the running of the centre. We would encourage any interested parties to come forward as soon as possible.”

South Leeds Sports Centre campaign ‘still on the radar’By John Baron

A group of South Leeds residents still haven’t given up their fight to get a local sports centre reopened as they approach the anniversary of its closure.

Members of the Splashback group are campaign-ing to get South Leeds Sports Centre in Beeston reopened. The facilities were closed by Leeds city council in November last year due to falling visitor numbers and high running costs.

Campaigners claim the area doesn’t have enough facilities for youngsters and that other facilities, such as the John Charles Centre, are difficult to get to by public transport.

A demonstration was held during the first day of the school summer holidays. And as the centre nears the anniversary of its closure, campaigners are vowing to continue their fight, despite the council expressing interest in possibly turning the site into a new 420-place primary school to meet the rising demand for places in the area. The coun-cil is also still open to local organisations taking over the running of the facilities.

Campaigner Sally Cieslik said the group would not allow the centre to fall quietly off the radar.

Sally said she wasn’t opposed to the plans for a school, as long as it had sports facility for the whole community - including a swimming pool. She added: “It’s good they’re still looking at all the

options and possibly have sport facilities as part of the deal, but we are keen to see a swimming pool there. It’s what local children need.”

Campaigners have agreed to hold a demonstra-tion outside the centre on Saturday, November 5 to mark the anniversary of the closure of the facility.

Seven-year-old Nathan Kirk plays rugby for local youth team The Beeston Broncos, which used South Leeds Sports Centre as changing facilities. Nathan told South Leeds Life during August’s pro-tests that he faces a 10-minute walk before and after matches to facilities at the Hunslet Club. He said: “It’s good at Hunslet but it’s not very good that we have to walk so far before and after games.”

Another youngster, who attended the Friday Night Project at the centre - a group which provided a range of activities to young people aged between eight to 16 years - said there wasn’t much for him to do now that the facilities had closed.

Mum of five Tina Head said it was impossible to take all her family to the nearest swimming pool - up the road at the John Charles Centre - in one go.

Splashback can be contacted on 07889 945345 or search for ‘Splashback’ on Facebook.

The Hunslet Club is a place where kids and young people can come and do loads of different things

One of the things it organises is an annual trip away for people who come to the club, this year we went to Ambrieres les Vallées in Southern France.

France 2011 was one of the most amazing times of my life. It was a chance to make new friends and

get closer to everyone else. It was a holiday full of laughter and fun which created memories nobody will forget. We had some amaz-ing experiences like zip-wiring, raft building, oh yeah and eating snails (yuck!)

It was a long 17 hour journey but that was just part of the fun. Whilst there we also went to a big swimming baths with slides

and diving boards. We also went to a town where we could do our own thing. It was just an amaz-ing trip and I cannot wait for next year.

So if you want to join in with fun like this, come and join the Hun-slet Club!

Residents honoured BELLE ISLE: Police officers and members of the public have been honoured for displaying great bravery and hard work to make south Leeds and the city centre a safer place.

Among those honoured at the City and Holbeck Divisional Awards was Stan Roberts, a 69-year-old Belle Isle resident who alerted officers to a man who had been trying to leave the scene of a nearby burglary.

As an officer tried to arrest the man he began to struggle, so Stan grabbed the man’s left arm and blocked his escape route.

PCSO at meeting COTTINGLEY: PCSO James Clarke attended a recent Cottingley Community meeting. He gave residents the monthly crime figures for the area and discussed the proposals for the new police station that may be built on Elland Road.

He also gave details of Operation Dungeon, which has been concentrating on metal thefts and has included visits to local waste traders to check what is being weighed in as scrap and by whom.

Park clean-up MIDDLETON: Leeds’ councillors rolled up their sleeves to show their commitment to volunteering in the city.

Led by Lucinda Yeadon, the council’s champion for volunteering, elected members joined forces with staff volunteers at Middleton Park to cut back overhanging branches, clearing paths of overgrown vegetation, weeding the flower beds, fence painting and planting.

Community facilities reopen CHURWELL: Stanhope Hall in Churwell has been formally reopened after a refurbishment programme that has modernised it for community use.

The improvement plan cost more than £70,000 and the centre will now house community activities including youth clubs, pensioners’ groups and local sports club.

NEWS IN BRIEF

The Hunslet Club is one of the largest youth clubs in the country and is right here in South Leeds! There is lots to do for children, young people and adults, writes Jason Slack.

Activities include football, break-dance, youth club, boxing, hip hop, gymnastics, musical the-atre, Duke of Edinburgh awards, cheerleading, Irish dance, cook-ing, ballet & half term activ-ity camps for children & young

people, for adults there is box fit or dance fit sessions & a fitness suite, there are also parent and toddler sessions in football, gym-nastics and ballet too.

The clubs facilities have recently undergone a major extension

and refurbishment, including a fully licensed bar and are also available for event hire.

For more information visit www.hunsletclub.org.uk or phone 0113 2716489.

Congratulations go to both the Beeston and Holbeck In Bloom groups who both secured ‘silver rose’ awards in the Yorkshire In Bloom horticultural campaign, which encourages communities to improve their environments.

Both communities received the same award in the ‘urban com-munity’ category as the affluent

and leafy village of Bramhope, on the outskirts of north Leeds.

On Beeston, judges commented: “Beeston is a pleasant and friend-ly community that has clearly taken ‘In Bloom’ to its heart. …Beeston has some strong and at-tractive floral features improved by a good choice of plants and a pleasant use of colour as a theme

to link them together. Clarks-field allotments are exceptional; the tenants clearly love their al-lotments and work hard to keep improving them.

On Holbeck in Bloom, which had entered for the first time, judges said: “Holbeck - like the phoenix from the ashes - is rising to the many challenges that it faces as an Urban Community.

“It has one of the highest levels of social deprivation in the country but the tremendous community spirit that we encountered shows a huge commitment to making sure that it is still a great place to live.”

Why Hunslet Club is simply the bestBy Sherriden Hall, age 12

Lots to do at Hunslet Club

Silver joy for ‘blooming good’ Beeston and Holbeck

In the region of 25 tonnes of rub-bish have been removed from Beeston’s bin yards as part of a major clean-up operation.

Many of South Leeds’ bin yards have become dumping grounds for household waste over the years – but residents attending a meeting of Beeston Hill Resi-dents’ Voice have been told that the council was looking to tackle some of the problems.

Andy Beattie, of the council’s en-vironmental health and environ-mental protection department, said 46 bin yards had been tidied in the Harlechs, Lyndons and Woodviews areas – and reminded

residents of their responsibility to take a pride in their community.

Mr Beattie said: “We’ve been bringing residents’ attention to keeping the yards clean. We have served a lot of legal notices in the area – and we’ve noticed a lot of them are now staying clean, which is great news.”

He added that the council was looking at the citywide problems connected to bin yards. One of the possible solutions could be to lower the walls of the yards.

Mr Beattie said that the council was also encouraging private home owners to clear their gar-

dens or yards. 26 properties had received formal written warn-ings - three have received £100 fixed penalty notices for failing to comply.

The Yorkshire Evening Post re-cently reported that tenants and residents in Holbeck will be asked if they want to see the walled yards – intended to contain wheeled bins – knocked down.

Bin yard clean-up lifts 25 tonnes of rubbishBy John Baron

The council’s Leeds South Inner Area Committee has more than £50,000 available to carry out the work.

Mr Beattie also said that the council was working with local businesses to help tackle some of the litter problems in the area and said there had been meet-ings with Leeds United to tackle some of the problems created by fans on matchdays.


Like people, problems come in all shapes and sizes, but if something is

worrying us then what we want - more than anything else - is to get it sorted out.

Lots of people come to see me in my surgeries (or email, write or telephone). I can’t solve every problem, but I always promise to do my best to help. And what en-ables me to do that is the voice that you give me. Being chosen by local people as their represen-tative – those initials ‘MP’ after your name – means that I can get answers.

Whether it’s a problem with council housing, or DWP ben-efits, or rubbish that needs clear-ing, or something about what the Government is doing – I’ve been getting loads of letters re-cently from residents who are very worried about the changes to our wonderful NHS - those I contact on your behalf know that their response will be carefully looked at. And if I don’t think it’s good enough, then I can – and will - take it further.

The range of cases I deal with - with the wonderful help of Judy, Olivia and Sally in the office -

is enormous. Last year we helped about 1,500 people with their individual problems and at least as many again who wrote to me about political issues on which they – and I - have a view.

Sometimes the result is surpris-ing. A while ago, I was doing some doorknocking when a man on a flat roof saw me coming down the road and said that his wife would like a word.

I put my head round the front door – wondering what she wanted – and there was a smil-ing face. “Oh Mr Benn. Do come in. I just wanted to show you the new kitchen cupboards you helped get for me”.

It turned out that she had writ-ten to me when her kitchen was being done up and housing had said that they would only provide a certain number of cupboards. I

wrote on her behalf and there I was, some months later, admir-ing the result!

At a time when there are those who say that politicians are re-mote and don’t help, the daily experience of many people who seek the help of their MP or local councillor is actually very differ-ent.

And all the surveys show that if you ask people about their own member of Parliament or local councillor, they have a much higher opinion of them than if you ask them what they think about politicians in general.

One response is based on our personal experience; the other is the result of what is reported in the papers or on television about what we think is everybody else's experience.

In South Leeds, I am really lucky to serve alongside a great team of councillors. They are commit-ted and hard-working but they don’t always get the thanks and recognition they deserve. In-deed, helping people is a part of an elected representative’s work that gets very little attention.

Making the most of our community spiritBy Hilary Benn, MP for Leeds Central

One of the most worthwhile things about being a Member of Parliament is that you have the chance to help deal with problems.

From where I see things, there’s lots of community spirit in South Leeds. So let’s make the most of it!

Why is this? Is it because we don’t think it’s worth asking for help? Or because we have become very impatient and expect instant re-sults? Is it because some people just don't know what their elect-ed representatives do? Or is it because others have become so overwhelmed by cynicism that they can't actually see the good things that are happening in our neighbourhood?

Once again, this summer was the season of our local festivals, galas and community events across South Leeds: from Hun-slet to Beeston, and from Cot-tingley and Holbeck to Belle Isle and Middleton. All of them were great this year, and even the showers on Holbeck Moor didn't dampen our spirits. But what I always find most encouraging about attending them is seeing the astonishing range of people and organisations working on behalf of the community they live in.

Unsung and often unrecognised, they are making a real difference, just as elected representatives do.

Yes, we get things wrong some-times, and I know that criticism and disagreement comes with the job. But if we are going to solve the problems of the world and fulfil our hopes and aspira-tions for the future, then we need our politics to work for us too. And just like a rather delicate plant, politics need nurturing and looking after, because if we dam-age it, then we will have thrown away the best and only hope we have of making progress.

We know that times are tough. Family incomes are being squeezed, and we all worry about the future when it comes to pensions, being looked after when we’re older, where our children are going to live, and how we are going to keep our economy on the move.

But we should also not forget what we can do when we come together as a society. After all, the National Health Service – that radical idea that changed so many lives for the better - was created out of the ashes of the Second World War at a time when we had a much higher deficit than we have today.

It is living proof from our own history that if we have optimism, determination and spirit then we can – as people and politicians - achieve an enormous amount.

And it is in coming together that we build the thing we call com-munity spirit.

From where I see things, there's lots of community spirit in South Leeds. So let's make the most of it!


Twenty six youngsters from dif-ferent schools across south Leeds attended the residential at the Kingswood Activity Centre and took part in activities including the zip wire, high ropes and fenc-ing among other things.

The event was organised by ACE, which works with both high and primary schools in the area, pro-viding physical activities for chil-dren aged five to 11 years old and kids with disabilities.

Co-ordinator Richard Weaver said: “The children all had a great time - we were blessed with some terrific weather, which makes a lot of difference.”

All the children who attended are part of the clubs run across the area by ACE, which puts on different sports activities and team challenges and helps in-active youngsters become more active and enthused by sports and healthy activities and to

gain confidence and self esteem. It’s funded through the NHS for work with child obesity.

Children are referred to ACE through their schools. For more information, contact Richard Weaver on 270 6903.

Youngsters have an ACE time with activities

South Leeds youngsters enjoyed quad biking and archery as part of a two-day residential at Penistone, near Barnsley.

Anybody who has any ideas or who wants to get involved is more than wel-come. Helping

out isn’t just about turning up on the day, it is about ideas - at Beeston Festival we’re looking for someone who is internet sav-vy and can make us a web page, we need help with leaflets, plan-ning next year’s festival it doesn’t matter how old or young you are you can give us ideas.

Beeston in Bloom members are busy growing our seeds and tak-ing cuttings. Anybody who’s ti-dying their garden and dividing plants, give us a call, we’ll take half a plant off you with pleasure!

We’ve just been ‘guerilla gar-dening’, digging up and rescu-ing plants around the Malverns area where the houses are due to be demolished. We have gone

and ‘recycled’ their plants! And we found an abandoned planter which we’re going to recycle, plant up and use at the Shell garage.

The ‘In Bloom’ groups aren’t just about planting bulbs, it’s about engaging people in what we do. The Cardinal Youth Club is trying to get an allotment together, and we’re looking to go and bring our skills to those kids and help them.

Both Beeston in Bloom and Hol-beck in Bloom entered the York-shire in Bloom competition in the urban category this year. Both groups will find out how they’ve done at a trophy ceremony on September 20, so watch this space!

Speaking about green fingers, as South Leeds Life went to press I was due to officially open the Clarkesfield Allotments annual show.

Allotments in our area seem to be growing in popularity. Shafton Lane allotments also seem to be doing very well as people follow Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to grow their own and become ur-ban gardeners. There used to be problems with anti-social behav-iour down at those allotments but the community has worked together to put them back on track and they’re doing really well now.

Our big next thing is Cottingley, and there will be a big clean up there on September 23. There will be lots of skips and we’re in-viting residents to bring out their rubbish.

It’s the first of many projects in Cottingley.

We’re going to be maintaining overgrown shrubs, cleaning the streets and paths and getting the police involved in a number of initiatives.

The council is doing a lot of its work in Cottingley alongside the Tenants and Residents Associa-tion Cottingley (TRAC), Cotting-ley in Bloom, the local vicar, Cot-tingley Primary School, helping to pull the community together and empowering the residents to help clean Cottingley’s act up.

* Councillor Angela Gabriel is a ward member for Beeston and Holbeck Ward and is the chair of the council’s in-ner south area committee, which covers Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet and Middleton. If you would like more infor-mation about one of the above groups, or would like to join one, contact her on 07946 632 468 or email [email protected]

Getting involved couldn’t be easierBy Cllr Angela Gabriel

Most local groups are currently taking stock of the successes of the summer. Two of the groups I’m involved with, Beeston Festival and Holbeck Gala, are planning their AGM and trying to get more people involved.

We help people who are experiencing:* Difficulties parenting or man-

aging children’s behaviour

* Family relationship difficul-ties

* Significant difficulties with household management and budgeting

* Care routines

* Difficulties arising from alcohol or substance misuse

The key aim of our service is to give children the best pos-sible chance of leading safe, healthy and happy lives within their own homes. We help parents and carers to address any obstacles or barriers that may prevent that happening. Parenting is one of the hard-est jobs in the world as we all know and together with you and anyone else who is sup-porting you we will try to find a way in reaching your goals

We can also arrange for you to meet with other people in a similar situation so you can share your knowledge and ideas to help support each other. If we cannot help you we will aim to put you in touch with the people who can. Ev-erything you tell us is confiden-tial and if we need to contact other health professionals (such as GPs) we will always ask you first.

We support more than 200 families from different back-grounds on a one-to-one level and more than 100 families through our specialist support groups.

Our services include:* Intensive family support for

younger children, including support to families affected by domestic violence, alcohol of substance misuse, poor parental physical health, sub-standard housing and behavioural issues.

* The Think Family Service of-fers one-to-one support for families with children aged six to 13 years old. The sup-port is for families suffering from some or all of the issues above.

* One-to-one support for young parents and their families

* Evidence-based parenting programmes including ‘Mel-low Parenting’ (details of

which can be found on the next page of this four-page pull-out), family links nurtur-ing and strengthening fami-lies 10-14

* Anger management pro-grammes for young parents with anger issues

* Specialist support groups such as the WISE group in Middleton and Women Mak-ing Choices in Beeston, in-cluding confidence-building sessions, learning activities and coping with anger.

Our referrals come from a wide variety of sources depending on the group but include so-cial workers, schools, children’s centres, health visitors, GPs, self referrals and midwives.

You can find our services at three community bases - Belle Isle Family Centre, Middleton Family Centre and Pavilion on Dewsbury Road.

HFA is excited to be working alongside our partners in sup-porting the development of remodelled family support services in the area. We’ve had experience of delivering pre-vious Surestart programmes and the current intensive fam-ily support services. We believe we’ve played a major role in the journey and the learning processes to develop the new model for specialist family sup-port services.

New developments featuring our specialist family support services will be featured in the December issue of South Leeds Life.

For more details contact us at the Belle Isle Family Centre, underneath the St John and St Barnabas Church, Belle Isle Road, Leeds LS10 3PG or tele-phone 0113 2774819. Services are also provided at Middleton Family Centre in Sissons Road and The Pavilion Family Centre on Dewsbury Road in Beeston.

Putting families firstBy Vikrant Bhatia

Family life is at the heart of the work of Health For All’s family support services, which includes a team of workers who support families and children on a one-to-one level.

Family MattersPutting families first with Health For All's Family Support Services

Contact us on 0113 2774819


A group of south Leeds parents who accessed the Mellow Par-enting programme facilitated by Health for All’s Intensive Family support service have been get-ting help with how to become better parents and improve the relationship and strengthen the bonds with their children.

One mum said: “Mellow Parent-ing is a crash course for people like ourselves who have strug-gled with our children.

“At first I was all nervous. I didn’t know anybody in the group. But I made some fantastic friends here - I have a new best friend and I’m going to buy a bunk bed so her son can sleepover with mine in future. The friendships have been the most important part. It makes you feel as if you’re not alone. Being in the same room with mums who are facing the same struggles as you gives you confidence.

“Sometimes I didn’t know how to deal with situations. Mellow Parenting showed me how to not get stressed out and how to deal with pressure points without losing my rag. It helps us deal with kids a bit easier, but it also helps us to understand ourselves. None of us have had an easy life. It helps us become better people and not to inflict our problems on our kids.

“No child or parent is ever go-ing to be perfect, but I feel much more confident.”

The mum said the help and ad-vice often came in fun ways, such as through playing games.

Another young mum said: “I’ve met some good friends hopefully for life. Mellow Parenting gave us a chance to go somewhere where we could just be ourselves.”

Another said: “I feel I’m a better mum, I can handle my kids much better. It’s still tough - I’m a single mum - but I now have the confi-dence to take my own decisions.”

“I don’t take my kids for granted or expect too much from them any more,” said another. “I just let them be themselves, as well as being able to control them more.”

Ian Goodson, a family support adviser for Intensive Family Sup-port at Belle Isle Family Centre, said that he hoped the 14-week intensive course helps parents feel closer to their children.

Ian said the course spends a lot of time looking at the parent them-selves, many of whom had disad-vantaged childhoods and added that hopefully what’s learnt in the group helps to break the cycle of disadvantage and empowers them not to repeat the mistakes of their own parents and grand-parents.

He added: “We help the parents understand their own childhood and deal with what was good in their lives but also recognise what was unhelpful. We’re em-powering today’s parents to make changes in their lives and change the way they behave

“We run our sessions one full day a week for 14 weeks. That gives us lots of time for us to build re-lationships and explore people’s background issues.”

The primary referrer to the Mel-low Parenting programme are social care, children’s centres and health visitors.

Learning how to become better parents

As all mums know, it’s sometimes easy for the kids to get on top of you.

Building confidence and learning to relax

A women-only ‘relaxation and relationships’ event in Belle Isle has helped to show people how to stay safe and offered self defence classes, relaxation sessions and a massage.

The event, organised by Health For All’s intensive family support team, proved a big success with the self defence and relaxation sessions proving very popular with parents who attended Belle Isle Family Centre.

Beckie took part in the self de-fence session - and also used the event to look at the opportunities a university course might bring her. She said: “I feel like I have learned some useful skills today - if I ever find myself in a situa-tion I feel like I’ll be able to get myself out of it. It’s not just been about the physical side of things today and we’ve also touched on domestic violence too.

“Events like this are about groups getting together and learning something new outside of our normal environment. It’s great to see local groups mixing to-gether and getting to meet other people, making friendships and

speaking to other people with similar experiences.

“It gets me out of the house - I’m bringing up three children by my-self so it’s good to come to events like this. It’s good to get out and meet people in similar situations. It makes you feel like you’re not the only one and that you’re not alone.”

Julie felt relaxed after taking part in the massage and relaxation session, where she learned some key relaxation techniques to help deal with stress. She said: “It’s made me relax all my muscles and everything that you’re wor-rying and stressing about goes out of the window and you’re able to cope better.

“It helps get you ready for the day ahead and the daily things going on around you every day. I really enjoyed mixing with dif-ferent people and talking to

them about how they’re coping. You get to make a lot of friends who’ve been through the same things you have, and that’s really important.”

A creche and refreshments were also provided.

For more information about groups and services similar to this, contact senior group sup-port worker Leanne Drinkall on 0113 8272200 or email [email protected]

Contact us on 0113 2774819 Contact us on 0113 2774819


22 www.southleedslife.wordpress.comSouth Leeds Life 23www.southleedslife.wordpress.com South Leeds LifeContact us on 0113 2774819

From Doctor Who to Dickens via popular thriller writer Ian Rankin – south Leeds residents are being invited to read all about it at this year’s Morley Literature Festival.

A host of high-profile writers will be making appearances at the popular annual event, which runs from October 8 to 16 in Morley town centre venues including the library and the town hall.

Some of the main events include:* Rebus author Ian Rankin will

be talking about his new book The Impossible Dead at Morley Town Hall on October 13.

* For Doctor Who fans: Alwyn Turner will be discussing his biography of Daleks creator Terry Nation at Morley Library on October 13. Doctor Who

writers Mark Morris, Paul Magrs and Mark Michalowski will be speaking at Morley Town Hall on the same day.

* Comedian Arthur Smith at Morley Town Hall on October 8;

* Charles Dickens’s great-great-great-granddaughter Lucinda Hawksley, who celebrates her ancestor’s life and work at a literary lunch at Tingley’s Vil-lage Hotel on October 10; For more details, visit: www.morleyliteraturefestival.co.uk website or ring 0844 848 2706.

Wednesdays in the Woods events provide a great opportunity for families to spend some time to-gether taking part in fun activities such as sports, arts and crafts, bouncy castles, musical activities, face painting, dancing, farmyard animals and food.

The events were held in Cross Flatts Park, Cottingley Primary School and Middleton Park.

Belle Isle mum Rachel and her family attended the event in Cross Flatts Park. She said that she’s attended the events - run

by Health For All’s intensive fam-ily support services - in previous years when she brought her older children.

Rachel, who was with four-year-old Harry, said: “We’ve enjoyed making things, the bouncy castle and things like that but most of all we’ve enjoyed being in the fresh air together - it’s been a re-ally good day.”

Another mum, Jill, who was also at the Cross Flatts event, said the hula hooping and colouring had been the best bits but that her family had ‘enjoyed everything’. “It’s something for the kids to do and it gets everyone out into the fresh air.”

And Beeston mum of two Janine, who was with her two young daughters, added: “Sometimes you get stuck for something to

do with the kids so events like this are really good because they get you all out as a family, you’re doing new things and you’re out in the open. The weather’s been fantastic, it couldn’t have been a better day. We’ve had our faces painted, which was great.”

At the Middleton Park event, mum Lynne from Cottingley, was with her son Jacob (who’s nearly five) and her two-year-old nephew Adam. She said: “I like Wednesday in the Woods be-cause the events are community based. You get to know people from across South Leeds.

“Perhaps some parents can’t af-ford to take their children to soft play areas, but here you can pay a pound for the bouncy castle and there’s the play bus too. It gives the children a chance to do stuff

that they might not normally have the chance to do. I’ve been to all four events this year and I’ve been in previous years as well and I wouldn’t miss them.”

The Middleton Park event fea-tured a visit by a fire engine and the police, clowns the Rapide Brothers and DJ Rocky alongside activities including hook a duck.

A total of 614 people attended across all four events. Different themes included: Around the World in the Woods, Fairytales in the Woods, Talent in the Woods and Party in the Woods.

The events were funded by the inner south area committee.

We’re going wild in the woods!

When you go down to the woods today.... South Leeds youngsters have been going wild with a series of August fun events in local parks.

Holbeck ladies find allotment is growing on them

A group of Holbeck residents are showing how good it is to grow your own fruit and vegetables - and beat the general lack of healthy fresh food available in Holbeck.

Members of the Holbeck Health Group are running their own plot at Shafton Lane Allotments, growing everything from chick-

peas to salad produce, tomatoes, fruit, potatoes, peas, turnips and okra.

The Holbeck Health Group is one of the groups which come under the umbrella of the Awaaz Net-work. The Awaaz (which means voice) network has been formed to help ensure the sustainability and development of Asian wom-en community groups across Leeds.

The Holbeck Health Group meets at St Matthew’s Community Cen-tre. The group’s been going four years and caters for up to 18 peo-ple and helps promote healthy eating, exercise and good health in general to Asian women, who

take part in walks, healthy cook-ing sessions, trainings and social gatherings.

Group member Tahira Latif said: “We have experimented with all kids of things to see what we can or cannot grow. We go there and bring the kids, who find it enter-taining to be there and can play but if they want to help they can.

“We go whenever we get time, sometimes four or five hours a week. It’s very exciting to pick the produce you’ve grown your-self and worked to produce. We go to have picnics and teas there with the kids.”

Tahira says that in addition to the group’s plot, her family has other plots at Shafton Lane.

Another group member said: “The things we grow taste much better than what you’ll find in supermarkets - it’s much fresher and nicer and it gets us out into the fresh air.”

One member said: “We do not see each other very much but we come here to get together, and eat and talk together.”

For more information, contact Shabana Mohammed (co-ordi-nator) on 0795 8742719.

Doctor Who, Dickens and Rebus at Morley Literature FestivalBy Christie Andrews



Park PrideAlan Shaw, secretary of The

Friends of Middleton Park group, gave a presentation on the de-tailed proposals surrounding the Heritage Lottery-backed regen-eration scheme for the park.

Mr Shaw told the meeting - at Middleton Methodist Church Hall - that work on the ambi-tious scheme was due to start in March but had been put back and was now due to start in September. The scheme will re-store and improve the park and increase access to the facilities for the whole community. Improve-ments include:

* Described as “contemporary in appearance”, the new Lakeside Centre will be built of glass, brick and wood and include a cafe, terrace, educational facili-ties, information and offices for parks staff.

* A new bandstand/performance space will house bands, plays and entertainment

* New and improved entrances to the park, including replacing gates and barriers

* Footpath improvements includ-ing a new pedestrian path par-allel to the existing driveway, resurfacing the footpath from the car park to the lake and sec-tions around the lake, and im-proved paths through the park and Middleton Woods

* Improvements to the Rose Garden

* Improved Middleton Railway park halt - including an entry point to the park with seating, interpretation and signage

* Artwork and information, a seating area and ecology and mining trails at former Middle-ton Broom Colliery

* More volunteering and com-munity involvement in the park

Friends members also discussed the need to draw visitors from across south Leeds, including nearby Beeston, to the park - and the importance of the Friends group being closely involved as the work progresses.

One local resident said: “We’ve got an historic landscape on our doorstep which needs to be cher-ished by everybody."

Last July The Friends of Middle-ton Park group, supported by Leeds City Council, celebrated news that the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) had accepted their bid for a £1.46 million grant under the Parks for People pro-gramme. Last December the council agreed to invest a fur-ther £125,000, supported by a further grant of £287,000 from the Wades Charity.

Park plans at centre of rebirth of south LeedsBy John Baron

A public meeting has highlighted how a £1.9 million boost will help restore Middleton Park to its former glory.

Middleton Woods Local Nature Reserve is the largest ancient woodland in Leeds and has been continuously wooded since at least 1600. Oak dominates the mixed woodland which together with streams and ponds, provide a refuge for numerous mammals, birds and amphibians.

Many species of insects and fungi can be found in the woods together with a profusion of wildflowers including bluebells

and the less common yellow archangel.

The bowl-shaped pits found in the woods are the remains of an early form of coal mining dating back to before 1300. Friends of Middleton Park host a number of events throughout the year including band concerts, work-ing parties and tours.

The Friends of Middleton Park was set up to encourage more people to use the park and woodlands in the heart of south Leeds.

The group runs a programme of events and serve teas at the Lake-side Centre every Sunday after-noon from the beginning of May to the end of September - why not join them for a cuppa?

If you would like to get involved as a member or volunteer, or want more information, contact Rachel on 07914 729051 or visit their website - www.fomp.co.uk.

Factfile

Of Middleton Park’s 630 acres, 200 are ancient woodland and a designated nature reserve. There is also grass land, a golf course and recreational areas.

Here at South Leeds Life we strongly believe that our local parks play a major role on bring-ing our communities together and offer a great chance to get outdoors and have some healthy fun!

That’s why today we’re launch-ing our ‘Park Pride’ campaign to encourage people to make more use of their local parks. Although we’ve focused on the wonders of Middleton Park today, in future issues we’ll be looking at Cross Flatts Park in Beeston, Holbeck Moor and your smaller local parks.

As well as providing an essential green lung in south Leeds, there’s a fantastic array of activities go-ing on in a lot of your local parks.

Bowling greens, tennis courts, playgrounds and nature trails all offer a chance to get outdoors for fun activities. And events such as dog shows, craft and produce shows (one’s being held in Mid-dleton as this magazine went to press), planting, walks, bands, plays and events are all part of the modern-day life of the larger parks.

Here at South Leeds Life we’ll be featuring all the terrific activities in local parks - and also encour-aging people to join some of the hard-working local groups made up of local residents that support parkland such as the Friends of Middleton Park and The Friends of Cross Flatts Park.

How do you make use of your park? What do you like best about it? Do you have an event or run a group which supports your local park? WE’D LOVE TO HEAR FROM YOU! Drop us a line either by email at [email protected], by telephone on 270 6903 or write to John Baron, Health For All, Middleton Advice Centre, Acre Road, Middleton.

Park Pride

Join your South Leeds Life and support our local parks


Boost young mums is a group for women under the age of 25 who have children in the Beeston area.

We teamed up with Media 19 - a multi-media project that enables young parents to speak out about their lives and the challenges they face - to create a campaign that promotes what it’s like to be a young mum from Beeston.

Originally there were a lot of paths the group wanted to use but they came up with the idea of ‘past, present and future’. The ladies of Boost then went on to produce some fantastic work which we aim to get seen by a multitude of people in our area of Leeds and possibly wider.

Our campaign is called ‘Future me’, and the aim of the cam-paign is to ensure that all young mums look to their future. We all have a past and even when you decide to have a baby you still have a future, your path has just changed.

We all should have the oppor-tunities to progress that others have in life and we want to raise awareness of the support that is available to all young mothers.

During our project we looked back at archive material to see what it was like for mums in the past. The way in which young mums are thought of now has come a long way, but there are still improvements that could be made.

Many people think that when you’ve had a baby so young you have ruined your life or they think you’ll never be able to achieve your dreams or ambitions, but this is not true and our campaign ‘Future Me’ intends to change the stereotypes and opinions of our communities and hopefully others.

We think the work our group has done sends out a very positive message. It has definitely made more of our mums who attend think more abut their future and where they would like to go, for instance back into education or into a career.

Suzanne’s story:“I’m 20. I was 18 when my daughter was born. It was hard to start with, but I enjoy being a mum. Bethany’s wonderful, she brings a nice warm feeling to my heart. The hard thing about be-ing a young mum is the looks you get off people sometimes. Espe-cially when you’re shopping and the kids are playing up.

“You feel a bit low and if people are judging you.

“In the future I’d like to find someone to love me and my daughter as I’m single at the mo-ment. I’d love a job eventually. I’d like to work in retail instead of cleaning, maybe on a shop floor or a till because I’d be meeting new people. I’d like to meet new people.”

Kylie’s story:“I was 18 when I got pregnant. I knew I’d always wanted children, but it wasn’t planned for that time. The hardest part of being a young parent, for me, has been the sleep deprivation.

“No-one knows the right answer or the right way to do every-thing, so you’re bound to make mistakes. But also, when you’re pregnant, you think you’re go-ing to do everything right, but as soon as the baby comes along it’s a different story.

“I thought it wouldn’t be as hard as it turned out to be. I had looked after my own sister, but when it’s 24/7 it’s a reality check! Have a baby for the right reasons, don’t get pregnant just because it’s the way to be.”

Lyndsay’s story:“I’ve kept my little girl’s first hair-cut as a reminder of how soft and curly her hair was. I was 18 when my daughter was born. I’ve brought her up on her own and, looking back, it has been chal-lenging. At the time I wasn’t re-ally doing anything with my life. I had always struggled at school and it wasn’t until I was 16 that I was diagnosed with dyslexia and by then it was too late. I felt as if nobody cared. Being a teenager I thought ‘what’s the point, then? I’ll just do nowt.’

“Then I fell pregnant. It gave me a reason to do something, to go back to college and qualify rather than just giving up on my future and staying on benefits for the rest of my life.”

Leanne’s story:“The best things about being a mum is being there when Archie needs me. The difficult part is not having any help and having no-one to support us. I don’t like being on my own, particularly at night when Archie’s dad is at work.

“In the future I’d like to train to be a childcare assistant. I don’t want to be on the dole for the rest of my life and I want better for my son than I had. I don’t think I had enough love when I was growing up, my mam and dad were never there for me. In my future I want to be there for Archie when he needs me and I won’t let him down. He’s my life now and I wouldn’t change it for the world.

“That’s my future, what’s yours?”

Our lives as young mums in south LeedsBy Kylie Rumney and Lindsay McGregor

Young mums in south Leeds have had their work exhibited as part of a London exhibition, inspire young people to make informed choices in their lives and encourage others to be positive about who they are. Their work aims to help make a better future for themselves and their families...

Some of our stories as part of the project


Middleton Elderly Aid is an inde-pendent registered charity that provides support for the over 60’s living in the Middleton, Leeds 10 area. We are a needs-lead organi-sation which works from grants and money we raise in our char-ity shop.

Our aim is to allow the over 60’s to live safely, securely and hap-pier in their own homes for as long as possible.

On the 5th of September we opened our second charity shop in Middleton. All money raised in our shops goes towards support-ing our services, which include

home visits, coffee mornings, luncheon club, exercise classes, handyman service, day trips and general help and advice signpost-ing people in the right direction.

Our current premises provide a drop-in allowing the elderly to call in for an informal chat or to raise any concerns they may

have. We currently have five paid staff who work with the help and dedication of 35 volunteers.

The new shop – on 97 Throstle Lane, next to Bhambra stores - will allow us to interact with the residents living at the opposite end of Middleton to our current shop and expand our services.

Breast is best - that’s the mes-sage from the mums who attend Middleton Baby Cafe.

Based in Middleton Family Cen-tre, the cafe offers help, special-ist advice and support to mothers interested in breastfeeding.

Run by Cath Stone, the cafe of-fers a place to meet other mums who were/are successful at breastfeeding, a chance to relax, talk and breastfeed and receive lots of support from other mums, breastfeeding counsellors and health professionals.

Breastfeeding counsellor and lac-tation consultant Cath, a mum of three, said: “I breast-fed my chil-dren and trained as a counsellor when my youngest was little. I had support when things weren’t going well and I wanted to give something back to other mums. I think breastfeeding should be seen as the normal way to feed a baby.

“There are health benefits - a reduced risk of osteoporosis and breast cancer for mum and for baby, lower levels of obesity, few-er chances of stomach problems and ear infections.

“Breast milk is a live substance produced by each mum specifi-cally for her baby and it cannot be replicated by bottled milk.”

The Baby Cafe, part of a na-tional franchise, is supported by the Middleton Bosom Buddies group. The Bosom Buddies are a group of mums who have breast-fed their babies and are keen to offer their support and experi-ence to other mums.

Nine women who recently com-pleted their training to become a ‘bosom buddy’ recently received certificates presented by local Middleton Park councillor Kim Groves.

They had undergone seven weeks of training, covering lis-tening skills and breastfeeding management, to become volun-teer peer supporters at the cafe.

Middleton Bosom Buddies is a constituted community group and recently received an Awards for All grant of £9,930 to reach out with breastfeeding informa-tion and support to women in the surrounding areas such as Holbeck and Hunslet.

* For more details on Middle-ton Baby Cafe - which meets every Tuesday, (10am-noon) at Middleton Family Centre on Sissons Road - or Bosom Buddies contact Cath on 0784 3339574 or 2762386. The group is supported by NHS Leeds and Health For All.

* There is also a baby cafe and bo-som buddies group in Beeston. The baby cafe meets at Beeston Parkside Health Centre on Wednesdays, 1-3pm. Details from Cath on 0784 3339574.

Bosom buddies show why breast is best

Middleton mum Emma Prest was one of the nine women to receive certificates to signify she is now officially a Bosom Buddy.

Emma, who has a girl of six months, said she first attended the Middleton Baby Cafe when her daughter was just six weeks old. She said: “The breast feed-ing wasn’t going well, I felt really lonely and thought that it must only be me that had problems. Coming to the cafe made me re-alise that other mums have issues with breastfeeding and I didn’t feel so alone.

“I received advice and tips from people at the cafe and other mums, often things that I would never have thought of myself. Sharing tips and meeting others was a real help for me.”

Emma said the cafe has areas where the babies can interact and play as they get older. She added: “I got so much benefit from coming here that I wanted to give something back and be-come a ‘bosom buddy’. If I can help someone who felt as rub-bish as I did when I first came here and reassure and help them then that would be good.”

Emma underwent training one day a week for seven weeks on common problems and sce-narios, how to deal with certain issues, she discussed her own

experiences and discovered other contacts and organisations which she could signpost other mums to.

Happy to be a bosom buddy!

Middleton Elderly Aid opens new shopBy Dawn Austwick

Artist and teacher Bruce and Debs Davies have transformed the basement of their terraced house - which they admit them-selves is a little ‘ramshackle’ - into a cultural facility which they hope will ultimately be available for residencies and exhibitions on a regular basis.

Bruce acknowledges that the project is an ambitious one - but has lofty goals to help the city re-tain some of the graduates who leave following graduation be-cause of a lack of opportunities and be financially and artistically free from constraints.

He said: “It’s no secret that Leeds has real problems retaining its tal-ent. I know from experience that it’s incredibly difficult for artists to get residencies or to showcase their work and they have to go elsewhere to do it. I tried for six years to exhibit but it was a real struggle. I hope ultimately that people who want to get to the

next level can come here and be part of a residency programme.

“But we’re reliant on getting the money in place to redo the base-ment up, create working spaces, get its own door so people don’t have to come through the house. That’s going to be the next chal-lenge.”

The art space is currently a cleared-out basement - but that hasn’t stopped the couple hold-ing four events there. More than 25 people squeezed into the space for a recent talk by cur-rent HMI research fellow Allan Antliff called ‘Attacking Gentri-fication: the anarchitecture of Adrian Blackwell’. The basement also acted as a starting point for a 10km art run/studio crawl around Leeds’s underground art studios.

The first event - This is our house - was a performance art event that looked at the boundaries and distinctions between public and private space.

Debs said in a recent guest post on the Culture Vulture blog: “The vision is to provide this space with its own door, smooth walls, a sink and practical things like a toilet and cloakroom. Alongside these physical attributes will be two cu-rators, a residency and exhibition programme and various events and community happenings.

“These curators would select artists from an open submission process whereby the only stipu-lated criteria are that those apply-ing are resident of Leeds. Bruce would like to see art graduates being able to develop their prac-tice by providing them with free work-space and exhibition op-portunities.

“I also want; if it is at all possible, to give something back to the community that I feel has given something to me .... Beeston is now the place I have lived in the longest out of all the little places I have been, and say what you want about it, I have a pretty good life here. I have met some good people. I would like to somehow include this commu-nity in our venture.”

Their next event will be an exhi-bition Speakeasy: art in an age of prohibition in September and October.

For more details on the initiative, go to the Basement Arts Project blog, follow the project on twit-ter @BasementArtsPro or on facebook.

Beeston basement supports culture and artsBy John Baron

To some, Beeston would be an unlikely place for the city’s newest ‘underground’ studio and gallery.

Springboard to Independence was run by Health For All staff and gave taster sessions to help members of local groups to run their own finances, structure their own management, organ-ise publicity and give them the confidence to run their own group.

Future sessions will include link-ing groups with potential funders and other services. Groups at-tending including some from the Bangladeshi and Sikh commu-nities, community and support groups.

More information on 270 6903.

Springboard to Independence

A training session to help local groups and organisations become more independent has been held in Belle Isle.


A local councillor, children from a nearby primary school and elder-ly residents all joined together to take part in a village green bowl-ing tournament in Belle Isle

Councillor Kim Groves joined 10 children from Windmill Primary and residents of the Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisa-tion (BITMO) in the tournament at the Belle Isle Circus bowling green

The event was organised and funded by BITMO and was aimed at building bridges between the young and older people in the area.

Councillor Kim Groves (Middle-ton Park) said: “This event was a fantastic example of the work that is being done locally by organisa-tions like BITMO to strengthen links between young and older people in Belle Isle. It is really im-portant that these relationships are established throughout the whole community, between resi-dents of all ages.

“The bowling tournament was an opportunity to bring young children into a traditionally older people’s environment and for everyone to have fun together. The event was held in great spirit

and everyone involved had a re-ally great time, with people from each generation getting a great deal out of it .”

Bowled over by Belle Isle village green tournament

Cottingley is sometimes de-scribed by locals as a bit of an island, slightly cut off from the rest of south Leeds by busy main roads.

But it’s certainly not a case of be-ing ‘out of sight, out of mind’. Health For All held a health event in Cottingley Towers recently. It had two aims - to introduce peo-ple to healthier food and ways of living such as exercise and to bring together residents from all different backgrounds and ages to get to know each other better.

One man who attended the event said: “It’s years since I’d tried an apple or a banana - I don’t usually bother with them. But I had some today which was nice. I might go get some more now. I also know how important it is to have a good mix of stuff and not just stuff in packets.”

The event included health ad-vice, cooking sessions, children’s activities including face paint-ing, health checks and henna amongst other things. The event was funded by the council’s inner south area committee.

The event was also attended by several members of the Kurdish community.

Healthy tips and food bring Cottingley residents together

South Leeds’ summer of events in pictures

A group for people with learning disabilities has celebrated its first year of service with an open day attended by dozens of people.

The Bridge, which has been running at Holbeck Community Centre since the closure of Moor End in Hunslet, provides day ser-vices for people with learning disabilities.

The open day featured photo-graph displays, workshops/dem-onstrations in arts and crafts, Nia movement, screen printing, bak-ing and massage. There was also musical entertainment from ser-vice users and the fantastic band ‘The Outsiders’.

For more information, email [email protected]

The Bridge celebrates its first birthday

The sun shone on Holbeck Moor for Hope Leeds 11 - a family fun day which drew dozens of fami-lies from across south Leeds.

A bouncy castle, face painting, food and football proved the per-fect combination for a fun day for

the family. The event was run by Churches Together in Leeds 11 and Hope 11 and was part-fund-ed by the council’s Inner South Area Committee.

Holbeck Moor hosts family fun day

Breeze got off to a sprinting start at Cross Flatts Park as young peo-ple and their families flooded in to take part in the free fun - and beat the holiday boredom.

With just under a year to go be-fore the 2012 Olympics, Leeds’ own Elliot Hurley - the under- 17’s Yorkshire 100 metre champion -

set a record of 7.3 seconds for the 60 metre urban athletic sprint challenge held at Breeze on Tour. Youngsters were encouraged to compete against his time.

Youngsters also took part in a wide range of sports and arts activities.

Life’s a Breeze in Cross Flatts Park


There’s something wonderfully mysterious - and just plain nice - about the idea of an underground ‘Secret Tea Room’ in Leeds.

Retired local resident Lynn Hill - also known as Bake Lady - is on a mission to spread the word about cakes and afternoon tea. She runs a monthly Secret Tea Room in the dining kitchen and front room at her house, the address of which is a closely-guarded secret known only to a few. On her blog she describes it as:

“At a secret location somewhere in Leeds, I create afternoon tea menus. Baking cakes and scones, tea loaves and tartlets for you to enjoy in the comfort of my family home. Share a table with strang-ers and leave as friends. I believe that I am the only private Under-ground Tea Room of its kind in Leeds.”

Every month Lynn invites guests from a waiting list of more than 100 to an afternoon tea of home baking, part of an underground tea room/supper club movement which started in London a couple of years ago.

Lynn says: “When I retired, I read the blog of London underground restaurant aficionado Ms Mar-mite Lover, Kersten Rodgers, and thought if she could do this sort of thing then so could I.

“They start the event as random strangers and spend the time getting to know each other and become friends.

“I get pure joy out of people ar-riving at my house, sometimes they’re people I know but often I’ve never met them. My neigh-bours have no real idea what I do here.”

Lynn - who makes no financial gain from her events - says her secret afternoon tea club, which is attended by a dozen people each month has all the required legal certificates, the venue is kept secret to attendees until a couple of days prior to the event - as is the menu.

Lynn also runs the equally in-triguing Clandestine Cake Club. People can bring along a home-baked cake and a non baking guest, to a cake club at different locations in Leeds.

There are rules: NO cupcakes. The traditional large cake is favoured. Lynn’s at pains to say she doesn’t have anything against cupcakes: “... but I’m routing for the cake in all its humble glory. People seem to have forgotten how to make them.”

Tea and coffee is available. The record amount eaten so far at one cake club meeting is a belt-bursting 11 slices.

Lynn adds: “The way I see it, I use cake and tea as a catalyst for a social gathering. It brings people together, gets them out of the house, gives them a break from their children and gives them the chance to meet other people.

“People bake their cake and bring it along to a chosen venue which remains secret until fairly close to the event. They even get the chance to bring a guest with them, so they don’t have to come alone. They meet other cake bak-ers and their guests, the conver-sation revolves around baking and friendships form from there. It’s that simple.

“There is no pressure, no com-petition. We don’t judge who is the best, although some people are quite competitive. People be-come creative with their recipes, and at the end we get to take home lots of cake too.”

Lynn’s passion for cakes is such that she’s setting up a ‘national cake week’ in October.

“There’s no national cake week on the calendar, so I’ve just set up a blog in the hope people pick up on it,” she explains. “It’s noth-ing formal, it’s all about baking a cake and getting together with family and friends. No competi-tion, no judging, just having fun and eating lots of cake.”

While good old-fashioned home cooking is at the heart of what the Bake Lady does, social media also plays a big part, with Lynn become the archetypal ‘silver surfer’ - a retired person who’s mastered the internet.

Lynn’s set up blogs, pages on Facebook and has more than one account on twitter.

“It’s relatively easy once you’ve mastered it - there’s no great mystery to social media. It’s con-nected me to so many different people.”

Check out Lynn’s Bakelady blog here: www.bakelady.wordpress.com/ or follow her on twitter @MySecretTeaRoom.

National cake week’s blog can be fund at www.nationalcakeweek.co.uk/ or on twitter @national-cakewk

Lynn’s recipe: Fat/Little Rascals Makes 6-7 Large Rascals or 12 Little Rascals

Ingredients1 Large Egg

150g plain flour, sieved

150g Self Raising flour, sieved

1 tsp Baking powder

130g cold butter, chopped into cubes

90g Caster Sugar

Grated Zest of one Lemon

1/2 tsp ground Mixed Spice

40g chopped Glacé Cherries

150g mixed dried fruit such as cur-rants, sultanas and raisins. Drained after soaking in warm water to plump up the fruit and soften.

50ml Milk

DecorationsGlacé Cherry halves and Blanched Almonds

Caster Sugar for dredging.

Method1 Preheat oven to 180 deg Fan

assisted

2 Sieve all the flours and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add the butter and give your hands some exercise by rubbing together until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs.

3 Add the Caster Sugar, Lemon Zest, Mixed Spice, Chopped Glace Cherries and drained Mixed Dried Fruit until well combined.

4 Add the beaten egg and enough milk (50ml) to combine mixture together into a soft, not too sticky dough. Add more milk if required.

5 Form the dough mixture into 6 Large or 12 Little Rascals. It helps to weight the total amount of dough and then shape each Ras-cal into the 6 or 12 equal sizes. Top with Blanched Almonds and Glace cherry halves. Place these onto a none stick baking tray.

6 Bake for 15- 20 mins for the Large Rascals. 10 – 15 mins for Little Rascals.

7 Once out of the oven, dust with Caster sugar

It’s recommended that we eat at least five portions of differ-ent types of fruit and veg a day. It’s easier than it sounds. A glass of 100% unsweetened fruit juice can count as one portion,

and vegetables cooked into dish-es also count. Why not chop a ba-nana over your breakfast cereal, or swap your usual mid-morning snack for some dried fruit?

It’s one of Belle Isle’s best-kept secrets... who’d have thought that under St John and St Barn-abas Church you’d find not only a family centre offering all kinds of different groups and support, but a fantastic cafe too?

Well, Belle Isle Community Cafe has been around for a while now and has gained a solid local reputation for wholesome, good value homemade meals at lunch-times, traditional cooked break-fasts and, more recently, buffets for different occasions.

I popped by for a secret visit one lunchtime. There’s a daily selec-tion of specials on the board. Roast beef and Yorkshire pud-ding (£4), belly pork (£3) scampi and chips (£5) and quiche, chips and salad (£3.25) all tempted, but I plumped for the beef.

A generous portion served cheer-fully and tasting, well, deliciously homemade - it hit the spot for me. Typical specials at the cafe in-clude casseroles, pies and pasta, nothing too fancy, just good, de-cent food.

My colleague took advantage of the solid selection of hot and cold sandwiches on offer by plump-ing for an egg mayo - and again there was plenty in it. ‘Very nice’ was her best description.

Other options included cheese, ham and tuna, with prices start-ing from about £1.70. And there were also options of salads, om-elettes and jacket potatoes. And vegetarian options are also avail-able. For the little ones there’s a selection of meals including fish fingers, burgers, sausages and sandwiches, with prices starting at a reasonable £1.50.

After gulping down the last drops of our cups of tea - a wide range of hot and cold drinks are available - we were tempted by a bakewell jam and coconut sponge (£1.30) but just didn’t have room. Maybe next time.

Belle Isle Community Cafe of-fers pensioners’ specials every Wednesday (noon to 3pm) which features a main meal, dessert and tea for £3.50. There’s also a fam-ily teatime club every Tuesday

3-5pm) offering healthy meals and fun activities for parents and children.

For more information about the cafe, call 0113 277 4819 or email [email protected] - it’s highly recommended.

Belle Isle’s community cafeBy John Baron

Gosia Denham, who runs the Hope Families group which meets at Middleton Primary School, provides this tasty recipe for you to try at home.

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with readers? Email us at [email protected] or write to John Baron, Health For All, Acre Road, Middleton and we’ll do our best to feature it in our next issue.

Gosia’s 2-2-4-6-8 banana cake

Ingredients

2 large very ripe bananas

2 eggs

4oz butter or margarine

6oz sugar

8oz self raising flour

Method

Heat the over to gas mark 4 (180c)

Grease a 2lb loaf tin

Mash the bananas with a sturdy fork

Cream the butter and sugar to-gether and mix in the eggs

Mix together the two yellow mix-tures you have

Mix in the flour

Scrape the mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 40 minutes then lower the temperature to gas mark 2 (150c) and bake for a further 30 minutes.

Try to resist eating until it cools down!

Gosia’s 2-2-4-6-8 banana cake recipe

How the Bake Lady revels in cake and community spirit

Clandestine cake clubs and secret tea rooms... in South Leeds?! Home cooking fan and local resident Lynn Hill tells South Leeds Life about how she brings together strangers using cake and social networking and about her plans for a national cake week in October.

Health tips

Live life to the full with the South Leeds Life maga-zine - 3,000 copies distributed free every quarter through local pick up points and community groups across South Leeds

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Could your business or organisation fill this space?Could you support this magazine?

To advertise your business/group or service call John Baron on: 0113 270 6903

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South Leeds

Life34 www.southleedslife.wordpress.comSouth Leeds Life 35www.southleedslife.wordpress.com South Leeds Life

1. Write down a list of the things that are worrying you This will ease the worries and a lot of problems will have less importance. Tick off each problem as you solve it.

2. Set priorities You can only achieve so much in one day. Make a list of things to be done and decide which of these are really important to you, and leave the others for another day.

3. Compile a list of your posi-tive qualities At stressful times, feelings of self doubt may occur. Build up your self-confidence. Write an adver-tisement as though you are selling yourself. Anytime you are feel that things are getting on top of you, read through your list and you’ll realise that you’re not such a disaster and that you are worthwhile after all.

4. Laughter is a positive natu-ral stress-beater It takes away the tension caused by many stressful situations. Try spending more time with cheerful, happy people. Find ways to enjoy yourself, watch a funny film or read an amus-ing book. “A laugh a day keeps the blues away”.

5. Learn to stand up for your-self Say ‘no’ if you really don’t want to do something. It’s hard, but try it! You don’t have to be aggressive, rude or unpleasant, but people will begin to treat you with more consideration and you will suffer less stress because you won’t be doing things you don’t want to do.

6. Try to eat a balanced diet Include foods in your diet that contain anti-stress ele-ments: vitamin C (from fresh fruit and vegetables) and vitamin B (from wholemeal bread, pasta, flour and whole grains).

7. Become aware of how you tense your body When you are under pressure you may tense your neck, jaw or shoulder muscles through-out the day. Make a mental note to relax these areas.

8. Exercise regularly It plays an es-sential part in reducing stress. Choose something that suits you and take it easy to begin with- brisk walking perhaps? Once you’ve got it try mov-ing on to an aerobic exercise such as dancing, swimming or cycling. Studies show that regular periods of exercise increase the body’s produc-tion of endorphins: powerful hormone-like chemicals as-sociated with a general sense of calm and wellbeing.

9. Plan ahead for changes. Pre-pare in advance wherever you can. By looking at your future needs you’ll reduce the obstacles. This can help you to stop feeling stressed because you’ve too many decisions to make in a short time. Plan well ahead for big changes like moving house, holidays or retirement.

10. Don’t be afraid to ask for help if you really need it. “A problem shared is a problem halved”. Talking over your worries is a positive way to reduce stress. Build up a sup-port system around you. Talk to a friend or visit a counsel-lor. Asking for help is not a weakness , it’s giving yourself something you need.

Local residents who have had the support of health trainers to help them change the way they live have agreed to meet more regu-larly and form a support group to help each other.

Health trainers provide a free one-to-one service to support people to lose weight, become more active and better manage stress levels among other things in order to lead a healthier life-style. In the past year, the train-ers have helped around 1,400 people.

At a meeting at Hillside in Beeston, people who have re-ceived help from the trainers got together to share tips and experi-ences on how they’ve improved their health.

A little over a year ago Mark, from Beeston, weighed 17 stones mainly due to a diet of fatty take-aways. He now weighs 11 stones nine pounds and recently took part in a fun run. He said: “I feel really good about myself. There’s

been a dramatic change, I used to have asthma but I rarely get it now.

“It used to be difficult to play with my young kids but now I can do it and spend quality time with them. I just set myself a goal and went for it. I now walk every-where - I walked here today from Seacroft and I feel great. It shows what can be done if you put your mind to it.”

Another attendee said she used to be a ‘sugar addict’ who took two sugars in her tea and ‘added sugar to lots of things’. She’s lost ‘inches’ off her waist thanks to reducing the amount of sugar she has.

“I’ve really cut down now,” she added, “and often now I don’t have sugar at all because it makes things too sweet for me. I feel much better in myself.”

72-year-old Derek, from Hun-slet, was overweight because he wasn’t eating properly and was suffering from diabetes.

He’s now lost three stones: “I now walk about the place a lot more - in fact I walk everywhere, I’ve ditched my bus pass!”

Another local resident has lost two stones (from 17 to 14 stones seven pounds) because he ‘is no longer sedentary’ and does plen-ty of walking and cycling. He added: “I don’t sit still any more.” He also put down his success to having a good healthy breakfast and then ‘burning it off for the rest of the day’.

Alia Nessa, Health Trainers service manager, told the meeting: “You have all seen Health Trainers to

help make underlying lifestyle changes and I thought it would be a good idea for us all to come together to share experiences, to socialise and see whether you’d like to form a group or forum to meet more regularly.”

A similar health trainers client meeting was held in Shine in Harehills.

Health Trainers are funded by the NHS. You can be referred by your GP to the service.

For more information on the health trainers, contact 0113 8272201 or email [email protected].

How health trainers have changed our lives

10 ways to beat stress

Beeston might not be the first place you’d expect to see the very latest in stylish eco-living, so it was a pleasant surprise to be wowed by this distinctive devel-opment during a recent visit.

The Greenhouse is powered by wind, rain, the sun and the ground. Its developer, Citu, de-scribes it as a UK leader in eco-development.

It is a part refurbishment, part new build on the site of the for-mer art deco Shaftesbury House - a large five-storey brick hostel for working men and women, originally designed in 1936 by George C Robb. A lodging house that improved standards of living for around 500 workers in the area, it was built using methods of construction and housing con-cepts considered revolutionary at the time. So it’s fitting that Citu should choose this site to push the boundaries of modern con-struction again - and provide 172 flats and a handful of small busi-nesses.

The Greenhouse is holding an open day on October 1 to mark its first birthday and local residents are being invited to attend and have a look around the building.

During my visit - which coincided with the launch of its Greenspace sustainable conference centre - I toured the open courtyard area at the heart of the development.

Reclaimed railway sleepers had been used to create large raised allotment beds which are tended by residents. They have further allotments down the road which the residents tend, and the pro-duce grown here is sold in the on-site deli.

Surrounding the courtyard are ground floor offices, most of which are occupied by creative businesses.

From the wind turbines and solar panels on the roof to the heating/cooling exchange system - noth-ing is wasted. Bold new technol-ogies like the 80m underground bore holes that access energy from the thermal aqua layer meet obvious efficiencies like the econ-omy of scale in having a single boiler system serving all flats.

Rain and bath water is also col-lected, recycled and used for flushing toilets saving up to three Olympic swimming pools of wa-ter being wasted a year.

Sensor-operated lighting is used in the corridors and the wall and door signage is made out of re-cycled yoghurt pots. Residents also have a personalised energy tracking system accessed via TV to keep track of their energy con-sumption on a day to day basis.

Greenhouse recently trans-formed some of its apartments into the UK’s most sustainable Apart-Hotel.

According to development man-ager Karen Stafeckis, much effort is being made to integrate this new community - which has its community group on facebook to encourage residents to buy into the sustainability ethos - into the wider inner city community of Beeston. She stresses this is no ‘gated community’.

She said there are plans to buy two cars for a car club which the wider community can make use of, the Greenhouse has a pres-ence at local galas, the deli is

open to all, tenants are being invited to a quiz night at a local pub and the concierge, Jimmy, is Beeston born and bred and was involved in the construction.

Karen added: “We hope we have something here which will have its own unique community spirit and we have an ongoing com-mitment to the development and encourage people to be eco-friendly. I’m hoping we can extend out connections with the local community in the future.”

Former hostel leads the way in stylish eco-livingBy John Baron


The first photograph appears in ‘Beeston Days’ published by the Beeston Local History Society in 1991. It shows a view, around the 1950s, looking from Holbeck Cemetery, west towards Wortley and Armley. The second photo-graph shows almost the same view today. What a difference a day, or 60 years makes.

Can you spot the similarities? St Bartholomew’s church on top of the hill in Armley is clearly vis-ible on both. There is also what looks like a chimney to the left of the church. Also visible on the two is a building in the yard of William G. Search Ltd (plant hire company) on Whitehall Road just below Wortley Rec’. Looking more carefully, the now disused LNWR Farnley railway embank-ment that runs parallel to Brown Lane can also be seen on the right hand side of the photographs. The Tilburys and Eustons cannot be seen on today’s photograph due to the trees on Beggars Hill.

One striking feature of today’s photograph is the number of trees that have appeared since the earlier photograph de-spite the increased number of buildings. Holbeck is perhaps a greener place than it once was. Maybe it is also a healthier place. Notice all the chimney stacks that were once belching out smoke and polluting the atmosphere. Although the old photograph is not very good quality, it does suggest a haze hanging over the city. Perhaps this has been replaced by the pollution from road transport.

The 1950s photograph takes me back to my youth. I was born and brought up in Tilbury Road (number 21). In the foreground of the picture is what I knew to be the quarry. A desolate area that was one of my playgrounds. The building on the right with the large chimney was the brick-works. These were kilns in which bricks were fired. It was a two-storey building. The kilns them-selves were on ground level. The coal for the furnaces was physi-cally fed in by workmen from the level above the kilns. My father worked there for a short while. When the kilns were emptied and open to the outside they were often frequented by pass-ing tramps – a nice warm room for the night. The clay bricks were brought up to the kilns from a site further down Elland Road, nearer to the football ground, using a small cable railway. The fired bricks were returned using the same railway. The railway can be seen going to the left of the picture. As kids we used to hop a ride on the wagons, until one of the workmen came along and caught us and told us off.

The quarry was also a place to go to find tadpoles, frogs and newts. In later it years it became a council tip. Not only was the waste from our dustbins emptied there, but also black stinking sludge from the roadside grates which were regularly cleaned. This sludge often contained coins that had been lost down the grates. We used to go poking about in this mess to retrieve the coins – not a very healthy practice.

A dirt path followed the wall of the cemetery from Noster Terrace and then dropped down to Buck-ton Road and Malvern Street. We called this the ‘Quarry Path’. From the end of Malvern Street a dirt track led down to the end of Little Town Lane at its junction with Elland Road. We knew this track as ‘Beggars Hill’. Both the Quarry Path and Beggars Hill can still be found today. In the win-ter months when snow lay on the ground you could sledge all the way from Noster Terrace, down the Quarry Path, over Buckton Road and Malvern Street and then down Beggars Hill to fin-ish on Little Town Lane. Some-times the owner of the house at the end of Buckton Road would throw ashes from the coal fire on to the road to stop us sledging past the house.

A large expanse of waste ground is clearly visible in the 1950s pho-tograph between the Eustons/Tilburys and Gelderd Road. Mat-thew Murray School was eventu-ally built on part of this area. It was bounded by Brown Lane in the north, Wortley Beck in the west and Petty’s Field (Petty’s Printers sports field) in the south. Close to the houses were some allotments and garages. The rest of the area was waste ground. Maps show it to be called Islington but as kids we knew the area as ‘The Tips’. Being close to where I lived it was my main play area. Bike riding, bogie riding, kite flying, hide-and-seek, den building, fire building, apple scrumping and sledging in winter were among the activities we got up to. Some-

times horse-drawn gypsy cara-vans would set up camp on there but my parents told me to keep well away from them. In later years, Holbeck Feast was held in September for a short while on The Tips. I was there from the ar-rival of the first caravan to watch the rides being constructed until the Feast finished and the last caravan had left.

Television was just beginning to appear in most people’s living rooms at this time but ‘playing out’ took up most of kids’ time in these years. As a youngster, there seemed to be few restrictions on where we went or what we did as long as we stayed out of trouble. I even remember walking with my mates to Middleton Woods from home. Kids these days don’t know what they’re missing, for-ever playing on their computers and with so many restrictions on where they can go and what they can do.

If you have any comments you would like to make or memories you would like to share about the above please drop South Leeds Life a line.

Ivy Benson, the female band leader from the swing era who was born in Holbeck, has been commemorated with a historic blue plaque at her old home in Cemetery Road.

Local councillors, residents, members of Leeds Civic Trust and former members of the band at-tended the official unveiling of the plaque. Ivy Benson and Her All Girls Orchestra became the BBC's resident dance band in 1943 during World War II and more than 250 women passed through the ranks of the Orches-tra, which Ivy led for forty years.

A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place to commemorate a link between that location and a famous per-son or event, serving as a histori-cal marker.

Benson was born on 11 Novem-ber 1913 in Holbeck, the young-est of three children of Douglas Rolland "Digger" Benson and his wife Mary Jane Mead.

Her father, a musician who played with ensembles including the Leeds Symphony Orchestra, began teaching her to play piano at the age of five. She played at working men’s from the age of eight, billed as Baby Benson, and performed on BBC Radio aged nine.

She left school at 14 and took a job at the Montague Burton factory in Burmantofts, putting aside half a crown from her wages each week to save up for her first saxophone. She supple-mented her income by playing in dance bands in the evenings.

Benson joined Yorkshire-based sextet Edna Croudson's Rhythm Girls in 1929, touring with them until 1935, after which she toured with various bands including Teddy Joyce and the Girlfriends where she became a featured soloist. She moved to London in the late 1930s and formed her own band.

During World War II, opportuni-ties for female musicians opened up as many male musicians were enlisted into the armed forces. The band became the BBC's resi-dent dance band in 1943, and were top of the bill at the London Palladium for six months in 1944.

When America joined the war and GIs flooded into Britain, Ivy reportedly complained that every time her band played at an Amer-ican army base they lost another member.

In 1945 the band were the first entertainers invited to perform at the VE Day celebrations in Berlin at the request of Field Marshal Montgomery, and on Christmas Day that year they performed for a live BBC Radio broadcast from

Hamburg immediately after the king’s speech.

She continued to lead the band until the early 1980s. Towards the end of her career the band played mostly private functions as dance halls and variety the-atres dwindled in number. The band disbanded in 1982 after a final performance at the Savoy Hotel, briefly reforming in 1983 for a performance on Russell Har-ty's television show to celebrate Benson's 70th birthday.

She was the subject of an episode of the tribute show This is Your Life in 1976.[4]

Benson retired to Clacton on Sea but suffered a heart attack at her home and died on 6 May 1993, aged 79.

Do you remember Holbeck in the 1950s?By Steve Peacock

View from Holbeck Cemetery looking west in 1950s View from Holbeck Cemetery looking west today

“I went willingly: the dental clinic was deep in the heart of my be-loved Hunslet, and I would have had all my blackened teeth ex-tracted one by one for one more visit to those blackened terraces.”

© City Lights, Keith Waterhouse (1994)

Anyone interested in the his-tory of Hunslet should catch an interesting community website

called Hunslet Remembered - www.hunslet.org.

You can read how Hunslet de-veloped from a peaceful rural backwater to one of the leading industrial areas of Britain.

In 1908 Alf Mattison wrote: “The Hunslet of today might well be termed the heart of industrial Leeds, throbbing with unceas-ing activity. The products of its

forges, engineering shops, and great locomotive works carry its name and fame to every cor-ner of the civilised world. In the closely-packed streets, with their teeming population, and amid the ordered turmoil of the busy works, there seems nothing to suggest that less than a century ago this smoke-clouded, be-grimed district was one of the most favoured residential parts

of Leeds, with stately mansions of the merchant princes set in the midst of fair gardens and or-chards.”

Check out the website - it’s well worth a read!

Hunslet’s history is now online

Ivy’s girl power remembered with blue plaque


It all started on Twitter, as out-ings are often wont to do these days. A discussion about dis-used railway lines in Leeds led to a 140-character chat about urban gardens and creative use of derelict spaces. This in turn brought about an expedition to explore the old Holbeck viaduct, 85 arches and 1500 yards long, that runs from the south of Leeds as far as the railway station in the city centre.

Four epic adventurers (ok, nosy people with a penchant for long lunch breaks) climbed a railway embankment and took a stroll along the viaduct, marveling at its beauty, checking out the views, considering what it could be used for and generally getting slightly tetchy to see this exciting

and unusual space unused and steadily decaying.

We weren’t the first people to sneak up there. Urbex have checked out it too, as have The Leeds Historical Expedition Soci-ety (that is perhaps a made-up name for a society but the video is real). This led us to ponder on why the viaduct is not being used to its full – or indeed, any – po-tential.

So, like others before us, we dis-cussed the abandoned plans for it to combine a walkway into the city with an urban park. It was earmarked to become a skywalk – or what the architects propos-ing it called an ‘elevated linear park’ – but somewhere along the line (cuts, cuts, cuts?) the money disappeared.

Shame, because this is a stun-ning piece of Victorian architec-ture, an engineering miracle that provided a vital transport channel into the growing city in the nine-teenth century. The viaduct once was and could again be a remark-able feature of a city, if Leeds has

the sense to show a bit of vision. At the moment, it’s exotically overgrown with randomly seed-ed local fauna. It’s wildly beau-tiful but with clear evidence of the region’s incredible industrial heritage. Standing several metres above roads and pavements (it’s a viaduct, that’s what they do) it offers remarkable views of the ever-changing cityscape. It brings the spectacular local countryside into the vibrant metropolis and back again.

But enough of the superlatives – we took pics, plenty of them, so you can see exactly what we’re talking about: Rick’s, Alex’s and mine.

Other cities have done it. Paris has one and New York thinks the idea is so good they’ve done it twice! How’s that for faith in the positive impact of projects of this kind? Mexico City is also working on one that will open in 2012. Is there any reason why Leeds shouldn’t have one too? A draft design exists; how hard would it be to get the project back on

track? NB that is not a hypotheti-cal question.

In projects like this, as Alex of Ex-ploring Leeds blog says, ‘Instead of leaving a redundant piece of grand civic architecture to linger until it is demolished you make it part of the community again and turn dead space into leisure space.’

So, what do you think Leeds? Wouldn’t the city benefit from turning a decaying space into a thing of practical beauty? Would locals use it? Would it be a per-fect place for picnics and strolls? Wouldn’t some of the many tour-ists who visit the city love to sit in a park instead of a pub some-times?

We know that times are tough (blah, blah) but it doesn’t seem like a good strategy to always let cost obscure benefit. Maybe it wouldn’t even cost that much to have a gorgeous, functional green space close to the city. I guess we won’t know until we ask… Thoughts, anyone?

I’ve been walking the length of Water Lane in Holbeck several times a week for a while now: it’s the nearest place to my studio for a decent espresso.

Every so often for a bit of vari-ety and excitement, I liven up the route with a detour onto the small desolate side roads popu-lated by a few solitary parking meters, and adorned with ram-pant weeds and an eclectic col-lection of rubble.

I don’t know what I’m looking for when I leave the main high-way. I’m driven by natural curi-osity, but also because I find this scarred light industrial landscape surprisingly compelling and aes-thetically interesting. I’ve felt in-creasingly there’s art to be found amidst the desolation, and in re-cent weeks I’ve found it.

For the last few weeks have re-vealed at the intersection of Bath Lane with Holbeck Ginnel the triumphant glory that is Holbeck Botanic Gardens.

This paradise of massed vibrant colour and floral abundance com-prises two extraordinary ‘mead-ows’ and a variety of ‘borders’. The flowers have emerged from the rubble and concrete over the last month and with each pass-

ing day I’ve been in awe at the power of nature to impose such beauty in such unprepossessing circumstances.

Did somebody at some point sow some seeds? Is it all the remnant of some attempt by previous oc-cupants of the sites to introduce herbaceous landscaping?

One of the meadows has a pre-dominantly yellow-blue theme. The other is a patriotic blaze of blue, red and white. A border tends to red and white. The sheer variety of colour is extraordinary, but on closer inspection you see that cornflowers are contributing many of the blue hues of delphin-ium, violet, indigo and sky-blue; poppies account for much of the crimson, scarlet, rose and ma-genta; and asters a lot of yellow.

Tucked in between the power flowers though are a mass of oth-er smaller plants, all contributing to the textural tapestry which is best observed by walking right up and leaning down to it all. No photo can do justice to this mag-nificence, which I dare not admit to the dog who has patiently sat waiting for me to scamper round in my vain attempts to record it all for posterity.

The closer in you get, the more impressive it is. Like any good art-work, Holbeck Botanic Gardens do not show all at first sight. But do go; and marvel.

Community catering: * Pat at Belle Isle Family Centre –

0113 2774819

Creche: * Eduplay Mobile Childcare is a

mobile crèche service providing high quality mobile childcare - 0113 2778965

Community transport:* TransportLink Community

Transport, efficient and safe transport services to school, youth and community groups, voluntary and statutory organisations at competitive rates - Contact Jill Newton 0113 2706903

Children and young people:* The Cupboard project aims to

improve the health and wellbeing of young people aged 13 to 19 years in South Leeds providing one to one support, groups and drop in facilities - Alison Chandler 0113 2762720.

* Active Clubs Experience (ACE) works with schools and communities to engage primary school age inactive children in regular, enjoyable, physical activity including sport, dance and fitness. Contact Richard Weaver, ACE Club Co-ordinator 0113 2706903

* South Leeds Youth Hub. If you’re 11-19 and looking for something to do, call 0113 3367773

* Hunslet Club: Helping young people achieve their potential - 0113 2716589.

* South Leeds Youth Theatre - 0780 709 1835 or email [email protected]

* Cardinal Youth Club - Yvonne Crowther 276 2020

* St Luke’s Cares, community charity which works with young people - 0113 2710766

Health trainers:Health Trainers provide a FREE one-to-one service to support you to lose weight, become more active and manage your stress levels better amongst many other things, in order to lead a healthier lifestyle. 0113 8272200

Community caravan:Health for All owns a high quality Community Caravan at Cayton Bay on the east coast near Scarborough and Filey for low income families. 0113 2706903

Local organisations:* Hamara Healthy Living Centre -

0113 2773330

* Hunslet Festival - 0845 475 2041

* Health for All - community development organisation - 2706903

* Friends of Middleton Park - www.fomp.co.uk

* AWAAZ network: Made up of Asian community groups - 07958 742719

* Middleton Railway - 0845 680 1758

* Beeston Community Forum - www.beestonforum.btck.co.uk/Contact%20us - 2716985

* Slate furniture store - 270 4005

* Beeston Festival - [email protected]

* Asha Neighbourhood Centre for South Asian Women - 0113 2704 600

* Beeston in Bloom - www.beestoninbloom.btck.co.uk/Contact%20us

* Beeston Local History Society - 0113 2717095

* Holbeck Gala: [email protected]

* SANGAM Forum for Sikh and Hindu self-help groups - 07959 474542

* Menspace - to help men and boys improve their wellbeing - 276 2720

* Beeston Action for Families - 0751 5851631

* Touchstone - 271 8277

Organisations for elderly:* Holbeck Elderly Aid:

0113 245 5553

* Belle Isle Elderly Winter Aid - 277 8208

* Middleton Elderly Aid - 272 1050

* South Leeds Live at Home Scheme - 271 6201

Mosques:* Khoja Shi'a Ithna Asheri Mosque,

Beeston Road, 276 5558

* Jamia Masjid Abu Huraira, Hardy Street - 0113 271 8050

* Masjid-e-Umar and Muslim Association, Stratford Street - 270 9536

Gurdwaras:Guru Nanak Nishkam Sewak, Ladypit Lane - 276 0270 / 276 0261

Community facilities:* Belle Isle Family Centre:

0113 277 4819

* Tenants Hall Enterprise Centre, Middleton: 270 6903

* Beeston Village Community Centre: 271 7231

* Hillside - 0113 387 6300

* Building Blocks Centre, Maud Avenue: 270 8088

* St Matthew’s Community Centre, Holbeck: 2762720

* Middleton Family Centre: 276 2386

* Pavilion, Dewsbury Road: 270 9432

* Hamara Healthy Living Centre - 0113 2773330

* Holbeck Community Centre - 276 2720

* Temple Works - 07710 418219

* Middleton Play and Learning Centre - 277 5323

* New Bewerley Children’s Centre - 3368255

* Two Willows Early Years - 270 6166

Council services:Welfare benefits rights and advice: 3760452

South Leeds counselling services: 3058306

Registrar: 222 4408

Councillors:Beeston & Holbeck Ward includes Beeston from Cross Flatts Park up to the Co-op, Cottingley, old Holbeck. The three Councillors are: David Congreve 277 7389; Angela Gabriel 07946 632 468; Adam Ogilvie 247 4578.

City & Hunslet Ward includes the city centre, Holbeck Urban Village, Beeston Hill and Hunslet. The three Councillors are: Patrick Davey 261 0465; Mohammed Iqbal 294 1049; Elizabeth Nash 275 8594.

Middleton Park Ward includes Belle Isle and Middleton. The three Councillors are: Judith Blake 395 1735; Geoff Driver 278 5995; Kim Groves 07891 741 832.

Hilary Benn MP: Contact: [email protected], www.hilarybennmp.com Constituency office: 2 Blenheim Terrace, Leeds, LS2 9JG; phone: 0113 244 1097; fax: 0113 234 1176

Or: House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA; phone 020 7219 6714

Surgeries: First Saturday of every month (except August): 10.00am – 11.15am St George’s Centre, 11.30am – 1.00am Tunstall Rd Community Centre

Fourth Friday of every month (except August): 4pm – 5pm St Matthews Community Centre, 5.15pm – 6.15pm Beeston Library

Please note: Due to pressure on space this is just a snapshot of local services, not a comprehensive guide. To be included in the next issue, contact John Baron on 270 6903 or email [email protected]

Celebrating Sikh elders group Pictured above celebrating their group are members of the Sohni Seyat group, which offered a weekly lunch and health tips for Sikh Elders at Beeston Village Community Centre.

The service was run by Health for All for four years but has unfortu-nately since closed due to a lack of funding.

It is hoped some of the members will attend the Parivar luncheon club in north Leeds - details from Gurpreet Gill on 07958 474542.

Some of the services have been taken over by Touchstone, an organisation which provides ser-vices that improve the health and wellbeing of local people. More details on 0113 271 8277.

Useful numbers in South Leeds cut out and keep guide

Holbeck Viaduct: Or what happened to our skywalk?By Jayne Rodgers

Sample Holbeck’s marvellous botanic gardens!By Gillian Holding

South Leeds features online on the Culture Vulture blog

Thanks to Emma Bearman for her support. Catch the Culture Vulture at www.theculturevulture.co.uk/blog

40 www.southleedslife.wordpress.comSouth Leeds Life

I was walking along Beeston Road the other day and decided to pop into Holbeck Cemetery. It wasn’t morbid curiosity, it was just that I’d never been in there and wanted a closer look, writes John Baron.

I found a viewing platform with some breathtaking views of Hol-beck and the city centre – a real hidden gem.

The cemetery is a really interest-ing place, steeped in local history and strangely beautiful. It dates back to 1857 and its opening coincides with the closure of St Matthew’s Church graveyard, off Holbeck Moor.

There’s a slideshow of pho-tos on South Leeds Life blog - www.southleedslife.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/slideshow-the-view-from-holbeck-cemetery/

POLL: Readers have been vot-ing on whether they’d like to see an Aldi built on the site of the landmark Middleton Arms. So far 36% of people who voted have voted said yes they would, 48% said no and 16% weren’t both-ered either way.

On the poll, local resident Paul commented: “The site should be used for something like Aldi or Netto etc. Or at least something that could bring jobs into the area. Boarded up buildings are not attractive, It’s just a waste of space at the moment.”

www.southleedslife.wordpress.com/2011/08/17/poll-do-you-want-to-see-a-new-aldi-built-at-middleton-arms-site/

MAP: We’ve put together a Google map of just some of the local community groups you can find in your part of south Leeds.

The map is also open for you to add your group or organisation/service.

* The map’s at www.south-l e e d s l i f e . w o r d p r e s s .com/2011/08/07/mapped-south-leeds-community-or-ganisations-and-groups/

SLIDESHOW: A slideshow of photographs showing the view over Holbeck from the viewpoint in Holbeck Cemetery is one of the area’s hidden gems.

* The slideshow’s at www.southleedsl i fe.wordpress.com/2011/08/07/slideshow-the-view-from-holbeck-ceme-tery/

COMMENTS: Your comments are always welcome in our posts.

On July’s Middleton Day event, Deacon Al Henry, the Method-ist Minister for Middleton, said:

“A happy community day, the weather was for the major part good and once we had things battened down against the oc-casional gust of wind, local or-ganisations displayed their work enthusiastically... The theme of past, present and future may have got a little lost but the future was covered as there were some plans to view for both Middleton Park and the new Enterprise Cen-tre. A good day.”

www.south leeds l i fe .word-p r e s s . c o m / 2 0 1 1 / 0 7 / 0 6 /middleton-day-saturday-9th-july/#comments

* On the fire that ripped through Holbeck’s Lord Nelson pub, StevePHolbeck says: “I think the pub has now been de-molished. What a sad loss for Holbeck. In the past I spent many happy hours in the pub. It was a smashing old building.

It’s a shame that many of our old pubs have closed and be-come a potential target for the vandals (Spotted Cow, Kings Arms).”

* On the theft of metal from the tracks at Middleton Railway, Paul comments: “If somebody could donate some CCTV cam-eras then the police would catch and lock up the mindless idiot thieves.”

Salena Riley replied: “Unfortu-nately to place CCTV cameras in the area may prove difficult as the line run through a green area and the cameras may suffer the same fate as the line.”

www.southleedslife.wordpress.com/2011/06/21/metal-thieves-strike-at-middleton-railway/

www.southleedslife.word-press.com for the latest news

Fabulous Holbeck views

Webwise at South Leeds Life

Catch up with the latest, comments, polls, maps and videos which have been posted over at the South Leeds Life blog - www.southleedslife.wordpress.com The collaborative blog is run by a small group of local residents and community organisations.

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