A five year-campaign to turn a derelict former Leeds school into a community hub is preparing for one last push before a decision is made on its fate next month.
Since 2005 the people of Hyde Park have campaigned tirelessly to save one of Leeds' most controversial buildings and turn it into a community centre.
As the Royal Park Community Consortium awaits the decision over the former Royal Park School building from the council's Executive Board on 25 August, they are urging everyone who has supported them in the past to continue to make their feelings known to the council.
Campaigners say they have been buoyed by the support of the new Labour adminstration on Leeds council and claima recent meeting with new council leader Keith Wakefield was positive.
And the Inner North West Area Committee recently pledged to fully support the RPCC's bid for the building and voted for the £3,000 court fees levelled at activists supporting the project to be quashed.
For the last six months, a volunteer team of local residents and professionals have been working on a detailed business plan for the building, liaising with local residents and businesses to create a vision of an open, accessible and valuable resource for all.
Local resident and campaigner Jake England-Johns said:
"We are by no means in the clear yet as we still have to satisfy council officers and the rest of the Executive Board of the financial validity of the project, but that is something that we can and will do.
"The RPCC represents the community on this matter and we can make the numbers work just as we can make the building work for the community of Hyde Park.
"It's a project that our community so badly needs."
As the RPCC continues to put pressure on the local council, voices across the community have been making their concerns for the area heard. At the full council meeting on Wednesday, an independent group of local residents made an impassioned plea for the authority's help in tackling the social problems that Hyde Park faces.
Last year, some local residents occupied the building in protest at what they claimed was neglect and lack of activity by the council.
What do you think? Should the consortium take over the former school and turn it into a community hub.
