Why doesn't the council listen to the residents of Hyde Park and Woodhouse or even to our local councillors?
I have lived in Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward for the past six years and I am very proud of my community. It is a fantastic area with a diverse multicultural, multi-background population who all get along and work hard to make our bit of Leeds better.
We have low income families, students, workers, OAPs, refugees and asylum seekers and we all want the same thing – for the council to listen to us!
I don't usually blog or send letters to the press but I feel so passionately about what is happening to my area that I had to write.
At last Thursday's Inner North West Area Committee (INWAC) meeting, the same issues were being raised again but still with no commitment that Leeds Council would listen to the needs and views of the residents or even its local councillors.
All the councillors present at the meeting agreed with the residents' views that we do not want the current application for the Leeds Girl High School (LGHS) development to be approved as it stands.
Hyde Park and Woodhouse is crying out for more affordable family homes not yet more one bed flats. Leeds city centre is already full of empty one-bed flats.
Our local primary schools are desperately short of playing field space. Our children need playing fields in the area, somewhere where they can learn and play without having to catch a taxi or a bus to playing fields miles away in Alwoodley.
Five-storey blocks of flats built on green space playing fields are not what we want or need in the area.
Any development of the LGHS site should come with a pre-condition that the playing fields, tennis courts and swimming pool are given to Leeds council, not for 10 or 15 years but FOREVER.
All councils are cash-strapped but this solution would not cost Leeds a single penny.
Hyde Park and Woodhouse residents do not want any more than more affluent areas such as Alwoodley get, but why should we have to make do with less?
Alex Tyson is a resident of Little London in the Hyde Park and Woodhouse ward. He's also the Liberal Democrat candidate for the ward at next May's local elections.
Background
Members of the council's west plans panel are due to meet on Thursday to consider the controversial application, which has attracted more than 1,300 objections, amid concerns that and inner city area will lose vital playing pitches in favour of a housing development.
Many local residents are opposing plans to turn the site into more than 100 dwellings, with a mix of apartments and townhouses. The application has received widespread opposition in the community, including more than 1,300 letters of objection, the formation of the Leeds Girls High Action Group, a 1,000-name petition to request the purchase of the fields for local schools and objections from Leeds Civic Trust, The Victorian Society and local councillors.
The applicants are The Morley House Trust.
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