Special free school consultation

Leeds City Council is currently consulting on a proposal to create a new generic special free school under a free school presumption process from September 2021, providing approximately 150 places for pupils with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) aged 4-16 years. It is proposed that the special school would be located at Rose Court, Buckingham Road, Headingley. However this is dependent upon Leeds City Council acquiring the Rose Court site from its current owner, the Grammar School at Leeds.

You can access the consultation documents here and complete an on-line survey which you can use to put forward views on the proposal.

Two community drop-in events will take place during the consultation period, which runs until 16 December 2019.  These events will be attended by council officers from the school place planning and highways teams and will be open to anyone with an interest in the proposal, offering an opportunity to ask questions and share views.

Details of the drop-in events are as follows:

3 December 2019, 5:00pm – 6:30pm: Rose Court, Buckingham Road, Headingley, LS6 1BP.

11 December 2019, 3:00pm – 5:00pm: Leeds City Centre Hub, Merrion House, Merrion Way, Leeds LS2 8PD

Leeds Liberal Democrats 2018 election manifesto

Today marks two weeks to the Leeds City Council elections for 2018. These are particularly important elections, because we are electing the whole of Leeds city council from scratch following changes to some ward boundaries. Across the city, everyone will have three votes each to select three new councillors for the ward they live in.

The Leeds Liberal Democrats have produced a fully-costed manifesto for this year’s elections, created through consultation with our local members, residents and city councillors. It is packed full of exciting and practical policies such as:

  • Citywide food waste and glass collection
  • Saving money and reducing pollution by powering city vehicles with biogas
  • A council-owned housing company building affordable homes for sale and rent
  • Addressing declining educational results amongst our most disadvantaged children
  • Employing dementia-supporting Admiral nurses

If you would like to read the manifesto in full, you can do that right here! Pictures of all the pages are included below, or you can download a pdf copy for yourself.

Focus stories: Our fight to retain academic funding post-referendum

Research funding and ERASMUS at risk after Brexit vote

The outcome of the EU referendum has put at risk the UK’s access to European funding for research and study abroad.

In Leeds, this could have a serious impact on the work our universities do and the opportunities available to local students. The University of Leeds currently gets nearly 16% of its research income from European funding, supporting projects from developing better artificial joints to designing environmentally-friendly aircraft. It also sends hundreds of its students abroad each year on the popular Erasmus+ scheme.

The Liberal Democrats are fighting to safeguard the vital scientific research and opportunities for young people which EU funding has supported until now. At the recent Liberal Democrat conference, party members unanimously supported a motion calling on the government to protect both.

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner Penny Goodman lives in Headingley and works at the University of Leeds.

Penny said:

I feel very strongly about this issue, and made a point of attending Liberal Democrat conference this year so that I could vote for the motion. The research carried out in UK universities generates jobs, improves lives and keeps our country competitive. In the same way, sending our young people to study or work abroad gives them the skills, experience and international outlook which today’s employers are looking for. Now we know the outcome of the referendum, it is in all of our interests to protect these activities for the future.

In November, Liberal Democrat MEP Catherine Bearder presented a petition to the European Parliament to save the Erasmus+ scheme for British students.