Another unsafe cabinet sorted – or is it?

This week, we noticed a cable cabinet hanging open right in the centre of Headingley, on the corner of Alma Cottages. This is a busy area – thousands of people pass by every day, including school children catching the bus opposite Sainsbury’s, so it’s a really bad idea to have exposed wires hanging out here where anyone could touch them. Penny Goodman reported the issue to Virgin Media, who own the cabinet, and we’re glad to report it was closed up on Friday afternoon.

Update: walking past this cabinet this afternoon, we noticed that it was open again. So it may in fact have been closed by a concerned member of the public yesterday, rather than Virgin Media. We have sent them a chasing email, asking them to attend to the matter urgently.

Further update: our chasing email worked! Virgin Media replied promptly on Monday morning, and the cabinet has now been secured.

Focus stories: Labour’s bin shame

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Penny Goodman, is calling on Leeds Labour to sort out the bins in Headingley after receiving complaints from residents in the Ash Road area that the new opt-in recycling scheme, brought in by the Labour Councillors, is not working.

Green bin collections were stopped and residents who wished to sort their recycling were told that they could request recycling bags. But on Chapel Street the old green bins have been left abandoned, blocking the pavement and causing problems for people with disabilities and parents with pushchairs. Some residents have also not received recycling bags despite requesting them several times.

Bins blocking the pavement in Chapel Street

Labour-run Leeds City Council is letting Headingley down by not ensuring that the new scheme is implemented properly across the whole of the pilot area.

Local residents have also been telling us that they would like to see doorstep glass and food waste recycling in their area. Liberal Democrat Councillors in other parts of the City implemented a successful doorstep food waste recycling pilot, which we want to see rolled out across Leeds.

Update: after publishing this story in our Focus leaflet, we reported the bin problems in Chapel Street to the Environment and Housing team, and were told that this street is not part of the Ash Road opt-in recycling pilot after all. Yet the local residents we spoke to believed that they were included in the pilot, and the suspension of their regular green bin collections suggests their bin collection teams thought so too. So the real problem here is poor communication around the pilot scheme, leading to residents and collection teams believing one thing and Environment and Housing believing another.

Focus stories: Elinor Lupton needs a clean up

Penny Goodman and the local Liberal Democrat team are asking Wetherspoons, the new owners of the Elinor Lupton Centre, to clean up the building.

This grade 2 listing building is covered in graffiti and is currently an eyesore rather than a landmark Headingley residents can be proud of.

The local Liberal Democrat team has supported proposals by Leeds Music Hub to use the building as a music and arts space and has expressed concern at it being turned into a pub.

Focus stories: cleaning up our area

Local Liberal Democrat campaigner, Penny Goodman, is taking action to clean up our area!

Penny has successfully got graffiti cleared up in a number of streets, including Bennett Road and Alma Road. And thanks to her quick action, Penny has secured a new litter bin at the entrance to the Lupton Residences.

The local Liberal Democrat team also took action to get the rubbish cleared up from around the recycling bins at the Headingley Taps.

Why aren’t Headingley’s Labour Councillors tacking these issues?

Local residents know that Penny and the Lib Dems get things done in our area. If you spot any issues, please contact us.

Victoria Road playing field must not be built on!

A new planning application to build a gated residence for 262 students on the former Leeds Girls High School playing field on Victoria Road has caused widespread anger amongst local residents. Ever since the school left the area, the local community, led by the Hyde Park Olympic Legacy group, has been fighting hard to preserve both the on-site sporting facilities and the playing field for public use. They are badly needed in an area which has all too little of both.

Local campaigner Penny Goodman and Greg Mulholland MP in front of the Victoria Road playing field.

But despite local opposition, outline approval for a development of 24 houses and a supermarket on the site was granted in 2014. Soon afterwards, the sports hall and swimming pool which had previously stood on the site were demolished.

Demolition in progress on the Victoria Road site.

Now, in a new twist, a further application for a 262-bed gated student residence has been submitted. Just like the previous application, this will rob the local community of much-needed green space, but this new proposal would also affect the local population balance by increasing the concentration of students in the area. Students are valuable members of the Headingley community, but diversity and balance are important too. It is not good for anybody to create student ‘ghettos’ anywhere in Leeds.

Penny Goodman has therefore submitted an objection to the new planning application, joining 25 local residents and Greg Mulholland MP in doing so. You can see her letter on the council’s Planning Applications website (search for application 15/05863/FU, and then go to the Documents tab), or read it here:

Unsafe telephone cabinets reported

Over the past few days we have noticed two street telephone cabinets hanging open in Headingley. One was on St. Michael’s Lane, next to the junction with St. Michael’s Crescent:

The other was on Ash Road:

Obviously this is dangerous because of the exposed wires, and it can’t be good for local people’s telephone and internet connections either! So Penny Goodman has written to Virgin Media, who own both cabinets, asking them to visit the sites and secure them.

Update 26/10/15: Virgin Media responded this morning, and will be securing the cabinets today. Great news!

October Focus

We’re starting to deliver our October Focus leaflet today. Watch out for yours!

Note: we aim to deliver a leaflet to every household in Headingley, but of course some addresses are inaccessible (e.g. flats with entry codes), and sometimes we just run out! That’s why we put our stories online as well. You can browse through them by following our ‘focus stories’ category.

Ash Terrace success

A couple of weeks ago, a resident got in touch to let us know about some unwanted weeds and trees which had grown up in the end of Ash Terrace. Penny Goodman went along to have a look, and then contacted the council to discuss what could be done about it.

The good news is that the council’s street teams responded quickly, and today the growth was all cleared away. Two whole truck-loads of greenery were removed.

The resident who originally raised the issue kindly gave us permission to share his pictures of the newly-cleared street. So Ash Terrace has gone from this:

To this:

What a change! We are really pleased to have helped get this sorted out, and are looking forward to supporting local residents in developing the community garden which they would like to establish here now that the weeds are gone.

Unwanted growth on Ash Terrace

A resident recently got in touch to say that a clump of unwanted weeds and small trees had grown up in accumulated soil at the end of Ash Terrace, a cul-de-sac which intersects with Chapel Street. This is making the street look neglected, and if the trees are allowed to keep growing it will damage the cobbles underneath and probably also the pavements on either side and the wall behind.

Local campaigner Penny Goodman went along today to take some pictures, and discuss ways to help the local residents get the unwanted growth cleaned up.

We’ll now be talking to the council to see what can be done here, and to help the residents realise their long-term ambition for the closed-off end of this street – a community garden set into a raised bed.

Liberal Democrat autumn 2015 conference

This week the Liberal Democrats held their annual autumn conference in a beautifully-sunny Bournemouth. Headingley campaigner Penny Goodman was there, and took part in the conference photo-board on the theme of #OurLibDemValues. Here’s what liberalism is all about for Penny:

It was a great conference, but the absolute highlight was Tim Farron’s leader’s speech on the final day. It was his first in the role, but long-term conference-goers agreed that it had been one of the best speeches ever delivered by any Liberal Democrat leader. You can watch it for yourself here:

Headingley & Hyde Park Liberal Democrats

Brandon Ashford and the Lib Dem team – working hard for Headingley and Hyde Park all year round.