More than 30 people crammed into the bar at Holbeck Working Men’s Club on Monday night to hear about progress on the Holbeck Neighbourhood Forum.
Dennis Kitchen, Interim Chair, reported on work with membership, publicity and designation of the area for the Neighbourhood Plan.
Dennis said that, in addition to 20 people who’d previously expressed in becoming members, a further 60 signed up at the Holbeck Christmas Market to indicate their support. He stated it was important to encourage more residents to get involved and it was suggested that involving local schools in designing publicity would be a good idea.
It was agreed it would be good to establish a website so more people could be made aware of what was happening and be kept up to date. It was also important to get local businesses engaged and it was planned to write to them and arrange visits to them to discuss how they could get involved.
Dennis confirmed that Anne Hopper had been appointed as Acting Treasurer so proper financial procedures could be established. Ian Mackay from Leeds City Council said it was hoped to apply for formal designation of the area by March 2013. In connection with this, work was underway in preparing the constitution for the Forum. He said that residents should consider including a wide range of issues in the Neighbourhood Plan.
Residents expressed considerable concerns about the continued delays to the Beeston Hill and Holbeck PFI scheme, which will improve current Council housing and build new, and the effect this had in making people cynical about getting involved in the Neighbourhood Plan. Ian Mackay confirmed that the Council remained fully committed to the scheme.
Cllr. Adam Ogilvie said: ‘The Council’s approvals are all in place and we are waiting for the contractors’ funding arrangements to be finalised so that the scheme can start.”
Dennis stated that any offers of help in connection with:
- Developing the constitution
- Finance
- Publicity including developing a website
- Visiting businesses
would be very grateful received.
Dennis can be contacted at bertiedog2000@yahoo.co.uk or on 0750 515 7259.
The next meeting, which will include workshops considering the plan will be held at 11.00am at Matthew’s Community Centre on Saturday 23 February 2013.
At the end of meeting, Wayne Noteman of Unity Housing Association, provided details of a new housing scheme the association is proposing to build at Brown Lane East to replace back to back housing that was previously demolished. It is hoped building work will commence next autumn. It was agreed that this was really good news. Wayne welcomed people to join a time limited working group to make sure local views were taken on board as the scheme proposals were finalised.
Wayne can be contacted at wayne.noteman@unityha.co.uk or on 0113 200 7700.
This article was written by Stephen Williamson using our Community Reporters website at www.communityreporters.sllife.leeds11.com
