What's happening in Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Middleton and Stourton
Someone asked me the other day why MPs use the term advice surgery. Well, I replied, we do give advice but we’re not doctors. But that’s not how one person saw it. The first person who turned up at my very first advice surgery as a councillor many years ago
It is hard to believe that the Beeston Festival has just celebrated its 25th year. Always a highlight of the summer, I swear it’s getting bigger every year. Once again, the weather was kind and the crowds flocked into Cross Flatts Park to enjoy the music, delicious food and the
For the second time in recent years local residents and I have found ourselves dealing with a particular problem. Companies that start operating and causing disturbance in buildings when they don’t have planning permission for what they are doing. In the first case, a quiet residential block by the river
“I see a number of children who are desperate to eat.” “Lots of children on a normal school day have little or no breakfast.” “You can tell how much more the children eat on a Monday.” These are all quotes from staff working in primary schools in Leeds. They were
A couple of weeks ago, I attended the climate emergency rally on the steps of Leeds Town Hall. There were hundreds of school students there from across our city. They had decided to come together to speak as the next generation about the huge risks of dangerous climate change. Ever
First of all, some good news. Royal Mail has dropped its proposal to close the Holbeck delivery office. I was delighted, if to tell the truth a little surprised, when I heard the news, but this has been a wonderful victory for local residents and Royal Mail staff. They ran
A journalist asked me the other day how my constituents are feeling about Brexit. I replied that judging by my inbox they are pretty much split down the middle. On the one hand, people say ‘I just want out’ while on the other people plead ‘Can’t you stop Brexit?’ And
Between April and September this year, the Trussell Trust – the UK’s largest emergency food provider – gave 658,048 food parcels to people in crisis. If someone had suggested, say, 40 years ago that so many of our fellow citizens would need to go up to a complete stranger and
It is sadly all too common in our big cities these days, Leeds included, to see people sitting on the ground asking for money, or huddled up against the cold sleeping in doorways. Homelessness is on the increase, but the vast majority of people affected contact their local council to
Last Saturday, I went to Leeds station to talk to the guards who are in dispute with Northern Rail over their future role. They are opposing driver-only operation and campaigning in support of keeping guards on the trains. I think they are right to be doing so for many reasons,