The Inner South Community committee met last night (26 November 2014) at Leeds Civic Hall.
The first half of the meeting was a workshop discussion about the Families First programme, focussing on employment, crime and anti-social behaviour and support for families in turn. A recurring theme was the need for better information and communication about services that are available.
A group of young people in our group brought up concerns about the Cottingley skate park suffering from broken glass and flooding. They are also looking forward to the proposed sports court as people currently play football against the wall of the community centre, interrupting their homework club. Issues were also raised about fencing being stolen for bonfire night and speeding cars. Inspector Chris Bowen said community groups could borrow speed indicating device.
There was feedback from the previous workshop on domestic violence that key issues such as inter-generational violence had been fed into the new city-wide strategy.
In the formal meeting following the workshop councillors agreed to make a number of grants from the Well Being Budget including:
- £26,389 to The Hunslet Club to run a further after school vocational training programme for young people in Years 10-12.
- £3,000 to Holbeck In Bloom towards a City Walk scheme to promote a safe route to the city centre including finger posts and litter bins.
- £5,000 to Health For All to undertaker a feasibility study on converting the multi use games area at Holbeck Community Centre into a sports hall.
- £1,000 to LCC Parks & Countryside towards providing a skate park next to Middleton Community Centre on Acre Road.
South Leeds Life will report in more detail on all these projects as they develop.
Cllr Kim Groves, local champion for employment and skills, reported that the apprenticeship event at John Charles Centre was a great success with over 250 young people attending and 23 employers present. The Point jobshop at the White Rose Centre has helped 350 people back into work in the last year. The Christmas jobs fair was attended by 750 people and at least half of the 100 available positions went to local people. National employers such as Marks & Spencer and Debenhams they were keen to work with The Point again in the future, but fed back that many applicants’ CVs were not good enough. More work on this is to be targeted at high schools.
Employment and skills will be the subject of the next workshop discussion when the Community Committee meets on Wednesday 11 February.
