First things first. Many many congratulations to Leeds United on gaining promotion to the Premiership. It’s where the club belongs, it’s great news for our city and let us all hope this will be the start of a new era of success in the top flight.
The Holbeck Viaduct Project is a great idea. It wants to take a redundant railway viaduct that runs from just close to Leeds City Station all the way to Gelderd Road, near Elland Road, and turn it into a green walkway.
I recently attended a meeting at Elland Road to talk about the proposal and to look at the prospects for progressing it.
The railway line viaduct was built in 1882 and the last train ran on it in 1983. It has 92 arches and is 7.5 m high and 7.2 m wide, but most important of all it gives great views over the city
One of the advantages of the project is that it would help shorten the walk from the railway station to Elland Road on match days. With the plans to significantly extend the capacity at Elland Road, it would be really good if more supporters could make their way there by public transport, including by walking along the Holbeck Viaduct.
Like all projects, there are many complexities to deal with. Will Network Rail agree finally to dispose of it? How would you sort out landholdings along the way? How will the project deal with the fact that the viaduct passes over one railway line and several roads? What are the legal and insurance challenges? And most important of all, how can the project raise sufficient funds to meet the cost of maintaining the viaduct in the years ahead?
Everyone at the meeting realised that these questions will have to be answered, but the most important thing is that this is a brilliant idea that has been kept alive for nearly a decade thanks to the persistence and determination of those who came up with it. And I, for one, can’t wait to get up there and see what a wonderful thing it will be.
The Government has passed emergency legislation – the Steel Industry (Special Measures) Act – to save British Steel’s Scunthorpe plant. The Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the Government had “no choice but to act” to save the plant, after the Chinese company Jingye, which bought British Steel in 2020, said it had been suffering financial losses of around £700,000 a day.
New supplies of coking coal and iron ore to keep the blast furnaces going have now been secured.
For me, the most important thing about what’s happened is that society has realised that having the capacity to make steel is absolutely fundamental to any country and to any economy, and we can’t let it disappear. It’s not called a strategic industry for nothing.
In April, millions of workers got a pay increase worth up to £1,400 a year through the boost to the National Living Wage. Nye Bevan – the man who created the National Health Service – once said that “socialism is the language of priorities”. He was right. Being in government is indeed all about making choices, and the rise in the National Living Wage is a really good example of that.
And finally, I do not generally attempt to report on my sporting efforts, mainly because they are so undistinguished, but I did rather enjoy my trip to Royal Portrush Golf Club in Northern Ireland recently.
It’s a beautiful and classic links course where the 153rd Open Golf Championship will be held in July, and the sun shone furiously the day I was there. There were a few required photographs with the captain of the club and then the golf professional appeared carrying a putter and two golf balls. He proceeded to invite me to have a go on the practice green.
Now at this point I must make it clear that I don’t play golf very often and when I do I am truly awful. You name it – wayward shots, shanks, and a rare ability regularly to hit the ball into the rough, any bunker in sight or the water – are all features of my attempts to play. They have only been mitigated over the years by the encouragement of my sons who are much better at it than I am.
On this occasion I opted for a putt of about 4 feet and before addressing the ball I asked the golf professional what percentage of putts of that length a pro golfer would expect to make. His answer was a bit daunting so you can imagine my inner pride when I managed to sink both putts! I realised at that point, however, that this was as good as it was going to get so I retreated from the green in haste.
In a couple of months’ time, the world’s greatest golfers will grace the course. And after his magnificent win at the US Masters, there are great hopes right across Northern Ireland – and indeed the whole of the United Kingdom – that Rory McIlroy may prove to be victorious once again.
Hilary Benn is our Member of Parliament. He represents the Leeds South constituency.
Email: hilary.benn.mp@parliament.uk | Website: www.hilarybennmp.com
Constituency office:
Unity Business Centre, 26 Roundhay Road, Leeds, LS7 1AB
Tel: 0113 244 1097
While you’re here, can we ask a favour?
South Leeds Life is published by a not-for-profit social enterprise. We keep our costs as low as possible but we’ve been hit by increases in the print costs for our monthly newspaper which have doubled in the last two years.
Could you help support local community news by making a one off donation, or even better taking out a supporters subscription?
Donate here, or sign up for a subscription at bit.ly/SLLsubscribe
