If you passed by the Watsonian Pavillion in Cross Flatts Park on Saturday afternoon (31 May 2025) you may have been offered some delicious picnic food. Those serving it weren’t there by chance – it was a community picnic hosted by Beeston Hill Community Association with Leeds Stand Up To Racism.
Standing around homemade banners reading ‘no strangers in South Leeds’ and ‘Stand Up To Racism’, around 30 people from across South Leeds got to know each other better whilst snacking on the communally produced food alongside those who dropped in as they walked through the park. It was put together in response to an immigration speech Prime Minister Keir Starmer made recently in which he said of Britain “we risk becoming an island of strangers.”
One of the organisers, Shaz, told us more:
“After Starmer’s speech it was really heartbreaking to think that our community is full of strangers, when it’s not. When we know we have physically put events together that bring everyone together no matter their colour, race, religion or what their belief is. And today was an opportunity to prove that and we have done it.”
Another one of the organisers, Chris, added;
“In a community as diverse as Beeston unity is important. We definitely have more that unites us than divides us!”
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