In case you missed it, south Leeds was on telly last night!
Channel Four’s The Secret Millionaire programme visited the area, spending time with Yvonne Crowther on the Cardinal Estate and the Dazl Dance group in Middleton. If you missed it, you can watch it again here.As usual, it was a tear jerker as millionaire theatrical producer David King spent time with both groups – and coughed up £17,000 for Yvonne’s social enterprise to create a community hairdressers and cafe which will help unemployed youngsters gain skills and qualifications. Read more about it here.
And Dazl netted £10,000 for their work with taking local youngsters and transforming them into dancers.
It was fabulous to see the work of these groups being recognised on telly. The community spirit of preople like Yvonne and Ian Rodley from Dazl was inspirational – people who give up their time and energies and thrown their heart and soul into improving other people’s lives.
The programme highlighted the very best of south Leeds there. And there are many more people like Yvonne who didn’t get recognised last night. We live in an incredibly rich and diverse community – and in that respect we’re really lucky.
Oh, and South Leeds Life magazine made an appearance! King read out an excerpt from our first issue about the Cardinal estate!
Yep, the car jacking was mentioned. After attending a charity event for the dance group Dazl Diamonds at Hunslet Carr Sports and Social Club, King was in the front seat of a car when a thief jumped in and made off with the car while he was still in it. Thankfully he was unharmed.
Police have appealed for help in tracing the car jacker. The event was unfortunate and it didn’t cast our area in a good light on national TV – but at the end of the day he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Couple of gripes – the programme really did make out the area to be worse than it is – ‘stab city’ it ain’t. The car jacking centre of the universe it ain’t. South Leeds isn’t some post-apocalyptic community cowering in fear thank you very much. It may have its problems in some parts but there’s a lot of good people here who care deeply about where they live and crime levels are relatively low.
But let’s concentrate on the positive – and well done Yvonne and Ian for your richly-deserved cash boosts. And thank you for going on TV to show the country about the incredible work going on in the area and the community sprit of south Leeds.
