What's happening in Beeston, Belle Isle, Cottingley, Holbeck, Hunslet, Middleton and Stourton
We are to get a new high school, the Ruth Gorse Academy. I say we, the sponsors seem to be promoting it as a city centre school, but then they also say it will connect to and the communities of Holbeck, Beeston and Hunslet. The cynic in me thinks
I had an unlikely and strangely uplifting experience last Friday. I say unlikely, because if you asked my daughter she would explain categorically that I cannot sing. I’ve lost count of the times she’s pleaded with me to “shut up” as I try to sing along to a favourite
There is a conference taking place today in Leeds to look at what can be done about high cost lending. The figures are stark, if Leeds residents borrowed money at normal bank rates of interest, collectively we would save £60m. That’s £60m that can be spent on food, clothing
The 7/7 bombers caused terrible death and destruction, but in some ways they did Beeston a favour. In the aftermath of the bombings most people locally came together to refute the allegation that the bombers somehow represented Beeston, or that Beeston was an “Islamic slum” as one of the
What to make of Tommy Robinson’s move to leave the English Defence League (EDL) this week? The EDL, for those who haven’t been paying attention, are at the sharp end of Islamaphobia in this country. They organise street protests where their thugs descend on a town or city (it’s
A few us from South Leeds Life went up to Middlesbrough last Saturday to something called the Talk About Local un-conference, or in the language of Twitter #TAL13. Let’s unpick that a bit. Talk About Local (TAL) is an excellent organisation that supports “hyperlocal” blogs to get established and
Let me start by saying that I’m not a fan of rugby, of either code. I’m not particularly against it, but it’s never grabbed me, if you’ll pardon the turn of phrase. I grew up down south where if they play it, they play union. I even played for
We had an interesting debate at South Leeds Towers this week – where is the line between encouraging debate and not publishing racist comments? Nearly three years ago when a group of us set up South Leeds Life it seemed pretty straightforward. We all agreed that we wouldn’t publish
As you may have gathered over the months, I have always been an advocate of people power. If you think something’s not right, get the community to do something about it or to put pressure on those with the power to change things. This begs the question: who does
It’s time to reflect on a busy week. After a quiet summer, I’ve been out every evening this week. On Wednesday I was at the Area Committee, which included a sobering discussion about welfare reform and high interest lending. Behind the modern jargon there’s a more straightforward word: poverty.