What makes Armley what it is?

I know I bang on about Armley being full of amazingly creative people, but is it true?
Just cos I know a couple does that make it so?

The other day in conversation a person residing in Beeston told me that Armley was about as creative as a sh*t sandwich (sounds like something you could get funding for if you filmed the process).

They referred to the Armley they knew, which was a bit clichéd but basically went:
There is a dogging carpark near the Armley Mills Museum, it has a history of asbestos and cancer, a big roundabout, lots of chavs, dead people dumped near the dogging spot, a jail, E-Coli food poisoning.

None of the lovely things of Armley came to mind, well why would they?

So what is Armley all about? Who lives here? Where do you think it is going? All the Estate Agents boast about it being 'Up and Coming' is this true?

Regeneration of Armley Town St

Gentrification pushes out the poor for the benefit of the rich. Not many can argue against that. I want the working class of Armley to stick around and not become the latest victims of the insatiable developers of Leeds.
However, if there is some happy medium that could enrich the area and modernise the facilities I gotta say I would vote for that.
As a business graduate I would offer the following mildly cynical thoughts with a sprinkling of optimism on the side.

• There's not enough footfall on Armley Town St to attract businesses of a certain calibre, i.e. low margin, high volume, branded goods
• There's not enough branded goods to attract footfall (it's a cruel world)
• The traffic links suck
• There's no-where near enough parking to facilitate points 1 or 2
• There's not enough of point 1 to improve point 3 (is it getting any clearer?)

Ok, we live in a transport dominated world. Armley may have been a thriving local town but it's now handicapped in so many ways that it needs a very brave local government decision to foster any kind of progress.

As I have indicated this must start with a car park and I imagine the council would be unwilling to invest in that without a fairly major independent business signed up to open premises in the vicinity. I thought Somerfield might have been the catalyst for that until I realised they already owned Kwik Save and it was just a re-branding exercise.

Secondly, I'm not a fan of buses but places like Headingley, Hyde Park and Cross Gates have scores of bus routes going through them as hubs. Armley Town St has basically two, the 16 and the 5. All the other buses through West Leeds stay on the Stanningley Bypass. Yes it's not far away but it's a significant distance. Why do you think Tesco Express put up shop there?

They basically need to turn Armley Town St round to face the bypass and build a big car park in front of it.

There, all sorted...

Nick (grecian.blogspot.com)

ps - boycott Tesco Express for putting in self service tills, or at least refuse to use them and create big queues.