Armley Forum...what happened

The Armley Forum was chaired by councillor Janet Harper and was fairly well organised. My main problem was hearing everything that was said due to people grumbling under their breath and a lot of coughing.
Subjects that were discussed were:

• Armley Leisure Centre - alleged poor conditions of cleanliness both of the the pool and the centre as a whole. The deputy manager defended the condition saying they were mainly down to the age of the centre and the fact that it was impossible to avoid having prams rolling across the poolside.
• The site of the new lesiure centre was briefly discussed. It will be on the site of the existing car park and there will be floodlit outdoor pitches, one of which will be left open after hours for local kids to play on. There was also something about a chill centre for the kids to hang out in.
• There were various complaints about "youths", "bins" and "mini-motos", all of which I expect are a symptom of living in an areas with a large amount of disaffected teenagers. The police said they were concentrating on certain areas such as the Cedars and the Salisburys but a lot of the time they could not arrest the kids as they were not committing crimes. They advised people to phone the non-emergency number if they had evidence or knowledge of anti-social behaviour.
• There was a lengthy presentation from youth worker Kevin Donnelly about his trip to the favelas of Rio de Janerio. I won't go into it but he detailed his various encounters with drugs and violence and took a swipe at the old cynics saying "if we don't value our youths then the drug dealers will".

That's all I can remember. The Todd's debacle was briefly mentioned with someone pointing out that although they have gained planning permission they are yet to get a betting licence.

I also had a brief conversation with the Armley Moor Trust treasurer who said he was having difficulties getting planning permission for a new hut on Charlie Cake Park.

Is Community Dead?

Listen to an ambassador from Britain's friendliest street on BBC Radio Leeds 18th April at 7.45 am

LACK OF TRUST AMONG NEIGHBOURS HIGHLIGHTS NEED TO BOOST COMMUNITY SPIRIT

Confirming concerns that community spirit is in danger of becoming a thing of the past, a new survey has revealed that nearly 60% of Brits confess to never having borrowed anything from a neighbour. Over 35% said that they wouldn't even trust their neighbour to water their plants whilst they were away!

When asked whether they felt that community spirit had decreased compared to fifty 50 years ago, an overwhelming 93% said they feel it has.

All this has prompted Miller Homes to enable its buyers to get to know their neighbours online through a new service being launched this month - www.mymillerstreet.co.uk.

Celebrity psychologist, Geoffrey Beattie explains why we don't know our neighbours as much as we used to, why community spirit is good for the soul and why certain regions are more neighbourly than others.
Plus, for those that can't get to know their neighbours online, he'll give top tips for getting to know the man next door, how to be a good neighbour and how to avoid coming across as a curtain twitcher! (The X LadyM thinks curtain twitching is a very valid pastime)

Did you know?
Scots are the most likely to know their neighbours by name with over 90% saying they know the man next door.
Proving it's not always more friendly up north, residents of Leeds came bottom when asked the same question - in fact over 25% of people in Yorkshire couldn't name the people next door.

Over 80% of Scots also said it was important to know your neighbours, compared to just 68% in Birmingham, 67% in Nottingham and 65% in Leeds.

When it came to community spirit, Cambridge had the poorest showing with a mere 7% of people knowing ten or more people in their neighbourhood. Coventry came a close second with just 13% saying the same followed by Leicester at 22%, Edinburgh at 23%, London and Southampton at 24% and Leeds at 25%.

Proving they're a friendly bunch in Newcastle, over 75% of Geordies said they had spoken to neighbours in the last week

Over half of Midlanders didn't bother to introduce themselves to next door when they moved in with Sheffield, Leeds and Nottingham a very close joint second.

Nearly 20% of Liverpudlians said knowing your next door neighbours did not contribute to a better quality of life - compared to a national average of just 7%

Nearly a quarter of Brits said they would gladly ditch their own neighbourhood to live on Ramsey Street - the fictional setting of long running Aussie soap, Neighbours. The only region where Erinsbrough didn't come out top was Glasgow, where Coronation Street topped the poll.

And finally, one quarter of people in Nottingham said that they didn't consider themselves to be a good neighbour - topped only by Leeds at a sad 26%.

The Next Armley Forum- get along to hear exciting plans and have your say!

No excuses, if we want to have a say then here's the place to do it, with the rest of Armley's fine community, councillors and the local council officers who know what's going on!

Click here to be taken through to a very informative site all about the plans for Armley and regeneration.

The next forum meeting is 17th April 19:00 at Armley One Stop Centre.

Any questions or to join their mailing list email nhd.innerwest {at} leeds.gov.uk

Can Art Change the World?

Another post on Art and Creativity.

One of my pet themes that I am trying to research is what is the link between art, creativity and regeneration?

• Is it something that needs the local government to sponsor, or is it something that springs up and grows gradually? Or both?
• Does a place that has lots of creativity going on always end up having the middle classes come in and push the poor out?
• What does it mean to the average person to live in an area where creativity flourishes?
• Do we need to do anything proactive, like create the conditions where creative people (from someone who enjoys knitting, through to professionals) can meet and share?
• Would we like studio spaces in Armley? (I know I would)
• We have already witnessed a quirky brand of Artiness developing here, from the I Love West Leeds Fesitival, to the Marvellous Tea Dances, to The Charming Armley Calendar, Jam Up the Back Passage, Interplay Theatre, Rock and Roll Circus Recording Studios and Venues.
• What more could there be? (Use the contested Regeneration Billboard as a changing canvas, have a competition to design the best public toilets, empty retail units as gallery spaces and studios, Charlie Cake Park Parades, Urban Picnics???)
  
• Should we meet and find out what we could do if we put our heads together in a venue with drinks and chow?

Please email or comment jamsiren@thearmleytouristboard.com

Where else has this worked?
Bilbao
Chapel A? Click here to see Chapel A referred to as a case study in a book about global gentrification (However if you do a search on books containing C A they only get 76, Armley has 252!!- Thanks to Barbara, Alan and Peter Robinson!
Where else?

Links to the right- How Folkstone is rebuilding itself with the help of money, art and lots of vision, but from the Ground UP

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.

Is this really a grown up sister site?

An open apology.

It's hard sometimes to be clear about your motives, and recently I have questioned mine.
Just because people are busy and active does not mean that they don't care.
Having a blog site and an ego = BAD KARMA!

So without being too cryptic, I just want to say that I do think all of the people currently trying to make a real difference to Armley need to be acknowledged for their contribution. In my ivory tower world, I would love that there was one place where all of those people could share what they are doing, no matter how or what they do. I don't know if this is the space to do it, and appreciate not many have the time to write Internet blogs.

I am sorry if I have hectored, cajoled or tried to frog march anyone into a 'regeneration' parade. That was certainly not what I would have wanted.

So perhaps a bit of patience, and breathing space is required. Please feel free to let me know if you think this is a useful way of communicating to a growing audience of other Armleyites, or if you would like to have a meet in a pub over drinks where we make connections that may or may not lead to anything other than a nice conversation with someone new.

Or if you already write and would like others to know about it, send a link.