Words: Andy Dalton
A load of rubbish is being put to good use in Armley.
Volunteers began work on the renovation of the old ‘Mission Room’ in Mistress Lane last spring. They have been working hard at transforming the building into a contemporary Compassion Centre for one of the city’s oldest charities – Leeds City Mission (founded 1837).
One of their priorities has been to avoid waste, recycle and divert rubbish from landfill. Their aim is to complete the project without using one skip.
The volunteers are making good progress.
Since last spring:
- 5,334 square yards of wood has been extracted and saved for reuse at projects such as Men in Sheds and Allotment Associations.
- 600 bricks have been cleaned of mortar and reused in the project.
- Waste wood has been cut up and 286 sacks of firewood have been given away.
- Three long trailers of rubble have gone to create a new access road on a farm.
- 370 sacks of general rubbish have been creatively processed. All scrap metal has been sorted and despatched to a metal reprocessing facility.
- Their efforts have saved Leeds City Mission the expense of eight skips.
Twenty volunteers have given a total of 1,200 volunteer hours to date.
Leeds City Mission expects to be busy over the next few weeks as they bring the project to a conclusion.
The final task will be to fit carpets and a volunteer has already sourced surplus and good second hand carpets to lay in each of the rooms.
The Compassion Centre at the Mission Room will feature a meeting space, office, kitchen, shower, clothing store, basics, school uniform bank, a pantry (food) project plus drop in facilities. Leeds City Mission will be providing practical help to people in need.
Leeds City Mission Development Worker Andy Dalton thanked all the volunteers for their help so far. He said it was hoped to have finished the project by Easter. He also added that the project was in need of paint as the decorating phase will begin soon. He said:
“If anyone has surplus paint and would like to give it to a good cause then we will be happy to put it to good use.”
Leeds City Mission is a Christian agency which has worked with marginalised people over three centuries and seeks to meet the physical, social and spiritual needs of Leeds residents.