Police appealing for information relating to a stabbing on Kirkstall Road yesterday have made two arrests.
Earlier today they appealed for help to identify three people they would like to speak to in connection with a serious assault that took place yesterday afternoon (Saturday, 13 May).
The incident, which officers describe as isolated, happened shortly after 4.30pm near the McDonald’s at the Cardigan Fields complex on Kirkstall Road.
The male victim suffered stab wounds and was later taken to hospital where his condition is described as serious but not life threatening.
Officers have asked anyone who may have witnessed the incident to call West Yorkshire Police on 101 or go online at www.westyorkshire.police.uk/101livechat, quoting reference 1241 of 13/5.
Alternatively call independent charity Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
A micro pub which only opened at a Bramley mill complex last year has proven so popular that it’s already looking to expand.
Tucked away in Swinnow Grange Mills, Stanningley Road, Against the Grain serves craft ales and liquors, cocktails, spirits and wines from across the world – and owners say it’s so popular they’re having to turn people away.
Founder Owen Wilson, 37, wants to extend his bar into an existing unit at Swinnow Grange Mills, and put in an outdoor seating area.
Venue: Swinnow Grange Mills, Stanningley Road. Photo: Google
A planning application submitted to leeds City Council this week states: “We have acquired a part of unit one next door to our premises. We are wanting to add this to our bar as another eating and drinking area. There will be an entrance to the room from the existing bar.
“We are also wanting to build an outdoor decking area outside for summer drinking. When the units all become one we will require 67 covers in total. This includes the outdoor area.
“We have traded as ‘Against the Grain’ for a year now and have had zero complaints or issues whatsoever. We are turning customers away on occasions so to have the extra space would be ideal.”
Against The Grain offers craft beers, cocktails and food including pizza, meat and cheese platters.
Initial planning permission for the micro pub was granted bay Leeds City Council last year. Planning officers imposed conditions including restricting outside seating, no amplified music and tannoys and to limit the covers to 25 in the pub.
Kirkstall in Bloom have plans to celebrate this summer, as the community gardening group will be celebrating 11 years of volunteering in the heart of Kirkstall.
At 6.30pm on Tuesday 25 July 2023 residents of Kirkstall, present and past volunteers, as well as all the friends we’ve made since the beginning are invited to gather and celebrate. Bring your own food to enjoy or share.
Secretary Jim Corah said: “Volunteering needs to be fun, and rather than celebrating our ten-year anniversary in 2023, we opted to embrace a prime birthday with 11.
“Unfortunately we will miss having a stall at this year’s Kirkstall Festival so this is our way of celebrating with the public.”
Before the celebration there are two gardening sessions planned. On Saturday 3 June Kirkstall in Bloom will meet at 10.30am to get beds ready at the Drink And Be Grateful Fountain Garden for the summer, while on Saturday 24 June at the same time they will be continue the good work.
Kirkstall In Bloom will then switch to evening sessions over July and August hoping to recruit new volunteers with shorter ‘taster’ events.
The first of these evenings will be Tuesday 11 July 2023 meeting at 6.30pm at the Drink And Be Grateful Fountain Garden. As with all Kirkstall in Bloom events, everyone is welcome, no experience is necessary and tools and gloves will be provided.
Established in 2012 with the help of then councillor Lucinda Yeadon and the Kirkstall Village Community Association, the group have been welcoming new volunteers to their sites at the centre of Kirkstall.
The first and main site is the Drink And Be Grateful Fountain Garden, with the Cenotaph, Latent Power sculpture mound and bed outside Kirkstall Leisure Centre, and planters at Kirkstall Forge Station.
Nicholas Greenhall Exhibition: “The Myth of Sisyphus in Paint”, Assembly House, 44 Canal Road, Armley.
Assembly House in Armley is hosting an exhibition of paintings by Nicholas Greenhall, a Bramley-based artist. If you have an hour to spare today, take the family and go for a stroll through his abstract landscapes, for a good view, and to experience the new and familiar.
Assembly House is my kind of exhibition space, and I think it might be yours too. You’ll find it up two short flights of stone stairs in a Victorian textiles mill on Canal Road, next to Slate’s Feel Good Furniture shop. It’s not always a public exhibition space.
Most days it’s a working studio, currently supporting 32 early-stage artists to take risks and be creative.
Assembly House artists are often involved in local good stuff too; in street art that helps us to love where we live, in Armley’s sculpture trail, in creating a colourful contemporary park on Gelder Road, and more. They’re part of Armley’s ecology in more ways than one.
If I’m going to experience some art indoors, then Assembly House is the perfect environment. There’s room to lose yourself in Nicholas’s paintings against a gentle background hum of banter. It’s quiet enough to think, but I’m not alone in my thoughts. Plus the artist is there, amiably answering questions about his work, while his dog attaches himself to my boots and gnaws them happily from the floor. I feel at home.
Having read the artist’s exhibition statement in advance, I already knew that he wasn’t telling me to look for a particular meaning in his paintings, just to look at the view and see what happens. Like sitting on the brow of a hill looking at the horizon, Nick’s exhibition invites you to gaze, let go, and allow your mind to wander.
I’m no art critic, so what I will say next is purely what I felt. Nick’s landscapes were moments in time I could relate to. His horizons are not literal views, they’re abstracted and painted in a way that allows you space to see what you want, and to find what matters to you. I saw places that revealed themselves to me through the layers of abstraction. I saw age-defying and beautiful trees, clouds preparing to shed their water, and wind turbines standing elegantly on the horizon. I saw landscapes I thought I recognised, glimpses of the beautiful Bramley Falls Wood for example. And as I walked from painting to painting, the trees on the skyline bloomed into wind turbines, as the world evolves to protect nature and our future on the planet.
I loved finding those wind turbines in Nicholas’s paintings, because to me they are delightful to watch, and to be celebrated; in art terms part of the new bucolic, as Constable’s Hay-Wain landscape reinvents itself. They are practical and beautiful; humanity playing its hand in the poker game of life. ‘They’re so graceful’ Nicholas says, of wind turbines. I agree. To me they are enriching in every way, and as soothing and joyful to watch as my socks gliding around in the launderette tumble drier (an ironic metaphor given that tumble-drying is another reason we need wind turbines in the first place). I see Nick’s turbines as symbols of hope, as humanity tries to survive the threat of extinction and thrive despite it, pushing back against the absurdity of life.
The absurdity of life is where the title of the exhibition comes into play. Sisyfus worked relentlessly; repeatedly pushing a bolder up a hill for it to roll back down again. He wondered what it was all about, this life. Albert Camus, French philosopher-dude writing in 1942 about the Myth of Sisyfus, explained it as the absurdity of life; nihilism.
Nicholas says: “Painting is a way for me to transcend what Camus called the absurd, a way to find meaning in an indifferent universe. I invite you to attach any meaning to the paintings, you may even, as I do, prefer the mystery. I’m sure that memory, experience & thoughts act as a sub conscious catalyst. I’m equally sure they are escapist, existential & much more besides.”
You can go down the nihilism wormhole if you want to – and it is interesting – but for me, in the context of Nicholas’s paintings, I found a beauty and comfort in knowing that our instinct is to survive, and to thrive. I saw individual trees that are never really alone, connected to hundreds of others, co-existing, communities in nature. I saw reasons to get up every day, not pointlessness.
So go find your horizon, your tree, your wind turbine and see how yours is part of the bigger picture. Go find your skyline on a wall in Armley.
Go lose yourself and find yourself in one of Nicholas’s paintings.
An artist's impression showing how the co-living space above Burley Library may look.
By John Baron
Plans for the city’s first London-style co-living space at the Grade II Listed Burley Library site have been refused in principle by councillors today.
Councillors on the south and west plans panel voted against the application amid concerns over the size of the apartment units.
The plans proposed to convert the former library into a workspace for both residents of the space as well as the public, with 71 apartments aimed at young professionals created at the site.
Councillors heard that each 30-square metre apartment – which some councillors branded ‘bedsits’ – were smaller than council policy would allow and included a living area, kitchenette and bedroom.
The former Burley Branch Library. Copyright Adrian Smith and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
Cllr Dan Cohen (Cons, Alwoodley) said he was concerned that rather than being ‘co-living’ with communal kitchens and shared spaces, the proposals showed self contained living spaces with cooking facilities. “I have a real concern over the size of these bedsits,” he added. “I have a real bugbear deciding substandard accommodation in this city. We are entitled to live in a decent space and not crowd into a ‘cupboard’ space.”
The proposal was presented by Parklane Group Ltd, which has experience in student and aparthotel developments. Planning permission was granted in 2019 for the redevelopment of the library for co-working spaces and 60 residential apartments.
In previous council meetings, the proposed pricing of the facilities, which ranged from £295 to £350 a week was criticised.
Three councillors voted against the proposal to approve the plans, amid concerns about the amount of space offered, while five abstained. In line with council procedures, planning officers will bring the application back before the panel next month with reasons for refusal. The councillors will then vote again on the recommendation to refuse.
In their report, council planning officers said that as well as bringing a listed building back into use, the proposed six-storey extension at the back of the library, “is also considered to be high quality and sympathetic to its setting.”
They added: “The building will sit comfortably to the rear of the former library building without overly dominating the setting of this building.
“Also weighing in favour of the development is the creation of residential units on a brownfield site located within the main urban area with excellent public transport links, close to public transport public services, leisure and employment opportunities.”
The concept of co-living spaces has been recently seen in London, and the plans would be the first in Leeds.
The council report goes on to say: “In assessing the case on its own merits against the existing planning policy and guidance, it is considered that the benefits of the development outweigh any conflict with planning policy. “
The property has been vacant for a number of years, with it originally opening as a library in 1926.
An artist's impression of the new Pudsey Sixth Form College.
By John Baron
£13 million plans for a new sixth form college in Pudsey have moved a step closer to reality after Leeds city councillors approved the plans in principle.
The Pudsey Sixth Form College would cater for up to 600 students on the proposed site, which is a former Crawshaw Academy rugby pitch off Kent Road.
The approval is subject to a raft of planning conditions and the final decision on the application will be taken by the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities after Sport England objected to the loss of a protected playing field.
The proposals had led to both local concerns about the impact on traffic and parking, but also drawn support for building a bespoke further education facility for people aged 16-18 and above.
Cllr Dawn Seary (Cons, Pudsey) spoke at the Civic Hall meeting and welcomed the principle of the development, but raised concerns about traffic, parking and inadequate public transport, saying the college was ‘wholly unsuitable’ for the site.
The applicants, Luminate Group, said the college is needed and would offer a “natural” next step for pupils leaving Crawshaw Academy, Co-op Academy Priesthorpe and the Leeds West Academy after year 11. They will also introduce a raft of traffic calming measures, including a speed table near the entrance five road humps and widening existing footpaths, alongside introducing parking restrictions.
They also agreed to provide an annual £25,000 towards extra public transport provision.
Although none of the councillors voted against the development, six voted in favour of it and the rest abstained.
Cllr Dan Cohen (Cons, Alwoodley) was conflicted about the proposals. “I have got real problems with it. There is a need for good quality sixth form provision – and this college will provide that – but I have real issues about its accessibility.
“I am always robust about trying to protect green space – when it is gone, it is gone forever. Sport England’s objections needs to be listened too. They represent future generations who will need access to sports provision.”
Cllr James McKenna (Lab, Armley) said the college would be of obvious benefit to young people across West Leeds as a number of schools no longer offered sixth form provision, but labelled the developer’s offer of £25,000 to improve local sports pitches as ‘a bit mean’.
Cllr Jools Heselwood (Lab, Weetwood) had fewer concerns about traffic as not all pupils would ‘come at the same time’ and spoke about the value the new state of the art facility would offer young people. “We need to be pragmatic,” said the former Bramley & Stanningley councillor.
Sport England – the arms-length body of government responsible for growing and developing grassroots sport – has an ongoing objection over the loss of the pitch, which has been disused and overgrown for at least 19 years.
In their application, Luminate insisted there is a “surplus” of playing pitches in Pudsey and that its existing pitches to the north of Crawshaw Academy “are more than adequate”.
Following approval in principle, the application will now be sent to the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities to decide whether the application should be ‘called in’ for further scrutiny due to Sport England’s playing pitch objection.
In a report considered by councillors, planning officers said: “It is considered that the public benefits of the proposed development outweigh the loss of the protected playing fields by providing a purpose-built 600-place sixth form facility which will meet current and future further education needs in the catchment area.”
The plans have been brought forward by Luminate Education Group and developed in partnership with Leeds Sixth Form College and schools including Crawshaw Academy, Co-op Academy Priesthorpe and Leeds West Academy in Rodley.
The college promises to offer specialist teachers in up to 26 different subjects. Both A level and BTech courses would be available, with subjects ranging from art, business, media, philosophy and physical education to English, maths, computer science, law and French.
The two-storey building would be accessed from Kent Road.
The new bridge in Rodley has caused much delay and concern.
by John Baron
Controversial plans for housing at the former Airedale Mills site in Rodley could be brought back before councillors next month, a senior planning officer confirmed today.
Detailed proposals for 67 new build-to-rent homeswere first submitted in December 2021 by Casa By Moda (part of construction giants Caddick).
The scheme has been subject to delays and concerns over the construction of a replacement swing bridge to access the site. The principle of the development – called the outline stage – and a new swing bridge to the site were approved two years ago, and the bridge opened in January.
But at the last plans panel meeting in February, councillors deferred the application for further discussions between council officers and the applicant. Issues included the layout and design of the site, off-site parking and the lack of a meaningful green space contribution.
Concerns about the the workings and reliability of the bridge were also discussed at length.
At today’s south and west plans panel meeting, Leeds City Council area planning manager Steve Butler said the plans would not be brought back before councillors until next month (June) as discussions with applicants were still ongoing.
Mr Butler confirmed there had been ‘a number of’ site meetings over the bridge and that the new bridge had still not been signed off by council planning officers.
“I should remind councillors that the bridge does not directly related to the decision-making over the detailed planning application for houses,” he added.
He confirmed new information has been submitted by the applicants regarding the design of the site and added that there had been no change so far over parking issues and green space provision.
It may have been the King’s Coronation weekend – but exciting happenings were afoot at a Farsley cake shop.
A collaboration between The Candied Peel Cake Co and Wendy’s Cakes and Bakes has seen them officially relaunch on bank holiday Monday as the Farsley Cake Co.
Based on Town Street, Farsley, they continue to provide award-winning celebration and wedding cakes, while hosting a vast array of cake decorating products and of course their daily freshly baked goods.
The store was relaunched with Great British Bake Off’s Karen Wright and Farsley celebrity Imogen Bowley, who was previously non-verbal and who started putting sentences together thanks to her love of lockdown cooking with her dad.
Imogen helped to launch the new company.
The reopening coincided with a street party on Town Street to mark the Coronation.
Cllr Peter Carlill is pictured, centre, with council youth workers
A new youth club will help keep young people in Calverley occupied on an evening when it opens its doors for the first time this week.
From today (Thursday, 11 May) a new youth club at Calverley Mechanics Institute will feature activities, games and snacks for young people aged 11-17 every Thursday at 6.45pm.
Creation of the club was encouraged by Councillor Peter Carlill (Labour and Co-operative, Calverley and Farsley), in response to recent concerns about anti-social behaviour in the village and a lack of activities for older children and young people.
Cllr Carlill said: “One of my key pledges when first elected was to work to provide a fixed youth club in all areas of our community – leading to the first one opening in Farsley before the pandemic.
“I’ve been working with the Youth Service to provide a centre-based youth provision in the village, as a progression from the increased mobile provision I’d successfully campaigned for.
“There is often little for young people in our area to do in the evenings – leaving the only option hanging around in streets and parks, which they are often vilified for.
“Many thanks to Leeds City Council’s Youth Service for organising, and please do encourage any young people to attend so that it can be a success.”
After last week’s Coronation celebrations this Saturday – 13 May – brings the Bramley Community Market back to the Bramley Community Centre on Waterloo Lane.
The event runs from 10am until 2pm and features local small businesses with plenty of fabulous items to purchase.
The market caters for every taste, requirement and pocket, with stalls including hand-made items and gifts, toys, books, sweets and everyone’s favourite, a cake stall.
Organised by Bramley’s Wendi Halthwaite the market goes from strength to strength and now has a waiting list for stalls such is the popularity of the event. As one regular stall holder commented: “Love this market, it’s more like a gathering of friends than a market”.
So please support this local market run by local people for local people, you won’t be disappointed!
