Bramley junior parkrun regular Toby has had a busy week collecting badges and awards for his sporting achievements.
Seven-year-old Toby has been coming to Bramley junior parkrun since July 2021 and since then has become a regular at the weekly events held at Bramley Park each Sunday morning.
Bramley junior parkrun joint event director Danny Hutchinson said:
“Toby is always so enthusiastic, he loves getting involved and is always chatting to everyone, he’s a great ambassador for Bramley junior parkrun and has also encouraged his friends and neighbours to come along and join in.”
Last Sunday Toby earned his marathon award after completing 21 junior parkrun events, the equivalent of running a marathon.
On Tuesday he was awarded his sports badge at Beavers for being active and taking part in sporting events, such as junior parkrun.
Bramley junior parkrun volunteers in Bramley Park.
Toby has also volunteered at junior parkrun helping out with the pre-run warm-up routines. He may get this community spirit from his mum Helen, who also regularly volunteers at junior parkrun, acting as a marshal, clapping and cheering as the children complete the 2km course each week.
Helen said:
“I volunteer at junior parkrun as it’s great to see the kids really enjoying themselves and trying their best. There are so many different ages and abilities which is great to see. Ive also been known to come straight from a night shift to cheer the kids on!!”
To take part in junior parkrun participants needs to register online. Children need to be aged four or over the take part. Bramley junior parkrun is held each Sunday morning at 9am in Bramley Park. You can find out more on Facebook.
For more information on volunteering at Bramley junior parkrun, e-mail the team at bramleyjuniors@parkrun.com.
Are you a mum age 24 and under? Do you live in West Leeds? Are you pregnant or have had your baby in 2021/22?
During March Leeds Bosom Buddies and Women’s Health Matters are holding a series of listening workshops across inner city areas around their feeding experiences or planned feeding choices.
They want to hear from you about your feeding experiences, choices and what you would like to see in Leeds around this.
The aim of the workshops is to help increase the support given to young mums in Leeds and look at removing any barriers to accessing groups in their area. We are hoping to co-produce a better service with the parents of this age we are serving.
They are offering a shopping voucher for your time and can refund bus fares. Thanks to the generosity of councillors in Armley and Bramley & Stanningley wards in those areas they can offer a lunch/brunch and ‘double the voucher’ incentive.
The dates available are:
Friday 11 March, 12.30 – 2pm, at Chapeltown Children’s Centre, 62 Leopold Street LS7 4AW.
Monday 14 March, 11-12.30pm, at Armley Community Hub, Stocks Hill, Armley LS12 1UQ.
Wednesday 16 March, 10-11.30am, at Bramley Resource Centre, 79 Fairfield Terrace, LS13 3DQ.
Monday 21 March, 11-12.30pm at Gipton South Children’s Centre, Coldcotes Grove, Gipton, LS9 6QJ.
Wednesday 23 March, 11am-12.30pm at Burley Park Children’s Centre, St Matthias Street, LS4 2DZ.
Monday 28 March, 11am-12.30pm at Tenants Hall, Acre Close Middleton LS10 4HX.
A pedestrian crossing on Woodhall Road in Calverley. Photo: Anne Akers
Dear sir,
During the pandemic, many of us rediscovered the simple act of walking – the oldest, cheapest and greenest transport there is. Walking kept us connected to ourselves and to others and helped us to stay healthy and happy.
Walking is good for our minds, our bodies, and our cities, towns and villages.
But lots of us still struggle with narrow, cluttered, uneven pavements; crossings that prioritise cars rather than people; and growing numbers of speeding vehicles.
It doesn’t have to be like this. That’s why I support the demands Living Streets has made ahead of this year’s elections, calling on candidates to pledge to improve our streets for all, cut air pollution and make walking easier and safer. Visit livingstreets.org.uk/may22 for more info.
Candidates must commit to set Vision Zero targets of significant reductions in people killed and injured on our roads. We call for commitments on default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas, improvements to our crossings and junctions and an increase in the number of low traffic neighbourhoods. One person killed on our roads is one too many.
It is time we redesigned our streets around people, not cars. That way we can all enjoy the benefits of walking and build healthier, happier communities.
The Butterbowl Pub in Farnley. Photo: John Baron/westleedsdispatch.com
The Butterbowl, on Butterbowl Drive in Farnley, has been hosting a local darts competition as part of a nationwide Proper Pubs tournament, which will see the national winner walk away with a £1,000 prize.
71 pubs are taking part in the tournament, with local heats ending last Sunday.
Proper Pubs is the operator managed platform of Hawthorn, The Community Pub Company.
Each pub will run several rounds of the competition at a local level, in which points are tallied up over the six-week preliminaries, before determining a winner who will receive a £50 bar tab for their community Proper Pub. Winners across the country will then come together to battle it out for the grand prize.
The final, set to take place on the 27 March, will be held at the Little Oak in Boughton, Chester, which will be hosting an evening of entertainment as the knockout tournament reaches its climax.
Matthew Gurney, Operations Director, Proper Pubs, said:
“Darts is a great sport to bring the community together, so it’s a key component for many of our Proper Pubs. There’s been great engagement from Proper Pubs up and down the country, from Southampton to Fife, and we’ve already seen some exceptional talent on display!”
Can you spare a couple of hours every other Wednesday to join a dedicated group of volunteers in this worthwhile cause to keep war graves tidy in Bramley?
The next Bramley Baptist War Graves clean-up session is Wednesday, 2 March at 12.30pm.
The volunteer organisers have the equipment, all you would need is suitable footwear and a warm coat, depending on the weather.
Pudsey Park will host one event. Photo: John Baron/westleedsdispatch.com
The popular annual bands in then park events are returning for 2022, council chiefs have confirmed.
The concerts have been funded by councillors on the outer west community committee and will provide a variety of different music to suit all tastes on selected Sundays from 2.30pm.
The Outer West Community Committee is made up of nine councillors – three from each from Calverley & Farsley, Farnley & Wortley and Pudsey wards. The committee consists of five Conservative councillors, three Green and one Labour.
Farsley Celtic will be joining Bradford Park Avenue in showing support for Ukraine during Wednesday’s game at the Horsfall Stadium.
Bradford is home to the largest Ukrainian population in the United Kingdom outside of London, and they are encouraging supporters to display their solidarity with Ukraine on Wednesday.
There will be a minute’s applause in the 30th minute, marking Ukraine’s 30 years as an independent nation.
There will also be a bucket collection at the Horsfall Stadium, run in conjunction with the Bradford Ukie Club, in support of the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal.
You can also donate to the Help Ukraine Emergency Appeal here.
West Leeds residents are being asked to have their say on the new strategy to eliminate road deaths and serious injuries across the city.
Leeds City Council is proposing a fundamental change in its approach to tackling road danger. A public consultation starts is now running for people who visit, live and work in Leeds to shape the proposals.
The draft Leeds Safer Roads Vision Zero 2040 strategy sets out a plan to transform road safety. Vision Zero is a ground-breaking approach to reducing road danger, based on the ethical position that nobody should die or suffer serious injury when walking, cycling, riding, or driving on the roads.
The strategy, developed by the Leeds Safer Roads Partnership, is made up of five ‘Safe System pillars’ to comprehensively address road danger. These are:
Safe Behaviours and People – encouraging behaviours that help to keep all road-users safe, focusing on preventing speeding, seatbelt offences, drink and drug driving, and distraction.
Safe Speeds – stopping people driving at illegal, dangerous and inappropriate speeds through street design, targeted enforcement, reviewing speed limits and education campaigns.
Safe Roads – designing streets that put the needs of people above those of vehicles. That means creating streets that are safer for active travel, such as walking and cycling, and reduce the likelihood and severity of collisions.
Safe Vehicles – raising awareness about responsibility for roadworthy vehicles, enforcing offences and considering how technology and design features can help to prevent crashes.
Post-collision Learning and Care – raising awareness of support services, improving understanding of road danger and advocating for justice for road-crash victims.
The strategy reflects the Highway Code’s hierarchy of road users, which prioritises pedestrians and cyclists, and states that road users who can do the greatest harm to others have a greater responsibility to behave safely.
Councillor Helen Hayden, Leeds council executive member for infrastructure and climate, said significant progress has been made in reducing casualties on Leeds’s roads since 2000, but in recent years the decline has levelled off.
Between 2016 and 2020, crashes on roads in Leeds killed 83 people and seriously injured 1,498 people. A further 8,317 people suffered minor injuries, bringing the total number of injuries and deaths to 9,898. Road crashes usually involve motor vehicles, but most of the victims who were killed or seriously injured were walking, cycling, or riding a motorbike.
Cllr Hayden said:
“This new strategy will transform our approach to road safety. We need to remember that behind every statistic a person is killed or seriously injured on our roads. Someone’s life has been cut short, leaving behind a devastated family, or their health has been adversely affected.
“Our vision is that by 2040 no-one will be killed or suffer serious injuries on roads in Leeds.”
Two public consultation events are taking place for people to ask questions and learn more:
Fifty odd years or so – before someone decided to build a football stadium here in around 1898 – the land was fields and meadows.
Map of the area from 1889. Image reproduced by permission of National Library of Scotland.
If you look for the ‘little blue man’ on the map it will show you the fields and field names of the land owned by the Curate of Wortley and occupied by a Samuel Blackburn.
The part of the car park where you can go for your COVID jabs covers Wortley Beck.
On the 1841 census, Samuel Blackburn was a pub landlord from Islington, Beeston. He could have been the Landlord of either the New Peacock or Old Peacock Public House as the land was rented on the site of both pubs.
The Hookers and Clickers group meet at Butlers, in Kirkstall Forge
Generous West Leeds residents are rallying to support people in war-stricken Ukraine.
The Hookers & Clickers (Do It For Charity) knitting and crochet group group meets regularly at Kirkstall Forge, making for UK and international charities
Joanne Brophy, from Bramley, put a call out on the “group members” page over the weekend for donations to help Ukrainian families – and as of yesterday members had raised more than £1,200, and counting. She said:
“These wonderful ladies who put love into every stitch of everything they make are the most kind, caring, generous ladies and I am so proud of them all.
“We are collecting through our PayPal account Hookersandclickers@gmail.com. If you’d like to add to it please do & add reference “SWU”. We will choose the best way to use it to benefit the Ukrainian families that need it right now and will let you know how, of course.”
Kirkstall Valley Development Trust (KVDT) has also said it will accept donations of children’s and women’s clothing, toys, sleeping bags, nappies and toiletries etc at its base at Flexspace on Burley Road, Burley.
Have we missed your support efforts? Drop us a line on news@westleedsdispatch.com and we’ll do our best to feature your initiative.
Kirkstall Forge has a rich history. Photo: Jill Stocks
Words: Sarah Hulme
Did you work at Kirkstall Forge and have memories you’d like to share in a friendly recorded chat for Abbey House Museum’s new exhibition Kirkstall Lives?
Come along to Kirkstall Forge’s Butler’s Cafe on Saturday 12 March from 10am-2pm to meet other people who worked for the Forge, see artefacts and ledgers and have a pre-booked, recorded, 20-minute chat about your memories.
Pre-book your chat slot with Patrick Bourne from Abbey House Museum. Contact him by e-mail: Patrick.Bourne@leeds.gov.uk, Twitter: @CuratorPat or telephone: 0113 378 4079.
We hope to see you there and hear your wonderful memories.
