Newly reopened Horsforth Ballroom is opening its doors for a family friendly open day during October half term.
The event is an opportunity to explore the historic ballroom, which is based at Horsforth Community Hub and Library and officially reopened last month.
The ballroom – at Horsforth Mechnanics’ Institute – was opened nearly 150 years ago, but the roof was in a poor state. It’s now been restored and it shares the building with Leeds City Council’s community hub.
The open day promises something for all the family.
A spokesperson said: “People are welcome to come have a look around and we will also have some free arts and crafts activities available for young people and families to do, including a scavenger hunt.”
From 1.30pm until 3pm on 28 October, the Leeds Libraries and Project Development Team will provide extra spooky activities for ages four up.
Council chiefs have agreed a £500,000 package to improve access and lifts at three residential blocks across Leeds – including in Bramley.
The local authority is about to search for a contractor to carry out the work at Ashlea Court sheltered housing, off Ashlea Green, Bramley.
Now the work and price has been set, a contractor will be appointed to carry out the work, which will include the manufacture, supply and installation of a passenger/goods lift and two temporary curved stairlifts.
Works will also be carried out at facilities in Seacroft and Gildersome.
The contract will start on 5 January 2026 and end on 31 March 2026.
Calverley Mechanics Institute. Photo: Mark Stevenson
Proposed floor plans for the relocated library building in Calverley are being displayed for users to comment on.
As reported last week, plans to transform Calverley Mechanics’ Institute into a new library have been approved. Council chiefs have drawn up a £200,000 scheme to relocate the library from its current Thornhill Street base in a bid to save money.
Proposed new floor plans are now on display in the library for people to comment on, and discussions are ongoing with other groups that use the space, including the local history group.
Councillor Peter Carlill (Lab, Calverley & Farsley) said: “Proposals for what will become of the existing building are still to be worked through by the asset management team, and we’ll be making sure to be involved in those discussions.”
The relocation will include upgraded accessible toilets and redecoration of the library areas to provide a safe and welcoming environment.
G&H Starts on site at Harrogate District Hospital Group
Pudsey-based G&H has secured a £12 million contract to deliver a complete mechanical, electrical and public health (MEP) design and build for Harrogate District Hospital.
Following a competitive tender, main contractor Morgan Sindall Construction has appointed MEP service provider G&H to support the delivery of the new £50 million state-of-the-art day care surgery and imaging centre.
A 60-strong team, including apprentices, started on site last week, and will install and commission all MEP services in accordance with the designs created by G&H’s in-house design engineers.
Scheduled to be complete and ready for handover in Summer 2026, the building will boast many energy saving features, such as air source heat pumps, Ultra Clean Ventilation (UCV) canopies, chillers and plate heat exchangers.
Steven Fry from Morgan Sindall with Rob Woodward from G&H
Rob Woodward, senior contracts manager (north) at G&H, said: “We’re extremely pleased to be collaborating with Morgan Sindall and to have the opportunity to draw on our vast healthcare experience to deliver the new day care surgery and imaging centre.
“Our aim is always to bring buildings to life and transform them into safe, comfortable and efficient spaces where people can thrive. This new facility will help the Trust perform more surgeries, reduce waiting times, and provide an improved environment for patients and staff.”
Steven Fry, project manager at Morgan Sindall, said: “With G&H’s extensive experience in healthcare and fully collaborative approach aligning with ours here at Morgan Sindall, I am sure this project will be a success.”
Established in 1998, G&H is a leading MEP provider. Its 200-strong experienced team designs, manages, delivers, and maintains every aspect of MEP schemes.
Leeds bare knuckle fighter Scott ‘The Mute’ McHugh trains at Al Osta’s Farsley gym and is one of five Yorkshire boxers confident of putting on a winning performance.
He’s appearing at the BKB bare knuckle boxing show to be held at Elland Road’s Planet Ice Arena on Saturday, 18 October and themed as Leeds Brawl 2.
“This is my 20th bare knuckle bout and trust me everyone should expect fireworks,” said McHugh.
“I promise it’ll be the most exciting and exhilarating match imaginable as I fight to get the win. Hopefully within the five-round distance. I don’t need to stay in there longer than necessary to finish the job as I take on Northern Irish fighter Joe Fitzpatrick.”
The October Leeds event organised by Jim Freeman Dove’s BKB Promotions is becoming something of an annual event and this year McHugh is joined by Castleford’s Reece Murray, Dewsbury’s Alex Wilson along with Dean ‘Smudger’ Smith and Patryk Fornalski also from Leeds.
BKB was set up in 2014 by Jim Freeman Dove, now 48, who saw that the sport ‘needed to become family-friendly and care better for the boxers’.
Dove said: “Ours is a professional outfit. Our duty of care to the fighters is of foremost importance. Knowing they’re professional athletes on professional shows enhances the commitment of coaches like Al and athletes like Scott.
“There’s a large potential fan base in West Yorkshire hence our Leeds show on 18 October. We’re confident that both fans and fighters will enjoy an exciting, exhilarating evening of top-class performances which could encourage potential local fighters to join the team.”
Freeman Dove recently brought most of the Leeds show fighters to Farsley for a media day at Osta’s gym on Coal Hill Lane.
McHugh and Osta are themselves boxing promoters with both looking to hold a show before the end of 2025. Osta’s shows are normally held at The Banqueting Suite on Tong Road.
Professional wildlife photographer Rosie Dutton has launched her 2026 calendar featuring a year’s worth of her best pictures of British wildlife.
The Farsley photographer says it’s not easy to capture the wildlife at different times of year.
“People might assume that a professional photographer can produce 12 different seasonal high-quality pictures quite easily,” Rosie said.
“But, trust me when I say, it’s most definitely not easy and to an extend confirms the oft-repeated advice never to work with animals or children. It’s hard work to photograph different species at different times of year. That’s why it is so rewarding when I look through my images and see I have enough good quality ones to be able to put in a calendar.
“For example, badgers are highly sensitive to sound and smell and incredibly shy. To capture a good badger photo, I had to gear up in my ghillie suit and hide in a ditch in the woods and hope badgers would come into my field of vision.
“Badgers come out from dusk until dawn, patrolling their setts and looking for food including invertebrates and even small rodents. The photographer must choose the right moment with all these elements lining up. I feel lucky to have my badger image included for June.”
Rosie’s name appears on the metal ribbon of over 300 influential female role models from Leeds unveiled last year.
She added: “I love being a wildlife photographer. It allows me to help people get to know the amazing behind the scenes lives of creatures who share our planet. I hope my work encourages people to see the natural world for what it is. Beautiful. But essential to humans as the loss of any species weakens the ecosystem.”
Those wishing to support Rosie’s work and enjoy the beautiful world of British wildlife by purchasing a calendar can contact her on Facebook (Rosie Dutton Photography) or Instagram @rosieduttonphotography or e-mail rosie_dutton@hotmail.co.uk. Calendars cost £13 and this includes postage and packing.
The council’s expected budget overspend for this year has risen to almost £30m as the cost of caring for vulnerable people continues to rise.
A recruitment freeze and spending restrictions remain in place to cope with Leeds City Council’s financial deficit.
Budgets for social care and looking after at-risk children were the biggest pressures, a financial report said.
The children and families department saw an increase in its overspend position of £6.6m between July and August.
The adults and health budget was facing a £12m overspend, leaving the overall forecast defict so far this year at £29.2m.
Councils around the country are facing similar budget problems and hoping for a boost in funding from central government.
The report said tighter controls were in place to limit spending on agency staff and overtime.
It said: “With a small number of exceptions for critical front-line delivery such as social work, or for income generating posts where the income fully covers the cost of the post, a complete recruitment freeze is now in place.”
Council staff were being encouraged to “treat the council’s money as if it were their own and only spend where necessary.”
The council was already required to make £103.8m worth of savings this financial year.
That rose by a further £3.6m due to some savings not being achieved in the previous year.
The cost of placing children in private care homes, along with meeting the cost of pay rises for workers, were also cited in the report.
It was hoped a governmnent finance review would ease the situation for Leeds and other councils, the report to the council’s executive board said.
It said: “This current and future financial climate for local government continues to represent a significant risk to Leeds City Council’s priorities and ambitions.”
The exhibition runs until Christmas at Sunny Bank Mills. Photo: Keef Williamson
By Keef Williamson
Farsley’s Sunny Bank Mills Gallery has a new exhibition running, which opened yesterday and runs until Christmas Eve.
Entitled Broken//Makeshift, the exhibition ‘celebrates contemporary craft by finding the beauty in everyday objects and explores how our emotional attachment to them can survive a break, fracture, or tear.’
The exhibition features work from 15 different artists, many of them Leeds-based.
The pieces are created in several media including textiles and ceramics as well as items of furniture and jewellery. highlights include Abdulrazaq Awofeso’s wooden pallets upcycled to resemble items of clothing; Isobel Jane Kimberley’s quilt made from numerous hand- written shopping lists; Megan Preston-Davies presents a rocking horse sculpture that is close to the size of an actual horse.
If all this has worn you out, there’s a bed enclosed in beautifully designed hand-printed fabric.
The piece is called Iconic Fatigue and it’s a collaboration between lead artist Ellie Harrison, designer Bethany Wells, textile designer Hester Simpson and sound designer James Cooper.
Together with Matt Rogers and Dr Lucy Prodgers they are known as Polite Rebellion and visitors are invited to take off their shoes, lie down on the bed, don a pair of headphones and listen to all or part of a 54-minute sound loop.
There’s also a program of events to accompany the exhibition. Visit the Sunny Bank Mills website for more information.
Police are appealing for witnesses after a woman in her 30s died after she was hit by a van being driven on Stanningley Bypass.
At 1.14am yesterday morning (Saturday) police received calls reporting a pedestrian in the road near New Pudsey Station.
A short time later, a further call was received reporting a collision involving a pedestrian and a van.
Emergency services attended but the pedestrian was pronounced dead at the scene.
Her family are being supported by specialist officers and enquiries remain ongoing.
Officers from the Major Collision Enquiry Team would like to hear from anyone who saw the collision or may have relevant dashcam footage and has not already spoken to them. Contact West Yorkshire Police online here or by calling 101 quoting log 107 of 11 October.
The owners of popular Mexican restaurant Sabrosa Street have spoken of ‘heavy hearts’ as they close their Farsley eatery for the final time tonight (Thursday, 9 October).
Annika and David Richardson say they are ‘ready for new chapters’ and admitted their Town Street business struggled following the Covid pandemic, pointing to rising energy and cost of living costs among other things.
In a statement on social media, Annika and David said: “It is with heavy hearts that the time has come for us to say goodbye to our restaurant in Farsley.
“As I’m sure most people are aware, hospitality is hard right now.
“We opened six years ago, just before Covid hit, so were up against it from the start and never really recovered from that [due to] rising energy costs, staff costs, inflation, cost of living crisis… the list is endless.
“So we made the difficult decision 18 months ago to put the restaurant up for sale. It has been a long process, but we will (hopefully) complete the sale tomorrow. We are in the process of contacting all those with future bookings.
“We want to thank every single one of our amazing customers for your support, laughter, and loyalty over the years. You’ve made this journey unforgettable. I’ve lost count of the amounts of celebrations we have done over the years… birthdays, christenings, baby showers, Halloween parties, New Year’s Eves.
“It’s been a privilege to be a part of those special moments It has been such a major chapter in our lives. Our youngest was only eight months old when we got the keys and is now six and a half!
“This isn’t goodbye, though — we’re excited to continue doing what we love through our kitchen at Horsforth Sports Club. And our beautiful horsebox trailer will be back out and aboutWhether it’s events, private parties, or special occasions, we’ll still be bringing our food to you.
“Stay tuned here for updates on where to find us next — and how to book us for your events! We have lots of exciting plans for the next six months and are ready for new chapters.”
WLDreported in August on plans for new signs at at the restaurant, with new owners set to rename it Fifty-Eight Giardino, promising brunch, dinner and cocktails.
