This Saturday should have been Kirkstall Festival’s 40th event. Unfortunately the event has been postponed until 2021 due to Covid-19, although members of the organising committee have been putting together virtual events to celebrate the community. Community reporter JIM CORAH spoke with John Liversedge, Steve Harris, and Fiona Butler about their plans.
The best of Kirkstall …
The first event will be a dog show on Saturday, 11 July 2020. The dog show is one of the most popular entertainments at the first and draws an impressive crowd. The dog show, along with the other virtual events, will help relaunch the Kirkstall Online website with new features and content.
The dog show will take place at 2pm with participants joining via Zoom. Dog owners will receive details when they have signed up via the website. There will be six categories to enter, from most obedient to most unlikely pet friendship.
Throughout July and August there will be a number of other events taking place to promote the new website.
There will be an offline quiz to encourage people to search through the website for information, as well as a Zoom quiz later on. There is potential to host virtual tours of Kirkstall residents’ gardens, as well as performances from local artists and groups.
The new website will feature club sports listings for the community to engage with.
The Festival’s website has benefited as well, with more content being uploaded. Liz Minkin has provided a look back at the very first Festival in 1981, along with pictures.
Ahead of a display at the Abbey House Museum in 2021, members of the public are being encouraged to submit there Festival photos so they may feature in the display.
A service which usually provides a door-to-door bus to support people with limited mobility has continued to help older people in West Leeds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
AccessBus has use vehicles and drivers to provide an essential service across West Yorkshire and has been delivering shopping and meals to people who are shielding or unable to leave their homes, taking patients to clinics and delivering school lunches.
In Leeds, the team are supporting Armley Helping Hands to distribute hot meals to residents in sheltered housing. City wide the service is also supporting the NHS by transporting individuals to essential appointments, providing over 200 round trips since 27 April.
All the drivers are supplied with PPE, observing social distancing regulations. Vehicles are sanitized before and after each route.
Dawn Newsome, chief executive of Armley Helping Hands, said:
“We are very grateful for the support the AccessBus team have been providing to older people in the community through the pandemic.
“From helping deliver fish and chips to distributing emergency food parcels their help has been invaluable in helping us meet the needs of our community.”
Cllr Kim Groves, Chair of West Yorkshire Combined Authority Transport Committee, said:
“When lockdown started our priority was to ensure all our service users had alternative means of getting their essential shopping whilst our service was suspended. Once that was done, we knew there was plenty we could do to continue to support our service users, partner organisations and stakeholders.
“In normal times the service caters for some of the most vulnerable and socially excluded members of society. Thanks to the efforts of the AccessBus team and our operators the buses are still out on the road supporting those people in these difficult times.”
AccessBus vehicles are all low-floor, easy-access minibuses fitted with the most up-to-date safety equipment.
AccessBus services were suspended in line with Government guidelines to stop unnecessary travel and as community services became available to help meet customers’ shopping needs.
The bomb squad were called to a street in Bramley after a gardener thought he had found a World War II explosive.
Police arrived in Musgrave View, Bramley, shortly after 6.30pm last night (Monday, July 6.)
Nearby homes were evacuated and streets closed before police called in bomb disposal experts.
In a statement. a police spokesman said:
“At 6.28pm yesterday police were called to Musgrave View, Bramley, where a man working in his garden had reported finding an object with the appearance of a wartime bomb.
“A cordon was put in place and nearby homes evacuated until Army bomb disposal experts attended shortly after 9pm and assessed the item not to be a bomb.”
From tomorrow (Tuesday) the Baths – which features a pool, gym, steam room and classes – will roll out a small programme of online classes for people to do in the comfort of their own home.
“It’s all part of our aim to reach out the the Bramley community while we’re closed and help boost people’s fitness and wellbeing after lockdown,” said a Baths spokesman.
The classes, which cost £3 pay as you go, range from Zumba and Zumba Gold through to Yoga classes, Gentle Exercise and Kettlebells.
British Telecom are working on the A647 Armley Road, approximately 40 metres south west of its junction with Canal Road.
This work is being carried out by BT ahead of the construction of the proposed new outbound bus lane and extension of the outbound segregated cycle track on Armley Road, which form part of the A647 Bus Priority Corridor project.
Construction started today (Monday 6 July 2020), and is likely to last until 28 August.
The works will require temporary closure of the southern footway and westbound cycle lane in the vicinity of the work on Armley Road, due to construction to be undertaken within the footway.
Pedestrians will be required to use the northern footway, and cyclists will be required to merge with traffic. A Connecting Leeds spokesperson said:
“We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause. BT/Talent will build a temporary walkway for pedestrians to use.
“Traffic flows in both directions will be maintained throughout the proposed construction period.
“This work has been scheduled to take place largely within the school holidays, so as to minimise the disruption caused.”
Food and health champions FoodWise Leeds and Zest delivered an interactive competition for families as part of the #Vegrocks campaign to promote eating and growing vegetables during lockdown.
As part of the Leeds city wide #Vegrocks competition, Whingate Primary School added an additional prize that the school would guarantee would be won by their families. Community reporter Josie Armitage interviewed Miss Carol Newton about the school’s success.
Tell me a bit more about the school and life during the Coronavirus lockdown
We are a two-form entry primary school in Armley. Like everyone, the pandemic threw loads of challenges at us, but we are lucky to have a great team of staff who have kept school open for priority groups and running smoothly throughout, as well as working from home to try to keep learning going the children not in school as best we can.
We are also lucky to have really supportive parents and fantastic children who have worked really hard and joined in with the things we have been doing.
How did you get involved with the #Vegrocks campaign and competition?
A friend of mine works for the Zest charity and he passed me the details of the competition as he thought our families might be interested in taking part. We do various things at school to promote healthy habits and so this very much fitted with that, as well being something ‘fresh’ that families could do with their children that was a bit different.
How did you decide to run a school specific competition?
We thought the competition was great, but knew it was a city-wide competition. We wanted to add an additional prize that we could guarantee would be won by our families.
How did Home Veg Box get involved?
I had started ordering fruit and veg boxes from Home Veg Box as I am shielding so cannot go to the shops. I got in touch with them to ask if I could buy an additional box to offer as a prize for the competition. They very kindly offered to sponsor the prize, for which we are very grateful!
How did you decide the winners?
We had loads of entries and they were all brilliant! Everyone had put such a lot of effort in so we decided to do a draw a raffle draw to decide the winner.
Our children are used to this as they earn raffle tickets in school for impressing adults. We pick winners each week during our Star Worker assemblies, so we made a video of the raffle draw and put it on the Star Worker assembly page of our website, alongside the videos and certificates that teachers have been making weekly during lockdown.
I know that TJ was the winner. Were there any other winners?
TJ was a winner of our school prize, but lots of our children were chosen as winners in the overall Zest competition. We are really proud of all the children who entered!
A message from the school
Our school is a wonderful community and we really wanted to maintain that feeling during school closure.
The #Vegrocks worked perfectly for that along with a number of other things we have done to keep in touch with and support our families.
Anyone passing school will see the lovely messages that the children in the priority groups have made, and we have tried to keep in touch with everyone as best we can through our website and app, phone calls and seeing people in person when they come into school to collect our weekly learning packs and food hampers.
Just because school isn’t open for everyone in the usual way, doesn’t mean that we are not still a brilliant school community.
Bramley resident Rebecca Gregson-Twisthas been on a personal journey, overcoming physical and mental health challenges to set up her own physiotherapy business: Twist Physiotherapy. Josie Armitage interviewed Rebecca as the business looks to the future post lockdown.
How did your business journey start?
I was a successful marketing manager at a senior level in a big organisation. In 2010 I got ill and was diagnosed with a life threatening tumour. Thanks to our amazing NHS I had the tumour removed and have been incredibly lucky to have remained well. This changed my outlook on life.
I then decided I wanted to change things. I was working 15-hour days, away from home and travelling. I lived for work. When I went back to work I couldn’t find my passion for my job again, it just didn’t mean anything to me anymore so I took redundancy and after much soul searching in 2012 I retrained as a physio.
Since the age of 19, I have suffered from mental health issues and was on anti-depressants. Luckily I am high functioning. I was re-diagnosed with Bipolar Type 2 and am on medication to stabilise this.
Why did you become a physio?
I wanted to put something back. I had always been amazed at the body’s ability to change and to be changed through exercise and attitude. I did a health access course to start with. In 2015 I graduated with a 1st class honours degree in Physiotherapy from the University of Bradford. It was tough, both an amazing and incredibly challenging experience. In truth, I continually questioned my choices and struggled with my confidence in such a new area. But when somebody comes back to my clinic and says, ‘I’m so much better’ or ‘I can do that thing that I couldn’t do before’ or just ‘it doesn’t hurt any more’, I know I made the right decision.
I had no idea how much physiotherapy is not a job but a continual path of learning, reflection, mistakes and successes, of self-doubt and then boosts in confidence when you know you made a difference. You need to be 100% committed to keep up with all the latest practices.
How did you gain the experience to start your business?
I started my physio life working for the Leeds Partnership Trust with people with usually very profound learning disabilities. I did this for a year.
As most physios do, I needed a wider skill set. I wanted to gain a wide range of experience in different situations – NHS, private hospital, charity. I moved to the Yorkshire Clinic which gave me my MSK (Musculoskeletal) outpatient and orthopaedic experience.
The team there have so much amazing experience and passion for physiotherapy. I felt like I’d passed my driving test as a physio but now I was really learning how to drive!
I then took my level 3 sports massage qualification. In April 2017 I started to work for myself offering sports massage from home. Things grew and I was able to go part time at the Yorkshire Clinic. I had a wider client base mainly through recommendation and expanding to offer physio assessment and treatment.
I then decided to take a job with even less hours to accommodate my growing business. I moved to Champion House, a residential home for people with neurological conditions. By early 2020, I had set up the physio department to a place that I was happy to hand it over to another pair of capable hands!
How did you build up your business?
I expanded the range of services and treatments I could offer clients. I spend most of my time working with clients with MSK issues – bad backs/shoulders/necks and general injury management. I am passionate about offering a holistic approach to clients.
Most of my clients are recommended to me so it’s great that I am building up my business in this way.
I linked up with local sports clubs and signed up with insurance companies, including AXA, Aviva and Vitality Health. If people have insurance with these companies, they can have my services funded as part of their insurance.
What drives you?
I love learning new things. I like to keep my brain active!
I like reading lots of research into new and existing treatments so I can learn more and advise and help my clients.
Over the last few years I have studied aquatic therapy, sports massage, kinesiology taping amongst others. In 2020 I will be doing my MAT 1 Pilates qualification, strength and conditioning, acupuncture and I may even start my MSc! I love to better myself and expand my skill set for my clients.
A positive start to 2020
The start of 2020 brought new super exciting changes. On 25th January, Twist Physiotherapy moved into a new facility just off Owlcotes Roundabout in Pudsey, working with Rachel Green, who set up her amazing new venture Evolve Medical. This meant more flexible appointments, luxurious waiting area, more treatments and treatment packages at a super convenient location.
Then came Covid-19
On 23rd March when the country went into lockdown I closed my practice. The Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (CSP) advised against face to face contact and the only physios that had face to face contact were hospital physios. Until recently only emergency face to face contact was allowed.
It’s been a very tough time my practice was just getting up and running so this has been a big blow. As a fairly new business, I didn’t qualify for any Government financial support. I’m currently working as part of the test and trace clinical team.
The future
Over the last couple of weeks CSP has loosened the guidelines and I have been spending time making sure that I am absolutely safe to practice.
I will be back in the clinic on Monday 6th July and I’m already very booked up! It still needs to be considered necessary for somebody to have a face to face appointment.
Online physio is recommended wherever possible and I developed online packages during lockdown. This has worked very well and I will continue to do this. I’m also planning to do Covid rehab sessions as there will be many people needing help getting back to normal after Covid-19.
I want to build on the start I made in January and grow my client base and become more well known in the local area.
Fingers crossed I’ll be able to get back to being a viable business!
Have a look at Rebecca’s website: www.twistphysiotherapy.co.uk to find out more about the services she offers. You can book an appointment online.
Update: This article was edited 7/7/20 & 9/7/20 to replace incorrect information about the business.
I’d like to complain about the idiots speeding around the roundabout at Town End in Bramley.
It’s every single day, day or night, but mainly at night. I’m sick of it. It’s been like this for a long time now, something needs doing about it.
Speed cameras on the roundabout would help 100%, idiots just speed around and around and around all the time, trying to go fast as possible.
At night it’s more frequent because there’s no-one to see them. Please install some speed cameras or something please, there have been many times when the bus stops around the area of the roundabout have been hit and destroyed because of the speeding cars losing control.
It’s a matter of time before someone dies from being hit standing at a bus stop or a pedestrian just walking down the street.
We need action to tackle this problem before it’s too late.
Concerned local resident, Bramley
Do you have an issue you’d like to get off your chest? Have your say by writing to us via news@westleedsdispatch.com.
Under threat: The building was badly damaged by fire. Photo: Mark Stevenson
A historic former school building in Wortley branded a ‘death trap’ has taken a step closer to being restored – after latest plans were approved by Leeds council.
But the new plans will create an additional apartment in the roof space, with an extension to the rear. There will also be additional parking spaces to the front.
The Grade II Listed villa, off Fawcett Lane, is one of 18 buildings or monuments in West Leeds on the council’s Heritage at Risk register. It had been turned into seven flats before the fire.
The latest plans, by Elland Road-based Priestley Homes, aim to ‘refurbish the shell’ of the building into flats. They were approved subject to a raft of planning conditions, including the use of materials.
A design statement submitted with the application states:
“The proposed development represents an effective re-use of a heritage asset badly damaged by a fire, and which has stood undeveloped and unused for three years. The scheme retains the integrity of the building whilst allowing for an efficient re-use of the building.
“The costs of refurbishing the building and the Government’s promotion of the efficient use of land, have led the proposal towards eight apartments instead of seven as previously approved.”
The Dispatch reported in May how Priestley Homes’ £3 million plans for seven houses next to Cliff House were also moving a step closer to reality after a number of conditions attached to planning permission were discharged by the council.
The housing development is due to help pay for the refurbishment of Cliff House, which saw much of its internal structure destroyed during the 2017 arson attack.
I have a friend who sees conspiracy theories in everything and I thought as I was reading about the planning application for new homes just off Bagley Lane that they would have had a field day with the mistakes made in it, writes Mark Stevenson.
Although it is probably just people being people, rather than some other higher-world order.
If you look at the wildlife survey, a local resident has pointed out some errors in it. Not to mention some of the historical ones. Not the end of the world you might think, but there is a reason these things are done.
This building is on the 1880’s map. Photo: Mark Stevenson
Can you imagine the council, for instance, just turning up one day and building a Waste Works next to your home?
This is what happened in the 1880s when a Waste Works was built on the proposed housing site.
Bagley Beck Mark Stevenson
The heritage part of the Planning Application Report states that the buildings presently on the site date from 1909 and were called Bagley Mills.
The Waste Works first appeared on the maps in 1889 and are still called Waste Works in 1909. It is not until 1955 that the buildings are marked as Bagley Mills.
There was a building here on the 1908 map. Photo: Mark Stevenson
One of the buildings is nothing more than four walls and the Mill Pond is all overgrown. The remaining buildings aren’t the best looking I have seen either.
This building is on the 1880s map. Photo: Mark Stevenson
The buildings are said to be positive buildings for the Farsley Conservation Area. The report states:
“There is little doubt that those existing range of buildings are of poor structural condition and of limited architectural/aesthetic values, which potentially detract from the character/appearance of the conservation area.”
Parts of this building were on the 1890s map. Photo: Mark Stevenson
I have always found this place interesting as so much of this side of Bagley Lane has disappeared over the years.
It will be interesting to see if some of the old can be kept with the new.
The West Leeds Local Hero initiative, launched last week by MP Rachel Reeves, has announced its second recipient, writes Jo Fiddes.
Ms Reeves invited members of the public to nominate people who have gone above and beyond, and enriched their local community through acts of kindness and generosity.
This week’s winner was Elizabeth Richardson, of Porterhouse Cakes in Armley. She was nominated by her husband, Simon Richardson, who said:
“While it may seem biased, I want to nominate my wife. Throughout lockdown, her business has been mothballed without making a single penny. But she has spent the last 14 weeks either donating or fundraising.”
Examples of the Elizabeth’s acts of generosity during lockdown include:
Working with other local businesses to raise over £500 for Black Lives Matter organisations though a series of auctions
Donating all her “spare” ingredient when the bakery went into lockdown
Making care packages for NHS staff across the Leeds Teaching Hospital Trust
Using her wholesale account to order essential supplies for local organisations providing for the vulnerable, and
Lending out her workspace to another struggling business, and working flexibly when her bakery reopened to accommodate them
Simon added:
“She hasn’t complained once, and has done all this whilst remodelling her business in the light of Covid. She is constantly finding ways to represent people, and she will no doubt continue to do so. For all these reasons, she is my West Leeds hero.”
Ms Reeves said:
“Elizabeth is a worthy winner and embodies all that is good about the people of West Leeds. I want to thank her for everything she has done for our community, and I am looking forward to sampling some more of her delicious Porterhouse Cake goodies soon!”
She added: “There has been a wonderful response to the West Leeds Hero awards. We have had lots of nominations so far, representing a whole range of individuals and organisations. But the nominations are still open. If you know a local hero you think deserves a shout out, please contact my office on rachel.reeves.mp@parliament.uk and let us know why you think they deserve this recognition.”
