By John Baron
Ambitious plans to install much-needed indoor space at community run Kirkstall Valley Farm have moved a step closer to reality.
Kirkstall Valley Development Trust (KVDT), the community organisation behind Kirkstall Valley Farm, have received outline planning permission from the council to rebuild the WOW barn, which was a centrepiece of Leeds 2023 City of Culture.
KVDT was gifted the Leeds 2023 WOW Barn after its use at Woodhouse Moor where it was erected in May 2023 by a 300-strong team of volunteers. All the volunteers were women, girls or non-binary people, worked in shifts and through the night. It become a hub for the city’s first WOW (Women of the World) Festival.
KVDT aims to use the barn to expand their community activities and events and receiving outline permission successfully establishes the principle of the development at the farm, which sits next to the River Aire.
CEO Adele Rae welcomed the decision. She told WLD: “We’re really excited by the proposals, which we hope will provide a much-needed resource for local people.
“We will be fund-raising in due course through grant applications and a crowdfunder in order to help make the barn a reality.”
The barn would be built on an embankment higher than the recently installed flood wall in a bid to prevent the barn from flooding.
20 letters of support were received, including support from Councillor Hannah Bithell (Lab, Kirkstall).
A full planning application will be submitted in due course.
The site is used as part of a wider community use to grow fruit and vegetables along with operating an area of allotments. The site is used by wider community groups and is leased to the Kirkstall Valley Development Trust by Leeds City Council.
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