Latest news - 16th January 2007

Thursday 8th February
Our next monthly meeting, 5.30pm,
180 Chapeltown Road
If we get funding from the Local Area Team at the end of January, we will be planning a huge survey of people's knowledge and use of venues in the area and what they think is missing. We'll need all hands on deck over the next month to get it done.

1) Last autumn the council's North East Local Area Management Team produced a report (the Community Centres Review) which concluded that a new community centre is not needed in Chapeltown, and therefore the Council should not provide either financial support or any land towards our project. At their October meeting, this report was supported by the Local Area Committee, made up of councillors from Roundhay ward, Moortown ward and Chapel Allerton ward (including Chapeltown) - the Chapel Allerton councillors did not support the report, but were outvoted. It was sent to be ratified by the Council's Executive Board on 24th January - see item 42 at this link: LCC NE (Inner) Area Committee Minutes, October 16th 2006

We think the Local Area Team & Committee are wrong in their conclusions and on 4th December we sent a representative to the Committee's next meeting, to read out a statement and proposal. The statement detailed our concerns, asked the committee to consider writing a letter of support and, depending on the outcome of our public meetings in December, requested that the Local Area Management Team work with us to identify and put aside land which we could buy at market value.

As the members of the committee had not seen the statement in advance, they could not consider it there and then, but put it on the agenda for their meeting in February. You can read the brief discussion here, where it is down as item 60: LCC NE (Inner) Area Committee Minutes, December 4th 2006

2) We held two large consultation meetings in December, one with groups who run facilities in the area on 6th December (download the minutes) and a public meeting for everyone in the area on 14th December. Due to difficulties with the recording of the public meeting, it hasn't yet been written up. At the public meeting we presented a list of options, which you can see on the left (under Diary Dates). However, at both those meetings, the audiences were adamant that a new community centre was their preferred option to pursue.

Both meetings were also very strongly in favour of surveying the area to provide evidence of the community's desire for a new centre. This would have the advantage of providing lots of information about how aware people are of the current facilities and what they think is missing - whether it's youth provision, sustainability information, somewhere to socialise, etc. And if the survey is large, it would also get information about our project out to people.

We are now waiting to hear whether the Neighbourhood Manager or Local Area Management Team are willing to work with us on this project - we should know by the end of January, which means that the survey should be carried out in February.

Watch this space for a downloadable survey form - we plan to hold a prizedraw with some really excellent prizes!

HOW SHOULD WE MOVE FORWARD?
Our options - some of which go together

• We could give up and have a party.
• We could carry on without council support (which will be very difficult).
• We could oppose the Joint Service Centre and hope to get the Hayfield site.
• We are trying to get council support to develop another site.
• We could continue trying to get involved with the JSC and get a bit of that site.
• We could see if Leeds Black Elders will work with us to develop the library site jointly.
• We could dramatically scale back our ideas and look at getting a small office or kiosk, which would function to tell people what’s going on in Chapeltown, but it’s not clear where the income would come from for that.
• The LIFT company will have to pay a significant amount of money into community or greenspace development because of using up so much greenspace for the Joint Service Centre – perhaps we could develop a greenspace trust or see if we can use the money for some other community development.
• We could see whether our ideas can be fitted into current facilities, which is what the local area team want us to do.

• Come along to the meetings which are held on the 2nd Thursday of the month from 5.30pm at 180 Chapeltown Road, and find out how you can get involved in the development of the new centre.
• Write a letter of support. A collection of supportive letters will be included in the business plan to demonstrate the level of support from the community.
• Contact the group and let us know what you’d like to see included in the centre, or any ideas you have for the building.
• Pressure the council to include us in discussions and listen to our case
• Help with fundraising - initially for full feasibility study and business plan.