In the face of Leeds City Council’s apparent determination to proceed with its proposal for barbeque areas on Woodhouse Moor, Member of Parliament for Leeds Central Hilary Benn today released for publication a letter he sent over two months ago to Leeds City Council’s Chief Executive setting out his reasons for opposing the scheme, and saying that that enforcement of the existing barbeque ban is the better option. Here is the text of Mr Benn’s letter.

“I am writing in response to the consultation I understand is taking place as to whether concrete blocks should be put in the grass to allow barbeques to be held on the Moor.

I think this would be a very bad idea and I do not support it. Having spent the best part of an hour having a look at the damage that barbequing and bigger fires have done to the grass, I can see the problem the proposal seeks to address, but I think the better solution would simply to say that public parks are not for barbeques.

I think there are a number of reasons why this would be the right approach. Firstly, the barbeques that are taking place currently have done damage to the grass and it is by no means certain that those responsible would use the blocks as opposed to carrying on with what they are doing at the moment. Secondly, there have been occasions – as you will be aware – when these have turned into large scale events with all night drinking, some vandalism, and large bonfires which put other users of the park off. There have even been a couple of examples where sound systems have been set up in the park and as well as burning to the grass a lot of broken glass and bottle tops have been found on the surface, along with rubbish being dumped.

It seems to me that in addition to not proceeding with this proposal, there is a question of enforcement of reasonable activity in the park and I would be very grateful if you could set out what the plan is for dealing with this”.