Leader of the the Council Keith Wakefield presents Woodhouse Moor’s head gardener John Egan with a framed photograph in recognition of his hard work over many years caring for Woodhouse Moor and helping to keep it the best looking park in the city. On the left of the photograph is the Council’s Chief Executive Tom Riordan, and on the right, Sue Buckle from Friends of Woodhouse Moor.
John Egan retired today after 40 years with Parks and Countryside. This major event was covered in today’s Yorkshire Evening Post.
At this evening’s meeting of INWAC at St Chad’s Parish Centre, Sue Buckle made the following plea for funding for park wardens for Woodhouse Moor:
Byelaws and barbeques on Woodhouse Moor – an issue on which much has been said! However, I ask you, please, to listen without preconceptions as it’s an issue many people care about, passionately.
Byelaws exist so that everyone can enjoy parks safely, and leave a park green, unspoiled, and undamaged for the next people who come along, whether minutes, hours, days, or even months later.
Local authorities have a duty to enforce these byelaws.
In recent years, we’ve had problems on Woodhouse Moor, since the increased popularity of disposable barbeques. Although enjoying cooked food in fresh air doesn’t sound like a problem, unfortunately a “Barbeque Culture” can go with it which can lead to excessive alcohol consumption, with smashed bottles in the grass, leftover food to attract rats (and endanger dogs, in the case of chicken bones), with lasting damage to the environment. Smoke pollution can also be a problem to local residents, especially on sunny days.
As the most intensively used park in Leeds, serving an area with some of the highest population density in Leeds (and, indeed, the country) Woodhouse Moor has suffered along with all the people using it, whether walking across it to work or study, spending time there with children or dog, walking, running or just enjoying the peace and quiet of the green surroundings.
In 2009, when asked for park wardens to be provided, Councillor Procter said that if Parks and Countryside funded them, it would set a precedent for all Leeds parks.
So in February last year, INWAC voted £25,085 for two wardens to patrol Woodhouse Moor from April 1st to 30th September (This was part of the “designated barbeque area” proposal which was subsequently halted).
The result was wonderful! The system worked! Woodhouse Moor was a green park for everyone to enjoy – and so many people commented, over the Summer and since, how it was such a pleasure to see the park looking so beautiful.
It must be said that big thanks are especially due to Riz, who was on duty with the buggy for most of the Summer, and Kevin Barker, now retired, who did so much to make the scheme a success.
In June 2010, a report to the Executive Board said,
“The presence of Parks Watch officers is proving successful in preventing barbecue activity at Woodhouse Moor and enforcing the byelaws. If funding is sustained, then it is felt that enforcement activity could be a viable long term solution to address issues associated with barbecue use.”
That £25,085 actually saved money – as the previous year over £100,000 was spent on call-outs to the fire service to deal with fires on the Moor, which invariably had started as barbeques, and less was spent on litter picking as extra Parks and Countryside staff were not called away from gardening duties to pick up litter (There were also less injuries to Parks staff, previously caused when they had to clear up the remains of barbeques, such as hot metal trays, sharp skewers and grilles).
We are asking INWAC – please could you vote £25,085 to cover the cost of wardens again this year – and for the next two years.
Woodhouse Moor is special. It’s a big part of people’s lives. Walking in the park in the morning can lift the spirits, especially when the sun shines through the trees on the grass, and as now, on the spring flowers. If it’s a mess, it can really bring people down, even upset them.
Our park is a place which people can retreat to, away from the streets of terraced houses, or just to escape the pressure of life. It’s especially beautiful now – and thanks must go to our local MBE, John Egan, who’s up there before 7.30 every morning keeping it that way.
Sometimes an issue comes up which transcends party politics. The Royal Park School Building is one. It was so great at the January Executive Board seeing all the political parties voting together to give the community a chance of getting Royal Park.
Please let this be another of those times. Please vote now to allocate funding for park wardens to enforce the byelaws on Woodhouse Moor from April 1st to September 30th, because although it might seem extravagant to compare keeping Woodhouse Moor green to saving the planet, if you do allocate the funding, it will feel to the people of Hyde Park as if you’re doing just that!
Sue’s speech received thunderous applause from the audience, and a warm and positive response from councillors, who said that they would be in a position to vote funds once they have met on the 9th March to decide their funding priorities. The 9th March meeting will be followed shortly afterwards by a special meeting of INWAC at which votes on funding will be made.
Grass is unable to grow on an area of the park beside the Wellington Statue because some people use the area as a short cut. I’ve therefore asked Parks and Countryside to let me know how much it will cost to fence the area to give the grass a chance to grow back. I shall then use money from my ward initiative fund to pay for the fencing.
The Highways Department has plans to make the existing cycle track on Woodhouse Moor, part of the Route 5 cycle track running from Cookridge to the city centre. If the scheme goes ahead, it will mean cyclists crossing the Moor at the rate of one every thirty seconds between 7.30 and 9.30am (according to figures published by the Leeds Cycling Action Group). Woodhouse Moor is already the most intensively used park in the city. To add to the existing park users, all those cyclists from the outer suburbs travelling to the city centre, is to create a serious health and safety issue on the park.
Councillor Adam Ogilivie is the Executive Board member with responsibility for Woodhouse Moor. Here is what he had to say earlier today about the plan to run Route 5 across the Moor:
This scheme is a very bad idea as it would make the park unsafe for pedestrians. Consequently, Parks and Countryside have written to the Highways Department asking for the scheme to be withdrawn. We have yet to receive a response. I’m grateful to local residents for alerting Parks and Countryside to the existence of this scheme.
The Highways Department is planning on creating a cycle super highway to be known as ‘Route 5’ that will run from Cookridge to the city centre via Leeds University. Cyclists heading into town will be directed onto the existing Woodhouse Moor cycle track via a new toucan crossing to be constructed across Hyde Park Road at its junction with Brudenell Road.
The new cycle highway will take all the cycle traffic that currently runs along Headingley Lane and Woodhouse Lane, and divert it across Woodhouse Moor. According to figures released in October 2008 by the Leeds Cycling Action Group, this will mean that during the morning peak between 7.30 and 9.30am, there will be cycles crossing the Moor at the rate of one every thirty seconds.
This massive increase in cycle traffic on the park will lead to congestion and bottlenecks in the area of the park around the Wellington statue, with pedestrians and cyclists competing for space on paths that were only designed to carry pedestrians. To relieve the congestion, Highways are planning on creating several new paths in the area of park around the statue.
These paths are unnecessary for the functioning of the park and are being provided as a cheap alternative to providing a cycle track along Hyde Park Road and Clarendon Road. They would be incongruous with the original path layout installed in the 1870s and make it extremely difficult to have the park added to English Heritage’s ‘Register of Historic Parks and Gardens of special historic interest in England’. The scheme would also make it far more difficult to obtain lottery funding to restore the park.
A report outlining the scheme was presented to Leeds City Council’s Executive Board on 14 October 2009. The report gave no details of proposed routes and claimed at paragraph 3.2.1 that :
Initial consultation on the project proposals was undertaken during June 2009. Ward members and community groups were informed by letter which included the project leaflet and links to more detailed plans placed on the internet.
In fact, there was no consultation with any of the community groups in the Hyde Park area. But on the strength of this report, Highways were given approval to proceed with the scheme and awarded £1.5 million. This is the second time in recent years that Highways have claimed there has been consultation when there has been none. In 2008, they wrongly claimed they had consulted local community groups about their proposal to widen the A660 where it crosses Woodhouse Moor.
The proposed Route 5 would run along Brudenell Road and connect to Woodhouse Moor by means of a toucan crossing to be constructed across Hyde Park Road at its junction with Brudenell Road. The intention is to locate the crossing in front of a block of flats called Kensington Court.
The first the residents of Kensington Court knew about the proposed crossing was when construction work began before Christmas. Alarmed that they would be kept awake through the night by beeping from the crossing, they contacted their ward councillor, and he arranged for a halt in construction. Even though the crossing would greatly impact on their quality of life, none of the residents of Kensington Court had been consulted about the proposal to instal it. Nor had they been consulted about the proposed Route 5 cycle track.
Highways chose the route of Route 5 at least as far back as 2009 when the situation on local roads was very different from what it is now. The introduction of residents only parking schemes on other roads in the area has meant that roads intended to form part of Route 5 are now double parked from Monday to Friday by workers from the suburbs who park their cars on these roads and then walk to work.
The problem of cars parked along the proposed Route 5 has specific health and safety consequences for cyclists:
According to figures produced by Parks and Countryside, Woodhouse Moor is the most intensively used park in Leeds. Pedestrians and cyclists already compete for space on paths.
To avoid pedestrians, cyclists often have to ride on the grass, creating broad swathes of mud in the process.
Given the intensity of use of this park, to divert all the cyclists from the northern suburbs onto it, is to invite a serious accident.
I met Dave and Ellie on the Moor yesterday. It had been snowing and they’d just finished building a snowman. I reckon it’s the best snowman I’ve ever seen.
(photo courtesy of The Thoresby Society)
Ordnance survey maps give the name “Cannon Walk” to the path that runs from the Victoria Memorial to the former Grammar School. The reason for the name is supplied by “The Official Handbook to The Public Parks of Leeds and Kirkstall Abbey” written by Parks Superintendent Arthur J Allsop and published in 1906 :
From Woodhouse Lane to the Grammar School there is a pleasant path along the top of the Moor, banked on the left by a shrubbery in which there are circular bays of grass for the sheltered accommodation of flower beds. In the centre, one of these bays is ornamented by two 36-pounders of the old smooth-bore muzzle-loading type, mounted on ship’s carriages. These are relics of the fall of Sebastopol, and now look over their crenelated parapet in eloquent silence. When they were publicly placed on the Moor in 1857 no less than 50,000 persons were present.
The above photo shows the cannon isolated behind the “crenelated parapet”. In this position, the guns were neglected, and over time, their carriages fell into disrepair. This prompted a concerned resident to write to the Yorkshire Evening Post. His letter was published on 21st October 1911 :
PATHETIC PLEA FROM WOODHOUSE
Sir, – We the cannons on Woodhouse Moor, have fallen on sad and bitter days. We are neglected and forgotten. Will someone help us, or does nobody care ?
How different from the days of long ago, when we were proudly glistening in the sunshine and guarding the fort of distant Sebastopol; we didn’t stand on the wet sod and have a coat of dirty drab paint then !
Now we are placed behind a monstrosity in stonework. Goodness knows what it represents. Surely it is not a feeble imitation of a fort ? For years we have stood on the damp earth, and the woodwork of our carriages has become rotten and fallen to pieces, causing one of us to fall to the ground, the other having to be propped up under the muzzle.
In our early days on the Moor, we were proudly admired – a powder waggon, long since gone, stood in the centre then – and looked upon as grand relics of British valour. Do let us be moved from this horrid position, given suitable carriages, and placed on a basement of concrete or flags on the level – Yours etc.,
THE RUSSIAN GUNS
The plea from “the guns” was heard, and the guns were moved, as the following article from the Yorkshire Evening Post of the 28th December 1911 describes:
NEW CARRIAGES AND A NEW POSITION FOR OLD RELICS
A fresh resting place has been found for the two old Russian cannon on Woodhouse Moor, Leeds. For many years they occupied a site close to the reservoir, but in consequence of the continued exposure to the weather the wooden carriages became completely rotten, and recently, the cannon had to be taken down.
In this out of the way spot they went unnoticed, so the Parks Committee decided to place them in a more prominent position when the new carriages were ready.
The site chosen is in the middle of the wide walk at the main entrance near the police-station, a circular flower-bed having been cleared, and the ground concreted. The hoisting of the historic relics into position has been watched with curious interest by large crowds these last two days.
The large iron shell removed from Templenewsam some few years ago has also been placed on this spot.
The photo below shows the guns in their new location. They remained in this position until they were taken away to be melted down as part of the war effort.
When Leeds University purchased the former Grammar School site, it’s clear it did so with the intention of building on the cricket field that formed part of the site. The fact that the cricket field had Protected Playing Pitch status in the Unitary Development Plan, was only a temporary obstacle. To get round the problem, they offered the council a bribe. They said that in exchange for planning permission, they’d give the council £255,000 to spend on replacement sports facilities on Woodhouse Moor. These were to include two mini soccer pitches and a Multi Use Games Area or MUGA on the site of the tennis courts near Hyde Park Corner. The council held all the cards. It just had to say no. Instead, in exchange for a paltry £255,000, the council agreed to the university’s proposals. And so the community lost the Protected Playing Pitch and in return gained the threat of formal sports facilities on the open parkland of Woodhouse Moor. All of this was agreed without any consultation with local people.
Friends of Woodhouse Moor raised the issue at a meeting of INWAC that took place on the 13th December 2007. In response, the councillors passed the following resolution :
That in respect of the multi use games area proposed close to Hyde Park Corner, North West Area Management be requested to seek clarification on the proposals, and to ensure that public consultation was carried out on any such proposal
Following the meeting, Lib Dem Councillor Penny Ewens was in touch with senior planning officer Paul Gough by telephone. Here’s an extract from an email he sent her immediately afterwards :
Further to our telephone conversation, I thought I would drop you a line to let you know my thoughts on the suggestion that the proposed MUGA should be subject to further public consultation. Basically my view is that further consultation is unnecessary and would delay what is a very worthwhile project on a site which is in need of upgrading….I think that if we start a debate on the principle of the development it could seriously embarrass the Council, mislead the local community and get us into a legal minefield. If we do not carry out this project, all it would take is one person to make a legal challenge and we would be in trouble….There is no need to prevaricate over this and, in my view, we should proceed to the implementation stage. I hope this is helpful advice.
Mr Gough says that there’s no need for “further public consultation”. The fact is that there’s been no public consultation. And so, despite the promise that was made to local people by Lib Dem councillors in December 2007, construction work on the MUGA (pictures below) began a few days ago.
References
Should you ever take a walk round the German Market – I won’t say “German Christmas Market” since it’s packed up and gone long before Christmas has even begun – spare a thought for the long suffering people of Hyde Park and Woodhouse. They are the unsung heroes of the German Market. You see, for two months of every year, part of Woodhouse Moor is turned into a container park to house the freight containers and cranes that are required to bring the market here and then erect it. (see photo below)
We’ve Councillor John Procter from Wetherby and ineffective Lib Dem local councillors to thank for this annual addition to the Moor. Any other city would arrange for the unsightly containers to be stored in a council yard. Only Leeds City Council would dump them on a park in a deprived inner city area where they can be viewed by the retired residents of the Harrison Potter Home and everyone who passes by on Woodhouse Lane.