Woodhouse Moor Bonfire

I had two competing emotions as I attended this.

Firstly my inner "Pagan" was awakend by the magical site of the moor flooded in near full moonlight at its zenith over the freshly lit fire. What I would have given for a power cut for a few minutes and just enjoyed the sight without electricity. Until civilisation quickly slid back to the stone age that is but perhaps just for a few minutes....

The Second was a sense of sadness that this is not the event that it once was. 5 Years ago Woodhouse Moor was Council event on a par with any of the other free displays that are a credit to the Council. You would have had a multitude of concessions, a proper compare with warm up music and 30 to 35 minutes of big bucks display. My gut feeling is that is being trimmed very year and now the cracks are begining to show. The display was 17 minutes long and produced just one "ahh" from the crowd. The bonfire was noticabley smaller than last year.

This would have been absolutely fine as a " community event" but to suggest that it cut the mustard as a City Class event just doesn't wash. Is it being deliberately run down? To add insult to injury I have failed yet again to be asked to light the bonfire despite being the longest serving local Councillor. The time honoured tradition is a local politico with photogenic small child plucked from the crowd. My unfortunate collegue who did the honours announced that it was "going to be the biggest display ever". And it was his tone of voice that first alerted me to start my stop watch......


Afterwards to my friend Duncans house for Chilli, cheap californian red and many friends I haven't seen for months. This was the cheapest, simplest and yet most enjoyable evening for months. A token married couple broke up the otherwise "ThirtySomething" atmosphere of urban, single public sector professionals. However the most telling thing was how we all declared how tired we were at 1030 pm and headed off home for bed. Oh how the mighty have fallen...

North Hyde Park Neighbourhood Association AGM

I must have finally become part of the local establishment to be invited to be the Guest speaker at this. They once famously refused to let me join when I was a mere Council candidate living outside the area.

I enjoyed this enormously. Its an odd thing thing to have a "favourite" local residents association but I'm in love with the news letter they produce, so full of detailed activism with a real care for the green spaces they look after shining through.

I would say about 30 people in total huddled in Wrangthorne Parish Church just off Hyde Park corner. A big chunk of the Association area moved from the Headingley Ward with the boundary changes but I was in effect representing the Six Lib Dem Councillors for the area as they were all at the Full Council meeting.

The issues were predictable but none the less interesting for that. The Car Park fiasco, the Woodhouse Moor Lottery bid consultation, planning, melt Down in the green bin collection service and " Vision".

The number of empty houses in the area due to saturation in the student market is rightly sppoking some locals. Do we end up with empty homes? Benefit Landlordism? or a local property crash?

I'm actually skeptical about Councils ability to deliver "Visions" for the area but the dilema is this. If you asked a Focus group what the image of Headingley was then the most popular answer would be "student hell hole" followed by the stadium with Rugby and Cricket. If we are to encourage some potential residents to start buying Landlord owned houses we need a rebrand.

I was naughty towards the end and told the truth about the green bin situation. I'm having a follow up meeting next week with some local activists and all in all the experience reminded me why I ever stood for the Council in the first place.

Full Council

The "Liberal Democrat led" administration of Leeds City Council successfully pushed through its plans for an Incinerator at last Wednesdays meeting. The vote was slightly surreal with the Green Leader and Cabinet member voting against his own administrations policy and speaking against it from the front bench.

Meanwhile all 6 Independent councillors voted in favour despite technically being in opposition. Most disturbingly the BNP Councillor voted against which I fear is politically very savy.

The Executive board paper we were voting on was a "direction of travel " paper but it clearly sets out a PFI Incinerator at the heart of the citys waste strategy to 2035 and commits us to increase our household waste recycling rate from 24% this year to 40% by 2020.

Until a site is identitified (which we are told might not even be in the city - the waste can be transported somewhere by rail link) It will remain a debate amongst the enviromentally committed. An eventual site within the metropolitan boundary would be political dynamite. I think "watch this space" would be the appropriate phrase although the timescales do seem to be slipping already.

Having arrived late though not late enough it seems for the Incinerator vote I shall not "score" the meeting as I usually do. I was representing the 6 Lib Dem Councillors that cover part of the North Hyde park Neighbourhood Association meeting so had to leave early as well.

The most interesting bit I did see was the beate on the Killingbeck fields PFI sports centre proposal. The administration performed an elegant U turn abandoning it but hammering the relavent Labour Councillors into the ground while they were at it.

The observation I would make after 6 years on Council is that debates their can often mask the political realities in the real world. If we have genuinely changed our minds about Killingbeck then its right to change the policy. However if any Campaigning group that can organise press coverage and a public meeting can derail major projects then we are in for extended trouble.