Community Meeting Update - Sept 2011

Pessimistic know it all gets proved wrong.

The latest community meeting has come and gone, and for the most part it was great. One of the best turnouts we’ve had, so no need for me to stomp off in a self righteous sulk. We’ve also had notice that demolition will begin in a couple of weeks so I’ve taken a few pictures to start charting progress. Also giant house spiders have started invading my house, but that’s not really relevant I just wanted to share.

aaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhh . . 

The meeting was very interesting, some new faces and some familiar ones. People are very concerned about the state of the neighbourhood, and I don’t blame them. Emotions were running high, a bit of a cliché for a community meeting, but watching your street become increasingly neglected with what seems like no hope of anything being done to ease the situation can lead to hot heads and frayed tempers.

However we had representatives from the police, Leeds City Council and housing associations so all in all there were nearly 20 people present. Some were a little disruptive, but I fully appreciate that they felt frustrated at how things have been delayed. Though I don’t want to invalidate anyone’s anxieties, and I agree that the community meeting is a good place to raise your issues, share your problems and express your frustration, criminal activity has to be formally reported to the police for it to be tackled. I also appreciate that regular foot patrols reassure residents, but unless the cops actually happen upon someone doing something criminal as they walk by, then they’re mostly just a PR exercise. My eyesight’s pretty shoddy, but even I can see a high visibility vest mooching up the street towards me, and I suspect that your average neighbourhood scrote can do the same.

preparing for demolition

Crime needs to be formally reported, if you’re seeing it and not reporting it you are not helping to resolve it. I also understand that fear of retaliation stops people, but I’ve filmed people nicking metal railings, stood up in court to give evidence, given statements to the police, kept noise diaries, rung the police and gone into the street to challenge antisocial and criminal behaviour; I’m not brave, quite the opposite, but when pushed I can stand up for myself, sort of, and I’ve yet to be threatened with any retaliation.

Residents it seems have also been doing some good stuff, tidying up the streets which are quite frankly looking like shit at the moment. It’s not gone unnoticed and people are very grateful.  Also someone’s dumped some lovely asbestos in one of the bin yards, which has hopefully been removed by now. Also alarmingly enough, there is asbestos in some of the houses that are going to be demolished, so let’s hope the HASMAT suits are broken out for that portion of the demolition.

what the streets near me might have looked like when they were built

It’s also been highlighted that it is unlikely that a developer will want to buy or develop the land, as it’s not been fully cleared and some of the properties will remain. But for me demolition is still the sensible thing to do, derelict property is not acceptable on a large scale as anything other than a short term situation.

Well that’s it for now, I’ve added some images here and on the pictures page, and I’ll keep adding as the demolition progresses, so if you’re interested keep your eyes peeled.

Half of my street is being prepared for demolition

just waiting for the wrecking ball . . .

Anticipating disappointment

Community groups without the community.

Another meeting has been arranged for next week. I’ve typed up the minutes from the last meeting, booked a room and a number of staff at Leeds City Council have designed a leaflet to invite residents and they will also help with the distribution. Leeds Federated Housing is paying for the room that we’ll use, it’s not a huge amount but it’s still a cost that they are generously covering. I’m very grateful for all the support, the group such as it is, wouldn’t exist without these people whose job it is to help. A lot of people who work in local regeneration and housing give their time to this group. I know for a number of them it’s their job, but that doesn’t mean that they shouldn’t be recognised for it – it must be soul destroying to have to keep giving up your evenings to attend a meeting that even residents couldn’t care less about.

When the community group first started we had a paid for community worker, let’s call her Bliss, who worked across many projects doing the kinds of things listed above that I am starting to find myself having to do now. OK so my role isn’t hugely burdensome, but I’ve got a hundred other things I could be doing instead just like we all have. So why don’t we have Bliss anymore? Many community workers’ roles were paid for by funding that had been bid for by Local Authorities, short term and often applied for very specific projects with specific outputs aimed at specific social groups or geographic areas this meant that when the swingeing budget cuts came in after the 2010 election, Bliss and people like her were easy targets for a quick way to reduce outgoings.

Bye bye community outreach workers, thanks for all the vital work you’ve done, don’t let the door hit you on the arse on your way out.

In the context of the Con-Dem’s Big Society it seems counter-intuitive to undermine the existing infrastructure by removing funding from the very people who worked in the community. Not only have we lost a great member of a community team but we’ve lost the experience and goodwill that she generated and I doubt that the knowledge that she acquired and the positive working practices that she developed have been preserved for the good of the community.

I understand how the Big Society will do well in communities that already have the determination to band together and work for common goals. At the moment it very much feels a bit like the Wellness clinics that popped up around the place a few years back. Envisioned to improve the health and well being of the general public, I suspect those that are already proactive about their wellbeing will be availing themselves of the facilities and those that are too preoccupied with making ends meet will be watching it all happen to someone else; as always those harder to reach are left behind.

My little community is most certainly not rising to the challenge at the moment, though I hope I’m proved wrong at the meeting next week. Maybe I’m being too negative but I don’t hold out much hope for the continuation of the Community Group. I don’t have the capacity, or to be fair the inclination to do much more than I already am, so it’s not like I’m setting myself up as a positive example because I’m quite lazy, but a few more people need to start contributing or else it’s destined to go tits up.

Well that’s it for today, small whinge over. I’ll update after the community meeting as hopefully we’ll get news about the demolition and the renovation of the remaining properties, tragically I’m looking forward to that. I can’t take any more fly-tipping, derelict houses and general decay, no wonder I’m such a miserable cow.

miserable cow

Picking over a carcass.

A general rant. Enjoy.

So how have thing been over the last few weeks in general: a few sleepless nights due to odd car behaviour in the street (more on that later), unsecure abandoned buildings, rubbish filled bin yards and the commencement of demolition. All good stuff.

Linked to this is the thought in my head, “am I the only person who calls the police and reports stuff?”

I’m sure I’m not, as I get regular updates from our Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator and these tell me that other people have been arrested and stopped mid crime due to calls from residents. Both reassuring and disturbing in equal measures.

I’m never sure when you stop being a concerned member of the community and become an irritating loon because you report things to the police or the local authority because you ‘think’ you’ve seen or heard something.

I suspect I fall somewhere between the two.

Legitimate calls or emails to the police or the neighbourhood watch coordinator I’ve made over the last few months have been made up of:

•  reporting the stealing of bin yard metal work (left there by the council because NOBODY would think of nicking fixtures and fittings from abandoned buildings!);
• reporting a witnessed vandalism/attempted breaking on an abandoned property on my street;
•  reporting a suspected act of vandalism/attempted break in on one of the streets along from me (heard but didn’t see breaking glass and general smashing late at night) and last but not least
•  people rummaging through rubbish bins and tipping the contents out on to the ground of the bin yards on 3 separate occasions.

I think I should have called the police over a couple of other things, but had no real information to give them other than; “I’ve seen a weird man driving around our streets at night with no headlights on. He wasHeHe was stopping and starting his car and changing parking spots regularly, so generally behaving in a suspicious way.”

Perhaps he was just socially inept, people sometimes are you know, but I don’t think ignorance of your inconsiderate behaviour is a good enough defence for behaving like a thoughtless knob.

Added to this there are people standing in abandoned bin yards at night for no good reason, people driving up and down the street in-between the bin yards at night with their headlights off (different car this time) and people gunning their car engines to reach maximum warp at all times of the day and night (it’s hardly Silverstone in South Leeds – no one needs to go above 20 mph in a residential area). 

However because the street lighting is poor on our street and no one lives opposite me anymore, (I don’t even get ambient light from their houses, woe is me) I can’t see clearly enough to make a note of useful information such as make, model or the number plate of repeat offenders without going and standing directly in front or behind these cars with a pad and pen. Not likely to happen!

I suspect they are fly tipping or at the very least assessing their options for fly tipping, though the bin yard opposite me stays relatively free of trash since I called to have it cleared last year (LCC very quick to respond to this by the way). 

I suspect this in some way due to my ostentatious curtain twitching and arms crossed front-door-step stance that I take-up whenever I see anyone suspicious lurking unnecessarily near my house  - I’m really am only three curlers, a house-coat and a hairnet away from becoming Hilda Ogden.

But this does highlight for me the general anxiety I feel now when at home. Every noise, car engine, smash, bang and alarm has me leaping up to have a look. I Shhhhhhhh people on the phone and wake in the night and so I can nervously twitch my curtains (not a euphemism by the way) every time I hear an unusual sound.

I watched a telly programme the other week about an elephant carcass in Africa, killed by poachers I believe, and the predators, scavengers and organisms that picked over its flesh and bones. In a matter of days it was a deflated elephant skin suit except for a writhing, bubbling mass of maggots. The larger predators had quickly arrived and taken the softer easier targets (I was particularly impressed with the first hyena’s choice of entry point! That must have been what Local Authorities felt like when the budget cuts were announced! See link to video on YouTube below) and finally the insects and other small things rapidly consuming what was left of poor old Dumbo. 

I thought at the time; welcome to my world where my street is a dying pachyderm; a monument to prehistoric housing and bad investment. The neighbourhood is quite literally being picked clean by predators and scavengers. Except unlike poor predated Dumbo from the telly, my community isn’t dead and its constituent parts are not being redistributed to nourish the flora and fauna of South Leeds. The remaining residents have to watch whilst this attack spreads like an infection. This diseased area will not be picked clean quickly; it’s being left to rot.

I’m not sure I know where the blame lies, everyone seems to be holding up their hands and saying ‘don’t look at me. We’re doing the best we can’. But they don’t live here so let’s hope the Big Society works and we can reclaim our streets

 Poor old Dumbo’s sticky end meets what can only be described as a ‘sticky end’.

What it's like to live in a 'Regeneration' Area

What it’s like to live in a ‘regeneration’ area.

I live on a street in South Leeds made up of back to back terraced houses all about 100 years old.

I have lived there for about 7 years. As a private owner occupier I have often found it a challenge to feel fully settled in a landscape with such a transient population and as a result I think the community I live in does not always gel as well as it could.

Just over a year ago I received notification from Leeds City Council that the two rows of houses opposite mine would be purchased and demolished to make way for new housing. After the initial shock I began to see the positives; better housing, increased property values, a more permanent population etc, this could only be a good thing right?

With the support of Leeds City Council we began to form a community group and as a group we began to envision what our new environment might look like and how we might be able to influence its progress and development; initial shock turning to a general sense of hopefulness and welcoming positive change.

Progress has been slow though this I’m told is not unusual; membership of the community group is relatively low and not necessarily representative of the whole community who are more often than not tenants either in social housing or via private landlords, rather than owner occupiers. We’ve probably met about 6 or 7 times over the last year and a half but with the changing economic and political climate since the 2010 election, things do not look hopeful.

As the houses opposite me have been purchased for demolition the surrounding area has taken on an air or abandonment and dereliction. The view from my window and my daily walk home from work gives me charming scenes of bin yards full of dumped rubbish, boarded up houses, vandalised doors and windows that all contribute to the sense of neglect that envelops my street. The long winter nights have not improved this.

I used to drive past places like this and think, ‘thank goodness I don’t live there’, but now I do and it’s not a happy realisation. So what’s this blog all about?

Feeling isolated and a bit abandoned, but generally I hope being a positive person I want to record is what it’s like to live amongst this general atmosphere of neglect and decline and draw attention to the real impact of Government cuts on already disadvantaged communities. What I hope will come through is that we can still impact upon decisions that affect our every day lives and to track and document a living example of Prime Minister Cameron’s Big Society. Also I might post the odd amusing story about live in South Leeds in general. Wish me luck, I think I might need it.