So in 2009 Leeds City Council decided to 'regenerate' my street. They began the process of purchasing the houses opposite to the row I live on, and the houses in the next street.
This little blog is about what it’s like to live amongst derelict houses in a neglected street under a ConDem Govt and a Labour Council . . I hope you find it interesting and illuminating.
I live in South Leeds and have done for over 7 years.
After watching the houses opposite me empty and fall into dereliction, I was initially full of hope for better housing and improved living standards; my hope is now turning to disappointment. I wanted to create a place online where I could share my experiences of living in what seems to me at least, to be a dying street. This blog is entirely about my personal experiences and feelings, and is in no way represents my employer or any other organsiation.
This is the view from my window now. It looks as though the demolition is continuing. I did think these houses would be refurbished but a couple of weeks ago the last residents left and on Monday the diggers moved in.
On the upside it's really opening up the view (of the derelict Kwick Save), hopefully this means more sun in the summer. It is a shame that we couldn't get more houses refurbised and back into use. And I did think that more open space would mean less fly tipping as it would be easier to spot the scum bags that do it, but it just continues to get worse and no one seems to care.
Apologies for the quality of the photos, there used to be 4 houses here and soon a lovely view of the arse end of Dewsbury Road.
plumes of dust, all very apocolyptic.
bye bye
the landscape begins to open up.
More digger action
same thing, different picture.
A huge plume of black dust!! I believe these houses used soot to help build the internal lath and plaster walls so it's being released back into the atmosphere in what is no doubt a large carcegenic/asthma enducing cloud!
but no derelict houses, well there are, but in the distance . . . sort of . . .
The houses in the background should be getting refurbished over the next few months.
The demolition is done for now. Hopefully I'll get more sun in the afternoon, when it starts emitting some springtime warmth that is.
So it's goodbye derelict houses, it all looks so much better, though perhaps that's because I didn't include the recently fly tipped fridge and all it's rotting contents that someone dumped half on the newly cleared ground and half on the pavement, nice.
(Not sure why the pics are so odd looking, I uploaded them from my phone. Will try and replace with better quality ones later)
I know I’ve not posted for a while, I’m sure you’re all
bereft. But I’ve entered final year Masters hell and only have thoughts of
essays (yeaugh). However, some thoughts are better expressed than left to
simmer so as my silence doesn’t mean that all has been quiet in my neck of the
woods, I’ll update you. I’ve got new neighbours, who so far are behaving
themselves. Demolition seems to have ground to a halt, which is disappointing
and also having ripple like impacts on the occupied houses. (See update further down)
Fly tipping is increasing as is anti social behaviour. I’ll
give you a recent lovely example. About 6 weeks (maybe 8 weeks) ago I heard
fish wife like shrieking out in the street. As I may have previously mentioned
I’m not adverse to people enjoying themselves within reason just don’t be inconsiderate and disgusting. A
number of 'young ladies' were charging about the street, obviously under the
influence and enjoying each other’s company. Now why they couldn’t do this
inside is beyond me, but there you are I’m not pissed off my tits on cheap
alcohol in the middle of my street on a Friday night, what would I know?
I had a weekend of studying ahead and wanted to be in bed at
a reasonable time so I could get cracking on Saturday. As I went to bed I
looked out of my bedroom window to see one of them dropping her
leggings/tracksuit bottoms, whatever they were, in the middle of the street and
screaming. They could barely stand so they obviously couldn’t make it all the
way inside to alleviate their bladder discomfort. Pissing, or worse in the
street is apparently hilarious, judging by their harpy like cackling, so I went
down stairs opened my front door and said, “Alright ladies? Do you think it’s
about time to turn the volume down now?”
“Of course!” they replied and promptly pulled up their
knickers and popped back inside . . . . .
No they bloody well didn’t.
“Aaaargggeeehhhhhhhhwwwaarrrrggghhh it’s FFFFFFrrriiiiiiiiiiddaaaaayyyy........foookin
Friday . . . . arrgh” and repeat at
volume in your best pissed fat slag voice. So I asked again, nicely.
I’m not a confrontational person so I also explained that I’d
asked them nicely and what they decided to do next would inform whether I made
an official call or not. And off I popped back inside.
Things were quiet for 5 or 10 minutes, so I looked back out
of my window to see one of the Cheltenham Ladies College Graduates copping a
bare bottomed squat just by my gate and another thrusting her pasty arm through
my gate to knock over my rose bushes. So I called the police.
Little shits. They’ve been quiet since then.
As well as an insight into the intellectual pursuits of
teenagers on cider, curious things are afoot in my front yard. I’ve lived here
for years and never had anyone interfere with my foliage before, so I was very
upset when not long after the last community group meeting I woke up to find
some of my plant pots smashed and kicked over, beer bottles broken on the ground and plants
ripped up. Obviously this was the work of a drunken arsehole, so I swept it up
and put it down to experience.
Not long after that, there was a repeat performance. More
plants ripped up, pots moved and disturbed and pushed over. And again, shortly
after that incident I left my house one morning to find my doorway blocked by
all of my plant pots piled up against my front door. As I’m sure you can
imagine my sides were just splitting with good natured humour. Oh what amusing
scamps these little visitors were, I hope they don’t accidentally fall down my
cellar well and hurt themselves, or accidentally pick up one of the cat turds I
have to regularly remove from my greenery . . .sigh. I did report it to the police,
but realistically I don’t expect them to prioritise the phantom gardener of old
Beeston town, who has returned again, this time to create a pyramid of plant pots on my doorstep.
Anyway, I suspect the Mensa members from the street peeing
incident might have something to do with the less creative activity in my front
yard, given that I caught them red-handed and bare arsed interfering with my shrubbery.
And since I started this post just before New Year and am
finishing it half way through January I am happy to say that the demolition is off and running again. Right
opposite me in fact! I managed to film a bit, so if I can manage to embed a
video I will show you the last moments of a back to back terrace. I was very
impressed with the demolition guys, and now desperately want a digger. It was
quite brutal and a bit like watching Godzilla destroy a building; there’s
something quite anthropomorphic about diggers and how they move, I think it’s the
teeth on the bucket (or whatever it’s called). If someone could Photoshop some googly eyes on the digger I'd appreciate it.
Going . . . .
. . . .going . . . .
. . . going . .
GONE!!!!!!!! Apologies for the weird reflections on the windows, I filmed these from inside as it was very dusty and cold outside
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.
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
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.
After a very quiet couple of months with very little happening, hence the lack of posts recently, I've received two letters in as many weeks from the Leeds City Council.
The first politely informing me that I would be fined if I left my bin out on the street after bin day, as apparently this is becoming a huge problem in our little community. The second telling me that any remaining metal work left in the binyards attached to the remaining empty homes would be removed to stop our area being targeted by thieves.
Now I don’t like to be snippy but hang on a minute let’s just take a small step back. I’m going to address the second letter first. As someone who actually videoed the last gate on my street being nicked from a bin yard over the road from me about 11 months ago, I would suggest that this is a little like shutting the gate after the horse has bolted.
Reasons of safety, crime prevention and recycling are quoted as being the main drivers for finally removing the few remaining bits of metalwork, though I would have thought that the collapsed walls that block the pavement and are just ripe for a small child to be trapped under would be as much of a motivation. Also removing the metal work whilst most of it still remained would have made better economic sense, but hey ho hindsight is a marvellous thing.
wall kicked over to remove metal work
And my little snipe about the bins being left out on the street, I’ll admit it winds me right up too as I always bring my bins back in but come on . . . . when this
A room with a view.
is the view from my house, and has been for over a year I’m not sure Leeds City Council are in any position to make demands about abandoned bins. A couple of them have been slung into the road of late, either by stormy weather (Lovely British summer) or by what the press would more recently refer to as yobs, I would call them bastards or little shits.
This for me raises the issue of blanket warnings, like those incredibly insulting messages about pirating films at the beginning of legitimately bought dvds that you can’t fast forward through. It’s like buying a bus ticket and being slapped in the face by the driver, just in case you decide not to buy one next time. I don’t leave my bin out all the time (sometimes when I’ve been away on holiday or for work I’ve had no option if I’ve wanted my bin collected, or I don’t put it out at all). I’m probably overreacting and I do understand that it’s better to give people a warning before you go in guns blazing, but it still puts my back up.
I strongly suspect that some of these bins belong to the now derelict houses on the other side of the street, houses that belong to Leeds City Council. And yes it is annoying to have to step out onto the street to walk around someone’s pizza box stuffed wheelie bin that resides permanently on the pavement, but is it any less annoying than jumping up to your window every time an unfamiliar noise rings out down the street and your first conclusion is that it’s yet another scrote in a hoody kicking the door in of a derelict house on your street.
At least the bin yards seem to have been cleared of any recent fly tipping – the standard mattress appeared a couple of weeks ago on a parallel street, but at least the massive plastic jug of cooking oil that the kids were playing with in the street a couple of weeks ago seems to have been dealt with by what I can only assume was a biohazard team. Anyway, rant over for now. I’m trying to organise another community meeting for late August early September so we’ll see what news there is on the demolition front. It can’t come soon enough for me.
Ok – just a very quick update about the latest Community Meeting. New faces this time, only one other resident but at least landlords are starting to get involved, sadly none of the regulars attended.
I was pleased that Leeds City Council have pretty much dealt with all of the issues that they said they would in last meeting, Fly Tipping and property checks were pretty high on the list. Both of these things have been addressed.
We also got another update on the progress of demolition. It’s going to take at least a few months before the properties that still remain occupied will be emptied and the residents housed elsewhere, and it might even take longer than that. There wasn’t anyone there from Leeds Fed so we didn’t get an update from them, however LCC explained the process in relation to the transfer of properties from LCC to Leeds Fed. This will clear all the remaining blocks of houses bar two or three. In these remaining blocks, where possible the empty houses will be refurbished and let to new tenants.
I also hadn’t realised that funding had been completely withdrawn from LCC to buy up the remaining properties, so private owners will have to sell their properties themselves if they want to move away. However, it’s doubtful that those properties will now be demolished. Hopefully though refurbishment and letting of the empty properties that surround the privately owned ones should help to maintain property values and allow owner occupiers to sell for a reasonable amount. It should also help to make the area feel less abandoned. Hopefully demolition will start before winter, but we’ll wait and see.
Despite everything that’s going on here these houses are nice little start up houses so hopefully we’ll get a little movement on the property market over the coming months.
Lilly
I am disappointed that attendance was so low at the meeting, apart from me and the council bods no other regulars showed, though it was half term so hopefully that contributed to it. But if membership doesn’t pick up over the next 12 months I can’t see me still attending, though I’ll keep in contact with LCC and Leeds Fed hopefully, you can’t have a community group that the community doesn’t support. Umm, so both good and disappointing - next meeting to be arranged sometime late July or early August so I’ll keep you posted.
I’ve been away for a couple of weeks visiting friends and family up and down the country and have returned to cleared out bin yards, hurrah! It’s amazing how something so simple can make such a huge difference to an area, it’s taken a good few months but Leeds City Council came through in the end. Hopefully the general levels of detritus blown around the street will decrease now too.
Also as the evenings are now lighter later my curtain twitching habit is surging again. It’s amazing how many little open backed vans trundle up and down our streets of an evening, peering into bin yards in the hope of a lovely abandoned fridge. With any luck the empty bin yards will stay that way and the trundling vans will fade away, rightly or wrongly I’ve assumed they’re scrap merchants looking for swag; sadly no rag and bone men any more. Though I am almost certain I heard one calling out last year, he had a horse and everything when I had a look.
We’re also about to send out our first newsletter to the local community. It’ll update people on the future plans for demolition and refurbishment of the remaining properties, we’re also hoping to engage with more residents and encourage more attendance at the meetings and involvement in the area in general.
My task over the next few months, as well as finishing off a fairly large University assignment, is looking into the possibility of getting some funding to have wildflowers planted on the ground left after demolition. LCC can fund basic grassing of the areas which would be great, but we need to raise funds if residents would prefer a more aesthetic solution. There are other benefits to more diverse flora in an urban area too, such as encouraging wildlife back to urban areas and creating Bee Roads and there are potential sources of funding such as Plan Bee that I will be investigating.
LCC and Leeds Fed have done all the work so far to be fair, I’ve just set up a gmail account and searched for a non beer related head and shoulder shot of me to add as Chair of the group. To say that I hate having my photo taken would be a huge understatement. I’m not the most photogenic person so it’s always a stressful experience looking at a picture of yourself and realising you don’t actually look like one of the cast of 90210 but as long as I don’t look like Ena Sharples I suppose it’s not too bad.
I’m also looking into a new community group meeting venue, our original venue has changed purpose (or got wise) so we can no longer use it and we have had to shift to a venue further away with no windows, so not overly conducive to comfortable discussion. I’ll wait to see what my enquiries bring.
Over the last month the sun has been shining which is very unusual for this time of year. Over the last two weeks in-between the sun shining the wind has also been blowing and the rain has been lashing down. Everything does looks better in the sun when it does shine and I suppose the rain has meant I haven’t had to water my tomato plants too much over the last 2 weeks.
My front yard is in a right state both my potted plants and the weeds are doing pretty well due to the aforementioned sun and rain. I’ve tackled the weeds with some nice chemicals and will try and tidy them up this weekend weather permitting; not one of nature’s gardeners me. I also need to paint my front door, a task I have no idea how to start or even complete. I mean do you have to remove the door, or can you just clean and sand it in situ and hope for the best? And do I need special outdoor paint? I think that might wait until later in the summer.
Apparently you can often tell the privately owned properties in predominantly social or council owned housing estates by the state of their front doors. Privately owned houses are often in a worse state cosmetically, I’d certainly attest to that.
So I’ve mucked about with the Blog a bit too so if anyone is interested you can follow by email by entering your details in the little box provided and hopefully this means that you don’t have to set up a Google account if you don’t want to, though you may be added to a sinister database somewhere that could try to sell you Viagra and kidney transplants at a later date.
And that’s all the factual stuff for now so from Ena and me, hope you enjoyed reading and have a pint of stout on us (well we’re not paying, just buy it yourself).
We’ve just had another Community Group Meeting. A pretty good turn out by our standards and some new faces which was good.
It’s always good to hear that you’re not the only one with a particular gripe, fly tipping rates highly for everyone and the need to get the bin yards cleared, which is reassuring.
I was personally very pleased to hear that there are plans to bring some of the houses back into use. I think Leeds Federated Housing are looking into this I had a note to raise this as an issue, but had absolutely no idea how it would be put into practice so I’m delighted that someone better qualified than me has already thought about it – good news for the Empty Homes agenda too.
There are plans for future demolitions which is a relief and even though things are not good for residents I felt like we were listened to and hopefully action will be taken. It’s gonna take time, but at least there’s progress.
Also looking into planting wildflowers on the cleared ground, but we’ll need to find funding to do this. And onto the next big news, to be able to apply for funding we need to become a formal group and that means setting up bank accounts and getting a resident Chairperson – which is me!! Gulp.
Hope I can do a good job.
Anyway more offensively swear ladened rants to follow
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
