West Park Centre
Time marches on and it is now half a year since West Park Centre
was ‘temporarily’ closed overnight – with no warning to the many organisations
and groups using the premises.
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| another Greggs' donation to YAMSEN:SM |
West Park Centre has been the heart of Yorkshire Association for
Music and Special Educational Needs (YAMSEN) for the past 16 years. Children and adults arrived there for
all the regular specialised activities, educational and social, and came to
depend on the Centre’s friendly and supportive atmosphere, where they were made
to feel welcome, accepted and at ease.
As a
charity, so many of our Special Needs activities rely heavily on our local team
of invaluable volunteers, without whose willing support our many music
activities could not be run. Most
of our volunteers and ‘customers’ would not be able to travel to other areas of
the city so easily. West Park Centre is ideally located, being close to the Ring Road and with ample
parking facilities. It is
convenient for the mini-buses transporting our groups.
100% of our
YAMSEN of our musical instruments, equipment and materials were hastily
‘temporarily’ relocated in early November 2012 to different storage facilities
where they cannot be readily accessed, limiting the scope and range of our ‘temporarily’
re-located activities.
As the
grandparent of a boy with Autistic Spectrum Disorder I’m very aware of the
adverse effect of the sudden and unexpected disruption to a settled and
accepted routine. Fortunately, my grandson lives in Newcastle where the
facilities for such children are excellent – there the Tim Lamb Centre at the
Rising Sun Park is run by volunteers. Certainly the ‘closure’ of West Park
Centre caused considerable distress to several members of ‘Off by Heart’, our
choir for adults with special needs, which had practised fortnightly there for
the past 14 years.
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| yes, it's a music library, nowhere useful now |
One would
like to believe that most Councils make sensible decisions. However in such a
case of the West Park Centre, the Leeds Council are failing the people of
Leeds. It is people not buildings that matter. If ever the Council set out to
provide a Centre such as the one at West Park, they would be hard-pressed to
choose anywhere else in Leeds where 2000/3000 people would be able to attend
each week. The majority of 2000/3000 adults and children using the Centre
appreciate its internal layout and would want the current building made safe
and watertight – not new, modern and expensive.
Please spend
tax payers’ money wisely, as if that money were your own.
