Executive Board thinks about the West Park Centre

On Friday the Executive Board from Leeds Council met to discuss the West Park Report. A small deputation of West Park Refugees, who were either retired, part time, or not conducting a large group of adults at the West Park Church, went down to the Civic Hall.

taking down the curtains in the Main Hall

Five options were offered ranging from fully keeping the centre standing to full demolition, with a recommendation for two:  either partial or full demolition. The board wisely opined that
1. more information needed to come in before they could make a proper informed decision
2. that the decision had to be exactly the right one, yet speed was of the essence

for a change - it's City Square

3. that some ex-users need proper temporary accommodation as of yesterday
4. they needed to consult fully with the users before making any final decisions

They also acknowedged that most people consuted wanted the centre as it is - of course without any holes in the roof or the potential for electrocution.

The people who spoke were Cllrs Lewis, Golton, Yeadon and Wakefield.

A small group of us met with Cllr Lewis and Mr Farrington from Asset Management to discuss these decisions and the way forward. Firstly the West Park Campaign Group meets/met on Sunday to discuss how best to fully inform the decision-makers; then there's Scrutiny on Thursday 21st at 10am at the Civic Hall. Open to the public. Sorry if you are at work; but, hey teachers, what better way to spend a half-term morning. If you can't attend, you can send in a letter to the Council.

How the Friday YAM activities are manging without West Park

One of YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic's members is also a committee member for the West Park Church, and so the Friday morning group of adults with Learning Difficulties was up and running again without a break - absolutely essential for any group of people. 

Mavis West [who put Leeds on the national stage for its innovative provision of music education to children and adults with Addtional/Special Needs] wrote this report about how they were coping:

Report of YAM activities November –December 2012   -February 2013

We have been fortunate in being able to hire West Park United Reform Church for Friday morning YAM Activities. Yes it costs just under £400 but if we have 50 customers attending @£2.50 each we are breaking near enough even (can be up to 30 -40 support workers/volunteers) + catering costs. We still feel we can bring outside leaders in every so often.

The customers are fine –we had 3 major concerts in December –Town Hall, Mencap Fayre and Betty’s Factory in Harrogate. All very successful. Transport is still a problem with some centres –last Friday one Driver had it written down to collect from West Park Centre. On the whole we are coping –The space is more limited at the church – we shall be having to replan workshops and collect instruments from round the city –the social side is much more limited but again we are coping.

We are unable to open the planning of YAM Activities to our customers and volunteers –this was proving to be an exciting way of building the confidence of the customers and volunteers and limits us having the ability to extend the work which has already proved to be so successful.

The main concern is the lack of a centre for us to work from –Instruments are all over the city –we have no designated storage space and it looks as though we may have to pay for storage after Easter.

The plus side is that we have had no reduction in the numbers attending on Fridays

Mavis