The Strangeness of Scrutiny

Well, Diane and I [in our capacity as YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic committee members] went to the first Scrutiny meeting in August, and then a month later Lorraine [Musical Ark] and I attended the next one. We represented both our own charities and the orchestras and choruses etc.

Besides being teachers of music for children and adults with Additional [Special] Needs, the three of us are also academics [as in, we write books and articles, and I seem to write an awful lot of letters and blogs these days.]  and it was frustrating not to be able to counter some of the council officers' and the councillors' arguments.

What was strange was that we could give our five minutes' worth of speech, then we had to listen to councillors, and sometimes council officers debating the issues without giving us a chance to correct the incorrectness of some of the assumptions. We were thus, junior partners in the debate, yet as West Park users of sixteen years, we knew rather more about some parts of the situation than anyone else round the table.

On 17 September 2013, ten months after we were evicted from our home of many years, I thought that Scrutiny was going to examine the correctness of the procedures that led to our homelessness, and how we were rehoused, or not, in the ensuing months. But no, we were filibustered and sidetracked into a childish and facile account, certainly not a debate, of the value of the various health and safety reports, concluding that it was almost certain that someone would have been electrocuted had the centre not been closed when it was, and even that maybe it should have been closed sooner.

[Now, as a Russian graduate and sometime reader of Gogol, I had met this stuff in a previous life, and was rather surprised to be taking part in this little charade a century or so later.]

The word, "repairs" didn't feature at all in this debate.

There was hardly any time to consider what happened to the ex-users, because we treated to this rambling story of health and safety reports, with a total lack of academic rigour, and sometimes scant regard for the truth. [eg, someone, I can't recall whom, told the meeting that YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic had rejected the offer of storage space at the warehouse at Domestic Street, preferring to store instruments in their own houses. Actually, YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic did store equipment at this depot, but not being given our key for it till June 2013, and it being next to the Armley Gyratory it was/it is not an easy place to use. Anything being used on a regular basis did have to live in volunteers' homes. And I have to say that the novelty does wear off.

The worst thing about the marimbas is that you can't stack anything on top of them; whereas steelpans can be quite neatly set up behind the sofa.

Some things that the Leeds Council Executive Board Should Know

Dear Executive Board

cc YEP, Radio Leeds, Look North

 

 

We have read the documents that precede this final piece of advice from Corporate Services/ Asset Management. We were pleased to see most of arguments acknowledged, but surprised that the natural conclusion was lost in their recommendation. Our argument, at the West Park campaign Group is not with the council, but with the unelected officials who recommend demolition.

If you vote for this . . . 

 

You know that all Leeds top orchestras and choruses won't be able to practise sectionals, and that the high quality of their music will be compromised. You know that the leader of Leeds Symphony Orchestra personally checked out over 35 alternatives venues, and found nowhere else suitable.

 

You know that, at the last big YAMSEN event, teenagers in wheelchairs had to have their hygiene pads changed [behind screens] in the bar area at St Chads - where's the dignity in that?

 

You know that storage and parking and location are not equalled anywhere else in Leeds.

 

You should know that Leeds Youth Opera, having nowhere anymore to store their wonderful costumes has given them away.

 

You know that YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic still has no base. 

You may know that two of the YAMSEN committee [myself and D Paterson] have been awarded the fellowship of the Royal Society of the Arts for our contribution to education, and especially education for children with disabilities or with challenging behaviour, and/or live in challenging circumstances. Which I hope informs you as to the high standards and quality of our work.

 

You should know that our meetings with councillors were brief to the point of pointless.

 

You know that none of people making this life or death decision has come to watch the orchestras practise in the "temporary" rehearsal spaces, or to watch the adults with disabilities take part in  their workshops in the West Park Church.

 

You probably only know how bad the West Park electrics are and how expensive to run decent performance and rehearsal spaces are.

 

Corporate Services seem to see a carpark that fits a whole fleet of SEN adapted minibuses or 100 orchestral players as some sort of thwarted housing estate.

 

You know that both keeping the building empty [and the same for Royal Park] and demolition cost money.

 

You know that most ex-users would like to return, and new-users wait in the wings.

 

You should know that those who recommend demolition seem to have no understanding of the needs of the Arts, and for the Arts, and of the Arts for those with Additional Needs. 

And you should know that all local councillors understand the value of the West Park Centre, and have publicly supported its continued existence. 

Lastly, you should know that there may well be many displaced council employees who are unhappy with the situation but, who, because they are council employees cannot comment.  

It is time that the decision-makers met fully with the ex-users, properly debated all the options, and got the main hall etc up and running again as soon as possible, having thoroughly replaced all the electrics.  And I hope that tomorrow the executive board throws out this bizarre response to a massive need for the West Park Centre to re-open.

 

Victoria Jaquiss FRSA [YAMSEN Committee member -vice chair]

Hmmm. A letter in Not in Favour of the West park Centre

Well, in the interests of presenting the other view I hereby present Cllr Lewis's letter to YEP re the West Park Centre.  However, as this blog is dedicated at present to the West Park Centre Campaign Group, I also include my reply.

Partly I think Cllr Lewis is being disingenuous; partly I think that on November 2nd, he acted as he did, genuinely believing that, on that day suddenly West Park was found to be dangerous. He was not to know that earlier inspections of the West Park Centre had already found the electrics in need of "modernisation".

He was not to know that just about all the Leeds main orchestras, choirs and opera groups were based there; he was not to know that the Leeds main Special Needs music organisations were based there [and that one of them was both nationally acclaimed and internationally acknowledged], and that they stayed there because rehearsal and storage space, location and  parking were as good as it could get.

Obviously the building, that he describes pejoratively as a "fifties school building" is not exactly an architectural treasure, but so what? If it works, don't knock it. Definitely don't knock it down. Eight months later Leeds Symphony Orchestra, Leeds Festival Chorus, Phoenix Concert Band, Leeds Youth Opera, YAMSEN:Specially Music, Musical Ark and the rest are still homeless, hiring rooms by the hour in various venues across our city, but not in places that they can call home, not sharing equipment and storage space as they once did.

But Cllr Lewis does know that now, and now he should know better. In his letter he suggests that he would make " far more sense to find suitable solutions for those users elsewhere in the city, given that these groups are city-wide in their membership". But, eight months later and it is rather more than a "handful of groups" who are unhappy with their present accommodation. YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic, one of the biggest groups has not been rehoused at all!

I am glad that he finally acknowledges that the West Park Centre housed so many prestigious city-wide groups, and that it isn't just a local community centre only tendering to the needs of its very local community. But I fail to understand why Leeds, the big northern city does not appear to appreciate their value.

All the groups did indeed pay "peppercorn rents" to rehearse at West Park, and all of them have declared that they would have been prepared to pay more for the great convenience. I turn on Classic:FM and hear that West Riding Chorus is doing Opera in the Park with Opera North. I go down to the Carriageworks last night and watch a Carmen that was unbelievably beautiful, and I would like to be proud of Leeds, but I know that these organisations are storing costumes in parents' garages; I know that the orchestras can't practise sectionals.

I wonder how long they can all "manage", how long it will be before Leeds is the cultural laughing stock, when all we have become is a one massive shopping centre and an arena that caters only to the big celebrities.

Letter: Refurbishing centre would cost millions                                                             

Published on the 02 July
2013
11:24

 

I always enjoy the knockabout of your letters page, but I do wish some of your correspondents would rely on the occasional fact to back up their opinions.

No one is proposing, for instance (Andrew Mitchell, YEP, June 19) to demolish the West Park Centre ‘because it needs rewiring’. I agreed the closure with immediate effect on the technical advice that the electrics presented a danger to users. What if I’d ignored that advice and something had happened at the centre, perhaps injury or even death?
The council would rightly be held accountable and council tax payers would be facing a huge bill – perhaps millions – in compensation.
The decision that now has to be made by the Executive Board is whether it spends millions on the refurbishment of a fifties school building which requires work to all its elements in order to accommodate a handful of groups which are unhappy with the accommodation they moved into when West Park closed.
I think most council taxpayers would not see that kind of expenditure as good value for money. It would make far more sense to find suitable solutions for those users elsewhere in the city, given that these groups are city-wide in their membership – and that’s what the council has been doing.
On the subject of value for money, I’d also bring to your readers’ attention the fact that the running costs of the West Park Centre are well over £300,000 per annum.
When your correspondent Ms Warwick describes it as a building that can accommodate organisations ‘at peppercorn rent’, I’d say that council tax payers have had to pick up the bill for that peppercorn.

Coun Richard Lewis, executive board member with responsibility for city development

West Park petition reactivated

In view of the removal of the West Park Centre from the agenda of the last Council Executive Board meeting, the Petition Controllers have agreed to reactivate our petition.

Please click and sign:

http://democracy.leeds.gov.uk/mgEPetitionDisplay.aspx?id=38

 

Here's some pics of Colin Jones and Diane Paterson, on 11th November 2008 cutting the ribbon to announce the arrival from Java of the new gamelan, several thousand pounds in the donation, two years in the ordering, making and shipping, and now residing, all boxed up in a room at Farnley Park, who didn't realise that the cupboard that would house a gamelan was actually the size of a small room.

It would be nice to open the boxes again.

 

 
 
 
 

 

The Blah Blah Blahs say Yeah

great carpark

Hi [YAMSEN]

Just to say hello and tell you that I have signed the petition. It was terrible how we all got evacuated from the building and at the Blahs we are still feeling the repercussions from that experience. The work you do is fantastic and I always admired the way you organized the day events in the hall which showed how many skills you have in participation, design, storytelling and of course music. Whatever the outcome of West Park, you deserve a new home where your fantastic work can continue.

getting out

 Best wishes,

Anthony

Anthony Haddon
Artistic Director
Theatre Co Blah Blah Blah

Adults have Special Additional Needs as well, you know

Mavis has written to the leader of the council - again:

To Councillor Keith Wakefield

Leader of Leeds City Council.

Dear Councillor Wakefield

I am writing as Vice President of YAMSEN and as coordinator of YAM (YAMSEN Adult Music) Activities hoping that you are aware how vital decisions that you are to make in the Council meeting this week are to our Association.

 We are a voluntary Charity working with youngsters and adults to promote opportunities for our Special People to develop confidence, competence and experience new ideas through Music and the Arts.

Each Friday morning we have over 60 people with Learning  Disabilities   plus approx. 40 support workers and volunteers attending our Workshops and Choir rehearsals.

We are using West Park United Reform Church and completely fill the church –there is no room for visitors or friends who want to come and share the work and we are limited to which activities we can offer because our equipment is spread all over the city.

We really are desperate to have the storage space and access to a large room under one roof so that our special people have the opportunity to continue with their music making and confidence  and competence. They find it very difficult to understand why we are not able to be planning to move back to a building which has become home to them and frankly YAMSEN members feel very much the same way. We are a dedicated team who want to be allowed to continue the work which the City of Leeds have recognised time and time again over the years.

MW

It's all in the Detail: The West Park Centre Report

Recently Cllr Lewis has been meeting with ex-users to see how they are fixed. Or not, actually. Trouble is that the report is inaccurate, and the Council are having to make decisions without being properly informed.

We have considering the report in details. There are some inaccuracies. I thought it would be helpful to identify them.

"Are there implications for equality and diversity and cohesion and integration?" Here the box marked NO is ticked. This is wrong.

Point 3. "Since the departure of Northern ballet and Opera North to new premises approximately 40% of the building has been unoccupied . ." we have lots of issues with this a statement of fact.

Until we were asked to mothball some rooms to save money and to lose money (to save on paying rates and lose out on offered income), all rooms were in use at some point, often until 10pm at night.
Would-be hirers were turned away, until the demand got so strong that we sometimes just had to open the door of the room and put people in it, sometimes even whole orchestras. See below.

Concert after a day's workshop in the West Park Gym 21 October 2012

We may owe some rates here.


Now the word 40% has very strong overtones. It makes the West Park Centre appear to have been almost half empty! And here it is written in the report on the first page in numbers which stand out against a sea of letters.

Next

On page 2 Recommendations i. "officers further develop Options 2 and 5 in consultation with potential users ."

I was there when Cllr Wakefield said they could not start to discuss the report properly until councillors had met with the West Park Campaign Group. During this council meeting at no point did anyone confine themselves to Options 2 and 5. This is just a recommendation from the council officer.

Next

On page 3 , "The majority of regular use is from organisations who do not use the building for its location in the particular locality and could therefore relocate to another area of the city."

Well, yes, it has attracted organisations from around and even well outside Leeds, drawn to it for its excellent facilities, layout and its convenient situation just off the Leeds ring road. But, more, more than that, they come for the ambience and for the synergy and the syncronicity that is sharing a building with users of both a similar and a dissimilar disposition.
            eg. On The days when I rehearsed with my steelbands I would come in to the sounds of brass and percussion and go out past the ballroom dancers, and it would lift my heart to see the waltz and the quickstep still in action. Last year some of my very inner-city boys came to rehearse at the Centre for the for the first time, and I found them standing staring at a sectional string practice. Giggling and pointing, in awe and amused.

So I would say, no they can't just "relocate"

2.7 "The building does have high running costs (approx £350k a year). Due to. . .inefficient design . . Income approx £45k pa offsets some of this expenditure. "

Now, the perfect and inclusive Arts, Sports and General Culture Centre would consist of a building with one or two storeys with performance spaces at the end of 3 or 4 spurs, so that sounds wouldn't bleed into each other. Safe, fenced-off grassy areas for playtimes, and fields adjacent for outdoor sports. A large carpark for the minibuses with disabled access. Gyms with sprung floors and mirrors so they can do sports and dance. Many large storerooms essentially opposite the carpark for easy loading. Easy to find coming from all parts of Leeds just off the Otley Road], and from all other towns in the north [just off the ringroad].

Musicians could get into other cultural activities and sportspeople could check out the instruments they would like to try etc etc etc etc. Foxtrot anyone?

The reason that income was so low is that some groups paid nothing or next to nothing. Costed up properly you would see that the Council was correctly spending money where the mouth is - on the young people and on the disabled and those with additional needs. Not as money as such, but in the form of a building which specially adapted itself over time.

Next

Page 9 "ArtForms service delivery from City of Leeds has been successful to date and the music service would like to continue delivering from the school. . . YAMSEN . . . their temporary solution does not meet their long term needs."

Well, the ArtForms admin team is working from a previously mothballed floor in Merrion House; the City of Leeds Youth Music Bands and Orchestras rehearse at City of Leeds School or at Sacred Heart PS, and the instrument stock is in a warehouse at Domestic Street. It is not for me to comment here as to how this might constitute "successful", but I am guessing not ideal.

YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic however has no solution, temporary or otherwise. Its instruments, its specialised equipment designed for the needs of its children and adults with Additional/Special Needs lie, unaccessed at various locations around Leeds, the team has to book and pay full rate for rooms where it can find them;  the  Friday YAM adult sessions are just about surviving at the West Park Church in Spen Lane; the Christmas Singalong was cancelled [for the first time in decades]; the Big Town Hall Concert went ahead with some difficulty. Music therapy sessions are at Heart in Headingley.

                         to be continued . . . .

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