Leeds to be Cultural Capital?

Thanks to Yorkshire Evening Post for printing my letter [20 December 2013]:

I see that Leeds is planning to to bid to be cultural capital (YEP 5 Dec). I am looking at the things that Leeds has been losing, and I am wondering exactly what it still has to offer.

The article mentions the West Indian Carnival, Henry Moore Institute and Opera North HQ. but this town, my adopted home town, seems to be a sorry state. For a start, the skyline from the motorway is a guastly mash-up of toy town designs, including the infamous Bridgewater. Beautiful Victorian buildings, like Royal Park are demolished; hideous PFI schools proliferate; Leeds has become a centre of shopping centres.



East Steel at YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic Town Hall Concert

But I would most certainly support this bid, with a few provisos: that the culture should include us all. For a start I would give the orchestras, choruses and special needs music charities their homes back, either at the West Park Centre, or on its present site, or somewhere equally suitable. The YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic Christmas Concert, playing its 30th concert last week at the Town Hall, is certainly a cultural asset to be celebrated.

For a second I would examine Leeds West Indian Carnival a bit more closely. The only live band in the procession is its own steel band. No other live acts - samba bands, djembes, or marching  bands from any other cultures get a look in, and my own steelbands (Foxwood, Sparrows etc) were banned three years ago, on the grounds that a live band might provoke a riot! Leeds Silver Sparrows played London Southbank two years ago to celebrate the Festival of Britain. Foxwood wowed Wonderland this weekend on Briggate. Alas they were not considered worthy to pay their own home town carnival!

Foxwood Steel at Leeds Waterfront Festival 2013

In other cities, Liverpool and Cardiff for example, they have reconsidered what Carnival means to their cities, and reinvented them, bringing in acts from more recent immigrants to reflect their cultural diversity. Huddersfield, for example has renamed its carnival "Huddersfield Carnival" and is setting about becoming more inclusive, without losing its West Indian roots. 

So, by all means apply to be the centre of culture, but first let's have a good inwards look at ourselves.


Sparrows play Festival of Britain at London Southbank July 2011

Victoria Jaquiss FRSA

West Park Centre, one year later

This proposed demolition of West Park Centre and the continued homelessness of Leeds top amateur orchestras and chorus, and Special Needs music charities, if nothing else, could damage Leeds and Leeds Council's reputation as a thriving city. After all it's not just about commerce and shopping.

They have exaggerated the state of the building out of all proportion, and it remains the best sized and best placed building with the most facilities.









That it is the only arts centre of its kind in Leeds, and being inclusive [from top quality players to cutting edge special needs music education] makes the hostility of the powers-that-be
baffling. 

We have put in our complaint to the Ombudsman, and are daily expecting their judgment. However, it took the Council less time to condemn the building, than the Ombudsman has taken to respond. Looks like the latter has put some thought into it, whereas . . . Well, we hope that it's worth the wait.

Or perhaps it is all about the shopping. 

 

Thanks to Jonathon Brown for this article on Tuesday 3 September 2013

Axe blow that left Leeds centre’s charities reeling in shock

The West Park Centre.

03 September 2013

Nine months after the dramatic closure of a hub for arts groups and charities in north west Leeds, the search for answers continues as the aftershocks of its loss are felt. Jonathan Brown reports.

As demolition looms over a once buzzing centre for the arts, questions still remain over the controversial closure of the West Park Centre.
After it closed as West Park County Secondary School in 1989, the building became an unorthodox but fitting home to dozens of Leeds’s most creative and artistic groups and charities.
Thousands of the city’s most talented groups have roots there and it provided a base for the likes of Opera North and the Northern Ballet.
Years of rumours of impending closure and numerous campaigns had kept it open until it was hastily closed in November because of electrical problems.
Yet, the following day, a party attended by the then Lord Mayor of Leeds, Coun Ann Castle, was held at the site.
The swift closure, which was carried out within 24 hours of officers being alerted to the building’s safety, left several arts groups and charities effectively homeless.
Nine months on, the Yorkshire Association for Music and Special Educational Needs (YAMSEN) is just one of a group of organisations without a place to call home and deliver services.
Diane Paterson, secretary of YAMSEN, a charity that supports music groups for disabled adults and children, said: “It’s been devastating.
“We won’t let things stop, we have carried on as that’s the nature of the group of people we have here.
“When somebody does that to you and pulls the plug on you – you can’t plan for that.
“None of the charities are the sort of people that will be put off by this, they are just working ten times as hard and getting more stressed.”
Its thousands of users come from all over the region to use the 34-year-old charity’s specialist equipment – much of which is now inaccessible and based in storage units and schools across the city.
YAMSEN spent thousands of pounds of grant money on an Indonesian gamelan instrument, which was handmade in Java, to help with sensory sessions in 2008, while they installed an advanced sound and light room at the West Park Centre. Both have ended up dismantled in storage as a result of the closure.
Victoria Jaquiss, vice chair at YAMSEN, said: “I think it makes Leeds look stupid, we have a big new arena so we are catering for the top end but we do not cater for the people that have given their evenings away for free.”
Elsewhere Fiona Kirkby, choir coordinator at the celebrated 150-piece Leeds Festival Chorus, says the group was left homeless three weeks before it was due to perform in the council-organised Leeds International Concert Season.
Now based at St Chad’s Parish Church, in Headingley, the choir is having to cope without the space it needs.
Fiona, who has worked with the choir for 30 years, said: “We are resourceful people so we will try and keep on going but we are facing uncertain times.”
Groups based at the centre were initially told it would close temporarily for four months, while the associated costs and work to bring it back into use were assessed.
In January councillors were told that emergency work on the West Park Centre’s electrical and hot and cold water systems, would cost more than £930,000.
Lorraine Cowburn is a musician and project manager with the Musical Arc charity, which was moved to Meanwood Community Centre within four days of the West Park Centre’s closure.
Following the outcry surrounding its closure, the circumstances and processes behind it will be discussed by the council’s sustainable economy and culture scrutiny board on September 17.
Lorraine, who plans to attend the meeting, said: “It’s like rehousing a family in different houses, it doesn’t work and that community of people that formed the West Park Centre happened by accident over the years. It ended up being an arts centre and that’s what’s been lost.”
The council’s executive board agreed to demolish the centre in July, having agreed to release £800,000 from the sale of the land to build a new community centre or invest in existing buildings to aid some of the centre’s former users if needed.
No date for the West Park Centre’s demolition has yet been set.
It is thought the land is worth around £2m and it is suggested it could be developed for housing or a free school, though further assurances are being sought over the council’s plans to continue to help former users.
Leeds North West MP Greg Mulholland said: “The West Park Centre has been a popular and vital cultural and community hub for many years and it is simply not acceptable that this important role comes to an end, especially when there simply are not adequate replacement facilities for the organisations who used the centre or the local community.”
Coun Judith Chapman (Lib Dem, Weetwood) described the closure of the centre as the “end of an era”. She said: “It’s putting a bit of strain on all the area’s other venues.
“People have lost this facility which is a terrible shame and also it was used for community purposes as well and that has gone.”
Various charities and organisations formerly based at the centre are working from home, halls, community centres and scout huts.
A council spokeswoman said: “We have already ensured that the great majority of groups have been re-located to other locations and we will be working with any other groups that used the centre to help them find new permanent locations.”
The spokeswoman added: “A great deal of work has taken place since the West Park Centre was closed in November to determine the best option for the site and the centre. We have listened to a wide range of views and considered all possible options.”

Shambles that will now see centre shut its doors for good

YEP Says (August 7): Shambles that will now see centre shut its doors for good

l

 

Published 07/08/2013 10:16

 

 

 

Those connected with the West Park Centre have every right to feel aggrieved by the manner of its passing.

The outcome they have feared since its sudden closure last November has now been confirmed with the council’s executive board rejecting calls for the decision to be subjected to further scrutiny.
It means the community centre, one of the busiest in Leeds, will now be demolished. The official reason is that the cost of carrying out necessary repairs had become too costly.
Campaigners, however, point to the fact that the site was listed as one of several to be sold off for housing by the council as far back as 2009.
It was subsequently taken off that list, but users say that Education Leeds’s gradual withdrawal of classes from the building created a financial problem from which it has never recovered.
Though the council insists that the decision to bulldoze the West Park Centre was simply down to the unaffordable cost of maintenance, others remain unconvinced.
While £800,000 from the sale of the land has been promised as a contribution to building a replacement, some may think campaigners are entitled to be cynical about how the centre’s fate was sealed.
It is certainly hard to disagree with Weetwood councillor Judith Chapman when she says the council’s handling of this saga has been “utterly shambolic”.

  Thanks to Laura Bowyer of the Yorkshire Evening Post for this article in August.

     

 

‘Controversial’ centre set for wrecking ball

West Park Centre, Leeds

Published 07/08/2013 06:01

CAMPAIGNERS HAVE failed to save a community centre dubbed “the jewel in Leeds’ crown” from the wrecking ball.

Members of Leeds City Council’s executive board agreed to demolish the West Park Centre last month.
They agreed to release £800,000 from the sale of the land to build a new community facility or invest in existing buildings.
Campaigners called for the decision to be scrutinised by the council’s sustainable economy and culture scrutiny board.
Despite hearing from residents and councillors opposing demolition, the panel agreed to release the decision - meaning the building will be demolished.
Councillor Judith Chapman (Lib Dem, Weetwood) said following the meeting: “I’m deeply disappointed that despite the impassioned pleased of residents and West Park Centre users, board members agreed to proceed with demolition.
“The council’s handling of this whole sorry saga has been utterly shambolic from the start.”
The centre’s closure hit the headlines last year after it was closed in November because of ‘hazardous’ electrics.
Yet, the following day, a party attended by the then Lord Mayor of Leeds, councillor Ann Castle, was held at the site.
Campaigner Victoria Jaquiss said it was “a jewel in Leeds’ crown” and it had been home to various groups including YAMSEN, a charity that supports music groups for disabled adults and children.
Martin Farrington, director of development, said: “Members of the executive board determined they wouldn’t support the level of investment required to bring the building back into use.
“We acknowledge West Park Centre is a very valued facility.”
A inquiry will be held in November examining the decision to demolish the centre.

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]

YEP Letter: No long-term home for groups after West Park Centre shut

Letter: No long-term home for groups after West Park Centre shut

Published on the 08 July
2013
08:18

 

It is close to the North Leeds Ring Road – accessible from all parts of Leeds – with a large off-street car park, ample storage space provided for equipment, with groups of willing local volunteers keen to help run regular on-site music/arts activities and special musical events.

Where is this? Why the West Park Centre, Spen Lane, of course.
Such a valuable resource for the wide range of educational/recreational groups based there, which totalled a footfall of 2,000 per week until, eight months ago when it was suddenly ‘temporarily’ closed with one day’s notice to all its users.
Since November 2 some groups, hitherto accommodated in West Park Centre, have not been satisfactorily ‘re-homed’ – certainly NOT on a long-term basis. Temporary venues are unable to provide adequate storage space for instruments/equipment and have limited parking space nearby.
Those of us connected with West Park Centre remember it as a place of true inclusion and integration; young with old, special needs with mainstream, sharing a love of their centre’s ‘music community’ and socialising, networking and relaxing in the café there.
Ann Gilliam, YAMSEN/LTNA

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 West Park Centre in The YEP again: Centred Valued Near and Far

Letter: Centre valued near and far

Published on the 24 June
2013
13:48

Published 24/06/2013 13:48

                                                    

Regarding West Park Centre. When Corporate Services/Asset Management [and the very name does not suggest public accountability] decides to ignore public need and public opinion, I ask myself who is running this city – a couple of back room boys and girls, or our elected representatives?

And this is the question I put at the Local Council Area Committee at the Cardigan Centre last December, as one councillor after another spoke in the West Park Centre’s defence.
Each councillor spoke in favour of retention, repair and re-opening.
Each one got it; they got that the charities that are our top orchestras and choruses and top Special Needs music organisations are rather more than nice little extras added to the riches of the Leeds cultural scene.
The West Park Centre is not a local community centre, although many of its much valued volunteers were/are local.
It is an inclusive arts centre; it is a city-wide, and at times Yorkshire-wide, and it is situated very conveniently close to Leeds ring road within the safe spitting distance of a parade of shops who open from early morning till late at night.
Recently one organisation [YAMSEN: SpeciallyMusic] has become rather more than Yorkshire wide.
In May a group of five masters degree students of Music education in Seoul National University in Korea emailed to request a meeting with us, and especially “ hoping to see multi sensory classroom, Rehearsal Room, studio and the Main Hall.” They wrote they are “trying to adapt UK’s education system of SEN and learning strategy of ArtForms & YAMSEN to Korean special music ed [ucation]”
So, if the Executive Board decides on Wednesday to accept the recommendations of a small group of unelected officials, whose job it is to manage assets, and who has failed dismally, over the space of seven months, to place satisfactorily several massive users of the centre, it won’t be just the people of Leeds that they let down.
Victoria Jaquiss FRSA

West Park in the Paper Again

On Wednesday 19 June there were two letters in the Yorkshire Evening Post:

Letter: Groups are left to pay price of centre closure

Published on the 19 June
2013
12:00

Published 19/06/2013 12:00

 

‘The Forgotten Ones’, ‘The Homeless Ones’, ‘The Faceless Ones”’.

All of these can apply to YAMSEN and all its members since Leeds City Council at a stroke, without thought for the “users”, on Friday November 2 2012 announced the immediate closure of West Park Centre.
This was supposedly a ‘temporary’ measure because the ‘electrics were unsafe’.
Seven months later we at YAMSEN are still homeless even though the cost for repairs to the electrics is, I understand, well within the capability of the council’s budget irrespective of Government cuts.
The longer the centre remains empty the greater the risk of vandalism and the possibility of further costs.
What does this closure mean to us?
Remember that we provide a large and varied amount of experience in music and associated activity to many hundreds of children and adults with moderate and profound learning disabilities throughout Leeds and Yorkshire.
We have a large amount of specialised and valuable equipment and instruments scattered (for safe keeping) in a lock-up in Holbeck, various schools and private houses – all most inconvenient.
In spite of this, like the true professionals we are, our excellent work continues.
Neither have we allowed our annual programme of events to be affected (and these are many) nor our weekly classes, choir rehearsals and workshops.
We have achieved this through hiring rooms attached to different churches and a social club – at considerable expense.
Why?
Because we believe in our aims and we speak for all those many hundreds we serve who cannot speak for themselves.
All we ask is for West Park Centre to re-open both for YAMSEN and the many other community groups who, like us, have made it their home for very many years.
Name and address supplied

and

Letter: Seven months... and no repairs

Published on the 19 June
2013
12:20

Published 19/06/2013 12:20

SEVEN months of ‘temporary’ closure and as yet no repairs have been carried out on West Park Centre.

So much undervalued work, benefiting vulnerable children and adults with Special Needs is/was carried out there, in what had become, over the years, a valuable arts and music resource for people throughout Leeds and beyond, shared by many varied groups.
One of the main users, the Yorkshire Association for Music and Special Educational Needs exists – and is run mainly because of the regular and committed help of a large group of volunteers.
At the moment most of our activities are reduced due to lack of suitable alternative premises. In the case of YAMSEN, the lack of storage space for musical instruments, materials AND a Sensory Room has adversely affected the scope of activities we are able to offer.
We eagerly await news that at least a part of the centre will be renovated so that the building can be ‘reconnected’ to the people of Leeds.
A Gilliam, (YAMSEN committee member)

Council Should re-open West Park Centre, not Demolish it

Letter: Council should reopen West Park Centre, not demolish it

Published on the 18 June
2013
13:52

Published 18/06/2013 13:52

1 comments

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On Wednesday, Leeds City Council’s Executive Board will consider a recommendation that the West Park Centre is demolished.

In November 2012, this extremely popular and well-used building was unilaterally closed by the council’s Asset Management team – without warning, and without consultation.
There was no suggestion that it was surplus to requirements – even their scandalously one-sided ‘options appraisal’ (a disingenuous, misleading piece of work that does those who concocted it no credit whatsoever) acknowledges this.
Whilst there are no serious plans to replace West Park, it should be treated as a going concern.
Meanwhile, the closure continues to cause disruption and devastation to some of the most vulnerable people in the city.
It has been suggested that the building’s many users could simply be rehoused elsewhere.
If this is the case – show me the building that would provide perfect rehearsal, performance, office and storage space for the schools’ music service (a service, incidentally, that is one of the jewels in Leeds’s crown, judged outstanding by the Federation of Music Services – how much of that could be attributed to the excellent facilities it has long enjoyed at West Park?).
A building that can accommodate, at a peppercorn rent, organisations like Irish Arts, Blah Blah Blah, Paperbirds, Leeds Youth Opera – all of which contribute immeasurably to the cultural life of the city; and charities like YAMSEN and Musical Arc that provide a unique service to vulnerable children and adults.
A building with two huge gymnasia available to a huge range of sports and fitness groups, as well as being the home of the schools’ PE and Sports team.
We have that building – it’s called West Park.
The council should take note of the overwhelming tide of opinion, and make the right decision – to reopen West Park as soon as possible.
M Warwick, LS16

In Yorkshire Evening Post today

Deputation to Council

What’s the Point of the West Park Centre?

An Unintended City-wide Arts Centre

My Lord Mayor and Fellow Councillors

Even though you are not discussing it today, I would to thank you for giving me the opportunity to present the case for getting the West Park Centre up and running again as soon as possible. I am speaking only on behalf of the charities and community groups.

I’d like to make 5 points:

1. On November 5^th 2012 100 or so of us turned up as usual for work there only to be called into an extra-ordinary meeting.  Here, in the main hall we were told that the Centre’s electrics had been condemned, and we were to pack enough equipment to last 2 months, and leave. The Council groups were immediately given a previously mothballed room in Merrion House.

Then we were asked to pack everything ; pack 20 years worth of bags, filing cabinets, gamelan, resonance boards, cupboardfuls of costumes, and we were given 3 days to do it in. Then we got 3 weeks.

And we were 30 plus displaced organisations amounting to 2000 or so regular users, including of course all the council services and then all the charities, who had bumped along in harmony with each other for decades, and now, who hardly or never meet at all.

It’s fair to say that we were taken aback the manner of the “temporary closure” – One minute the electrics needed fixing; the next minute there was a consultation on the building’s future. Not only were we asked to leave with nowhere, or nowhere suitable to go, but six months later we are still operating from our garages and spare rooms.

2.Numbers and types of people affected, We feel that the numbers of users, and how much the centre was in demand was under-estimated. The last report talks about underuse, not so. The place was buzzing from morning till late evening. What was lovely about West Park, and what made it so special was the combinations of arts and sports, education and leisure, adults and children, disabled and able-bodied. Groups included the Travellers Education Service, children and adults with Special/Additional Needs, unions, self-help groups eg gamblers etc anonymous.  And all day Sunday, every Sunday the Church filled it. Many groups of vulnerable people, And all surrounding the wonderful foyer for all the serependitious meetings.

3.The practical building design – At the end of three spurs,, and in the middle - four good performance spaces [the former gyms, the Rehearsal Room, studio and the Main Hall] the main hall’s acoustics are good, in fact they were recently improved. Many, many toilets, including disabled adapted. YAMSEN:SpeciallyMusic and ArtForms Music Service installed multi sensory classroom. [result of ten years planning taken down in a morning] Exceptional and absolutely vital storage – PE equipment, the orchestra’s shared instruments, the Opera’s costume cupboards. Carpark to fit a 100 piece orchestra or a fleet of minibuses for the disabled, with disabled access.

4.West Park serves as a base for city-wide and regional work, a happy accident, but its geography, near Leeds ringroad, on best bus routes [1, 56, 96], Players come from as far away as Scarborough for the orchestras, and from Sheffield for YAMSEN. Has open aspect surrounded by open spaces and playing fields, gives an extra feeling of security, convenient for shops.

5.West Park the Accidental Inclusive Arts Centre didn’t start as a plan. It just grew.– 25 years plus in the making, groups developing links. The Music Service and the Music charities worked together; Northern ballet sent 2 dancers to the YAMSEN singalong; Orchestras shared timpani;  Etc.

The council petition that we ran collected over 500 signatures in the 2 weeks that it was live. There are organisations still unplaced or not satisfactorily placed. There are children and adults with Special Needs who are missing their regular rehearsals; there are orchestras missing the hall, the space, the storage – all the reasons they chose West Park in the first place.

Victoria and Mavis waiting to be called into the Council Chamber

I am here on behalf all the groups, and on behalf of people who can’t speak for themselves. We need the £170,000 or whatever it takes spending on the electrics, and we need to get back into the building, which, until this year, never suffered from the regular petty vandalism that is beginning to appear.

The important thing is for the basic repairs to be done in order to enable us to get back into the West Park Centre, and then we can start to plan for the future and then have the debate whether to be a CIC, or remain inside the council.

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

The Irreplaceable West Park Centre.

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.

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.

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.

Anne Gilliam 

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

The Benefits of a Vibrant, Culturally Rich City

Checking through the minutes of the actual council meeting which presented the West Park Centre Options Appraisal I find that the court, I mean the council, did indeed agree with (or rather say yes to] the Report's recommendation to consider two options: partial demolition or total annihilation. So Corporate Property Management (the very name conjures up the antithesis of West Park has been about!) writes up five notional options then dismisses three of them, without debate. Eh! How does that work?

In the situation we find ourselves in i.e. with a thriving council arts centre specialising in

1. music for children and adults with special/additional needs and including [rather a nice role reversal]main stream learners, and with the toilets, hygiene suites, disabled minibus parking and access

2. housing a music service [office, rehearsal and performance areas and storage], and

3. housing four of Leeds main classical ensembles [orchestras, opera and choruses and storage and parking]

in a building needing a makeover (and especially its shoddy electrics putting right), having endured  a "temporary closure", but where finances may be an issue, there should be three simple options:


1. Destroy everything (in the name of health and safety)
2. Keep some of it (in the name of compromise and money saving)
3. Refurbish the lot (after listening to reason)

Now I have not here even touched upon the 30-odd other regular [part-time and full] users of the centre]. They are well documented earlier on in this blog.

But the beauty of the West Park users is that we don't have to go looking for them, for tenants. They all want permanent  offices and storage space, and regular rehearsal and performance space and free parking.

So either you want the Culture and the Arts or you don't. You want to care for your most vulnerable children  and adults. or you don't. You want to care for your minorities [Travellers, Irish Arts, unions, gamblers, weight-watchers] or you don't. And actually I think that Leeds does.

"All people of Leeds will enjoy the benefits of a vibrant, culturally rich city".

So, what we are saying is, if you care for these things, then you won't close down the very building that have given them life all these years, or make it so small that it cannot function.

On Behalf of Those Who Can't Speak up for Themselves

From: Irene M Peace
HALIFAX
YAMSEN:SPECIALLYMUSIC
6th March 2013

Dear Councillors and Colleagues,

One hundred and twenty four days ! Yes, this is the time which has passed since the West Park Centre was closed without fair notice – causing YAMSEN (and many other organisations) to be compulsorily decamped along with their valuable instruments, props, equipment, manuscripts and much more. Result – We, at YAMSEN are determined to carry on with the work we are known for throughout Leeds, Yorkshire and beyond even though with considerable difficulty. All of our instruments, documents, equipment etc. is stored in varying schools, peoples houses and a lock up in Holbeck involving us in additional expense in the excessive transporting involved as well as all the inconvenience. Other specialised equipment, such as that used in the light/sound sensory room lies dormant since we had to move, a waste of valuable assets. We have, additionally, had to hire various church halls and other rooms at considerable cost to our organisation which, I may remind you, is a registered charity of long standing.

In addition to our three large choirs we are determined to keep as many of our regular rehearsals, workshops and classes going notwithstanding the extreme difficulties. Two of our regular events to be held in June, the Multi Sensory Day and Donkey Daze each cost us £1000.00 room hire plus cost of transporting equipment. Both of these events are for children, many with multiple disabilities requiring suitable wheelchair access and associated facilities.

The adult choir Off By Heart (so named by the members because a fair proportion of them have to learn the words of the tunes ‘off by heart’) will shortly be singing in the Rothwell Music Festival and the Wharfedale Music Festival as well as, by invitation, at a number of concerts at venues around the region.

All of this shows how determined and committed we are to continuing our work. However, we desperately need to be back in the West Park Centre ! Why? Because it has all the facilities that we require and on one level – full wheelchair access, large, free car park, large halls for big events, many smaller rooms for additional activities, lots of storage space, a library,, an office, disabled toilet, spacious foyer for registration, socialising and refreshments.

Surely you and your fellow councillors can show that some of you have a heart and give consideration now to the needs of the hundreds on whose behalf we work who have very Special Needs and who cannot speak for themselves. Open the doors to the West Park Centre for us now ! Yours sincerely.

President, YAMSEN:SPECIALLYMUSIC
 Irene M Peace

YAMSEN:SpeciallyNeeds' Children's Choirs

Once we just used to get on with it; now we have to shout!

Sue wrote thus to the YEP about the Special needs choirs, and they printed it on Saturday:

Published on Saturday 23 February 2013 08:00

I am a member of YAMSEN, a charity run by volunteers working with children and adults with learning disabilities and additional physical problems, through music.

YAMSEN has been running for 30+ years and is very well respected nationwide. A small part of what we do is to run three choirs for children and adults – in total they represent 200 people with a learning disability. We meet up twice a month to sing together and rehearse for concerts – the last one was in Leeds Town Hall in December. The West Park Centre was our base – great room space, grand piano, wheelchair access and lift, disabled toilet facilities, ramps to enable everyone to access the ground floor and plenty of parking for all the minibuses that transport everyone.

As a result of the centre’s closure we’re having to find venues week by week if we can, and it means we can’t plan concerts which the choirs love to work towards. Why would anyone with any sense close a building overnight without a strategy to house everyone in another or even better building?

For goodness sake, fix the electrics so we can get back in there and gradually refurbish it, and get someone in with some vision to market the building and see its potential – a fantastic community arts centre. West Park could be filled day and evening. Most people don’t want whizzy new buildings – they want spaces they can use, easy parking, access and most of all a feeling of community which we’ve lost.

Sue Tomassi