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 5th 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.
