Morning! Mike here – we’ve had a bit of a reshuffle – to bring you some of the news & views from around the region.
First up: we’re not getting an elected mayor (sorry, old news, but we’d not mentioned it). The YEP today mentions that it may have cost £400k to have the referendum including £97k on getting the leaflets distributed. Now, I’m going to argue that the a lot of the cost is mostly irrelevant as it was an important question that needed to be asked, but that £97k was a bit of a waste of money as I didn’t see a leaflet – not one – here in South Leeds. Did you get a leaflet? Please let us know, along with the first half of your postcode. Cynical me thinks that people in LS1&2, LS17 and points north of LS7 were inundated with literature.
It appears that the public consultation into the future of Leeds Kirkgate Market has opened up. You can have your say on LCC’s market strategy webpage:
Councillor Gerry Harper, Leeds City Council markets champion said: “We want to make sure the views of the city, and everyone with an interest in the market play a big part in this next step towards looking into the options for its future.”
But many people in the city are questioning whether filling in the survey will have any effect. The Leeds Citizen expects that suggestions offered by the public will be given proper consideration and not just brushed under the carpet like they usually are. The comments on the YEP article on this are brilliant:
I was disappointed to discover that the survey asked me for 5 things I would change didn’t like about the market, yet only 1 reason why I liked it!
I’m sure everybody at West Point is overjoyed to have the water back on (Northerner). Although given how heavy the rain was last night a canny marketing person might have posted samples of shower gel and sponges to residents with a “have a cold shower!” theme.
The BBC has CCTV footage of people at Leeds train station who are jumping off the platforms and running over the tracks. Why? Well, it seems drunkenness is a common denominator here. It’s all part of a safety campaign on behalf of Network Rail.
Coming up this weekend at Temple Works is Why Rush?, an art festival that lasts the whole weekend. Artists on show aren’t limited to paint and canvas; there’s also performance art and a production of Matryoshkas that sounds fascinating.
The weekend after also sees an event at that end of town; Marshall’s Mill will be hosting a walk-in cinema (if you walk it is free to enter; drive and it’s a fiver) for a showing of Roko Belic’s Happy. The green cinema theme continues at the Hyde Park Picture House with screenings of The City Dark, Greedy Lying Bastards and Taste The Waste over the rest of the weekend.
Tomorrow sees the launch of Back to Front at Compton Road Library, starting at 4pm. Back to Front aims to get people to use their front gardens more, by growing their own food. We like this a lot here at BGL and hope that it takes off in spectacular fashion.
South Leeds Life has a reason to watch TV next week: dance group DAZL and two social enterprise groups in the Cardinals are on Secret Millionaire on Monday. Also on South Leeds Life is a call for people to help out at Holbeck Gala on the 21st July. Details on how to get involved are on that link.
And that’s us for today! Thanks for reading; if you have anything you’d like to tell us then please do so! Tomorrow sees Mark in the chair and the debut of our new Friday Comments – stay tuned for that one.
Beyond Guardian Leeds 
The leaflets came in March ages before the vote. We got one in LS7 3.
Since distributing leaflets in this context was voluntary the lack of them reflects the lack of passion for the topic. I didn’t see any “yes” leaflets but did get a “no” one in ls13. I didn’t even get any at the culture vulture organised debate
I got the (bland) council leaflet in LS18 – came in the post about a month ago. Didn’t see any Yes or No literature, but I wish I could have, to help me make more of any informed choice rather than doing “eeny meeny” in the voting booth…
I received the (bland) leaflet by post around a month ago, in LS18. Didn’t receive any Yes or No literature. Pity, as it would helped me make a more informed decision either way, rather than doing “eeny meeny” in the voting booth…
Not sure if this is the leaflet you mean, but I had one from the council about a month or so before the referendum telling me it was going to happen and explaining it a little bit. It was fairly neutral. I live in LS14.
Received one from the ‘No’ campaigners here in Otley – don’t recall getting one from the ‘Yes’ folk. Shambles, absolute shambles.
I did not receive any leaflets on the mayoral election in LS28.
I received the Council’s leaflet in LS11, but it didn’t help at all, as it just said what the question would be and then explained that the Council had to remain impartial. No leaflets on ‘yes’ or ‘no’ at all.