{"id":743,"date":"2009-06-05T08:23:56","date_gmt":"2009-06-05T08:23:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localenterprise.wordpress.com\/?p=743"},"modified":"2009-06-05T08:23:56","modified_gmt":"2009-06-05T08:23:56","slug":"surrealism-is-alive-and-well-and-living-in-leeds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/realisedevelopment.net\/index.php\/2009\/06\/05\/surrealism-is-alive-and-well-and-living-in-leeds\/","title":{"rendered":"Surrealism is Alive and Well and Living in Leeds"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had an eventful afternoon yesterday.\u00a0 In order to vote I had to pop into electoral services in the Town Hall as my postal vote had failed to materialise.\u00a0 A polite, efficient, helpful and very professional service. Well done to the electoral services team at the council.<\/p>\n

Vote registered I then visited a fantastic project in Hunslet called Involve<\/a> led by Kris Clayden.\u00a0 Based in the old Salvation Army building – which is a bit of a 1970s concrete carbuncle – Kris and his team provide a service to young people from South Leeds who have been permanently excluded from school.<\/p>\n

Delivered on a shoe string, through a cocktail of short term funding, working with some of the most challenging young people in Leeds, based in a building that is far from fit for purpose but doing an important job with passion and vigour.\u00a0 It took me back to my time of working with children in residential care.\u00a0 You learn a lot in these environments.<\/p>\n

My next engagement was for the launch of the Leeds City Workshop<\/a>.\u00a0 This is the product of a collaboration between Leeds City Council and one of the major property developers in the city to provide a physical space where planners can engage with communities and developers to discuss plans for the physical regeneration of the city.<\/p>\n

The Leeds City Workshop occupies a part of the Wellington Street Marketing Centre where the city developers promote their latest residential, retail and industrial plans to well-heeled entrepreneurs and investors.<\/p>\n

On arrival we were served with wine and lime and lemongrass cordial while a string quartet played Bach.\u00a0 The canapes reflected the tough times in the city – mini shepherds pies, chicken kebabs, crab cakes and and bruschetta.\u00a0 The patio was hardly sun drenched, but the re-assuring crunch of astroturf underfoot and the views across the city were sublime.<\/p>\n

One of the proerty developers who had kindly provided the workshop space, in their Marketing Suite, (three enormous shipping containers sliced, diced and welded together) opened the speeches.\u00a0 He talked of tough times, but work on physical development of the city goes on.\u00a0 He\u00a0 told us how they work all over the country – but no-where else is doing city place shaping work quite as well as Leeds.\u00a0 Then a council official talking about the significant progress that has been made on the physical development of the city.\u00a0 How, where development projects are put on hold, they are working hard with developers to put interesting temporary projects in place – seeding lawns, marking out football pitches etc.\u00a0 How work on the arena will start soon and be completed in 2012.\u00a0 There si only one small problem – we ‘just’ need a planning permission.\u00a0 Luckily the head of planning\u00a0 permissions in the city was in the room – so I am sure that will not be a major problem.<\/p>\n

All very impressive.<\/p>\n

Then downstairs to see the actual workshop where the planning conversations are taking place.\u00a0 Without doubt they have created an impressive space.\u00a0 A square table for 22 people surrounded by high walls draped with impressive and colourful plans of the city.\u00a0 Acoustics professionally engineered and a state of the art audio visual system showing a film of the future Leeds<\/a> with the city’s golden owl acting as winged guide from one planning triumph to the next.<\/p>\n

This workshop is to be the base for John Thorp<\/a>, the City Architect and his team to provide them with a more conducive environment for planning than the mundane facilities provided by the council.\u00a0\u00a0 Leeds city planners\u00a0 co-located with and, in part, resourced by the developers – it reminded me of Our Friends in the North.<\/p>\n

John seemed much taken by some ‘new’ technology that he heard about.\u00a0 Some kind of graphics tablets that meant he could draw images directly onto the audio visual system.\u00a0 No more climbing up ladders balancing felt tip pens and tippex!\u00a0 Try the Wacom Cintiq<\/a> John I think you might love it.<\/p>\n

The contrast between these two experiences was surreal.\u00a0 Kris in his 1970s carbuncle in Hunslet and John and the developers in their architect designed and styled acoustically engineered palace in the city with Bach and canapes.<\/p>\n

One couldn’t help but feel that somewhere we had not quite the balance right between investing in local people and investing in physical infrastructure.<\/p>\n

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