Leeds City Centre South: the long view

Leeds City Councils City Centre Vision conference in January 2008 generated considerable debate amongst those working or living in the area, together with those with a professional role in its evolution. Nine months later, the Council published its prospectus for Leeds City Centre 2020 as a follow up to the conference. It identified themes for the city centre but did not articulate a long term vision. Some projects listed in the Prospectus have moved forward, including new precincts, flood alleviation plans, City Station improvements and the Arena. However, information on others has been hard to come by with, for example, a need for wider public engagement on the proposed city centre park. The current economic circumstances and pause in development provide a huge opportunity to rethink and expand a longer term strategic vision for the city centre. We believe that greater public and stakeholder engagement would deliver a different kind of development in the future. Innovative ideas relating to the flood alleviation scheme, a new City Living Survey and the Leeds Civic Trust's 2009 discussion document 'Leeds City Centre Transformed' have all sought to explore alternative outcomes to the established approach. The Leeds Sustainable Development Group (LSDG) is a network of individuals, including property professionals, developers, investors, academics and community groups, sharing a commitment to Leeds city centre and wanting to work together to make it better. We have explored the potential for a new approach to development that will generate prosperity, well-being and environmental enhancement in ways that are very different from those of the past.

Some factors influencing development in the City Centre South

The Leeds Sustainable Development Group feels that as we move into an era of climate change, more limited resources, increased population pressure and changing lifestyles, we will all need to live in a more sustainable way. Future demand for housing in the city centre is likely to be strong as the era of cheap energy passes. Although easier transport and better communications have enabled people to live further from their workplace, there is still a unique value in the concentration of activities and opportunities in city centres. Given resource constraints and costs, locations that enable people to enjoy daily life within a short distance of home will become more appealing to those whose current ambition might still be to migrate to the suburbs or beyond. Attractive places where people want to live and work in the long term would result from a more varied range of medium-density housing and livework spaces, with additional and enhanced supporting services and amenities such as parks, health facilities and local retailing. Reduced road space and new pedestrian routes could enhance connections to the city centre. A pleasant streetscape environment, potentially including squares with town houses, would generate new footfall. A long-term approach to realising mixed-use, environmentally-sensitive, socially and culturally varied development will need some innovative thinking about land ownership and occupancy arrangements.

Our aim is to give Leeds city centre an even stronger image as a destination and place to settle. It should be where far-sighted, co-operative people look beyond short-term self-interest and engage seriously with the challenges of the future to participate in creating a trend-setting sustainable lifestyle. We are seeking to establish a new forum, available to everyone, to enable the development and testing of a shared vision. At present, a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity is offered by the many large-scale vacant or underutilised sites south of the River Aire. Carlsberg Tetleys and Yorkshire Chemicals form the core of this area but the plan overleaf shows an area encompassing a far wider part of the city centre. While some individual sites have already been developed, others are stalled or will only come available as the present commercial uses relocate to more suitable premises. The LSDG suggests that this City Centre South area should be reworked in a strategic way to create a more integrated, logical, attractive and sustainable blend of land uses. As its first initiative, it wishes to open up the debate on the areas future to the wider community of Leeds. The inside and back pages of this leaflet set out some of the key issues in the area and some of the factors we consider important in establishing a shared vision and taking forward a co-ordinated approach to developing this key part of Leeds. Further details will be found on our website: www.leeds-sdg.com as the project develops.

As a result, the future development of City Centre South must bring together a whole series of initiatives:

an overall framework for all future development which ensures that the requirements for a truly sustainable city centre are adopted and implemented by all those involved, in a cohesive way creation or adaptation of green buildings for living, working and leisure time mitigating and adapting to flood risk in ways that enhance physical appearance as well as protecting people and property improving green spaces and waterways for people and wildlife developing local sources of energy generation and water supply/reuse, together with local water and waste disposal, so delivering infrastructure at a neighbourhood scale reducing the impact of the car while enhancing safe walking and cycling routes

opening up more opportunities for a greater range of people to be drawn into education and training, jobs and cultural experiences thinking ahead to localising production and changing patterns of consumption by reserving suitable sites for food production and increasing capacity for local repair, reuse and recycling of materials and goods creating an exemplar quality townscape which will be attractive to residents, workers, visitors and investors.

Contact Details: Should you wish to become involved in the Leeds Sustainable Development Group or have any views on the issues expressed in this leaflet, please use the contact details below: email: contact@leeds-sdg.com web: www.leeds-sdg.com June 2010

Leeds Sustainable Development Group

Leeds Sustainable Development Group