ℹ️ PENNY POCKET PARK AND SURROUNDING AREA ANTISOCIAL BEHAVIOUR UPDATE

Work is continuing to address issues at both sides of the railway viaduct at Penny Pocket Park (Hunslet & Riverside side), York Street Gardens (Little London and Woodhouse side), and Leeds Minster.

Holdforth Court: This currently derelict site opposite Penny Pocket Park is awaiting development and, in the interim, has become the epicentre of drug taking in the city centre.

Our teams from the city centre street cleaning crews have removed over 3000 used needles alone from this one site. We’re working with Safer Leeds, Planning Enforcement, and Environmental Protection to use powers to force the owner to properly secure the site while it awaits redevelopment and, if possible, force the redevelopment to take place soon.

Mecca Bingo Site: The owner of the site has indicated a desire to redevelop this site and has

submitted a planning pre-application to the council.

As this is a pre-application, details are currently commercially confidential and specific details cannot be shared. We do know the current lease on the site by Mecca Bingo has at least nine months left to run, and so significant redevelopment of the site is unlikely until next year at the earliest, subject to the planning process.

We’ll work with officers to help inform the proposals for the redevelopment of this site due to its strategic importance to the wider city centre and local communities – something of key importance as the city centre expands.

In the meantime, Safer Leeds, City Centre Management and the Youth Service are arranging a community action day with young people to decorate the boarded-up windows to reduce the visual impact on the area. This will be sometime in August of this year.

Church Walk: This is the footway between Kirkgate and York Street. Staff for Safer Leeds are currently bidding for funding for temporary CCTV to cover the area while long-term plans for the area’s redevelopment progress and the old Mecca Bingo site comes forward for redevelopment.

Youth Related Antisocial Behaviour: Safer Leeds and the Youth Service have deployed extra resources around Penny Pocket Park and York Street around key times – mainly the end of school day – to address the behaviour of some young people towards others at the park.

Long-term Plans: There are several proposals for the redevelopment of the wider area, put together by LCC, Groundwork Yorkshire, and Leeds Civic Trust.

The intention is to hold a stakeholder meeting after the summer holidays to create a combined long-term vision for all these sites, which we currently estimate will cost around £1.3m to deliver.

This will then be used to consult with the public and once done, form the basis of the business case for partners to start to raise the funding to make these plans a reality.

It is vital in the meantime that residents continue to help support our efforts by reporting antisocial behaviour and criminality.

General Antisocial Behaviour:

This can be reported on the telephone number below or online at https://www.leeds.gov.uk/anti.../report-antisocial-behaviour via the form on this page.

Crime: If this is ongoing and/or a risk to a person, call 999. If not it can be reported after via calling 101 or online via https://www.westyorkshire.police.uk/LiveChat.