An angry public meeting in Leeds called by the Little London Tenants and Residents Association on Wednesday 20th March, discussed the proposal to build a 18 story block of private flats on a small green space.
Kevin Pattison, Leeds Socialist Party
Little London is near the city centre so developers are keen to build. The area already has 9 tower blocks with mainly council tenants and very few open spaces.
The development would require the removal of 51 trees which currently absorb CO2 from a nearby busy road.
The land is owned by Leeds City Council and the meeting called for the Council to oppose the development and not to sell the land.
To their credit the local Labour councillor present at this point of the meeting opposed the scheme. However, the Labour-controlled city council leadership has been selling off plots of land it owns around the city to private developers and it’s strategy in the face of year-on-year cuts from central goverment has been to prioritise developing the city centre as a ‘destination’ hoping to plug it’s finances with increased business rates which have largely been illusory.
In the meantime the working class had borne the brunt of austerity, just last month in its budget the council agreed above inflation rent rises for tenants in PFI built properties, many of which are in Little London.
The Socialist Party believes that the council should be fighting the cuts instead of implementing them. The alternative no cuts budget drawn up by Leeds TUC for this year would be an excellent place to start. That’s why we’ll be standing local resident Michael Johnson as a Socialist Alternative candidate in this ward in the local elections on May 2nd.
In the meantime, Socialist Party members joined activists in the Tenants and Residents Association to door knock over the weekend to encourage everyone to make their objections known to the council.
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