Locals fight for youth activities at risk from Leeds budget cuts

A sailing centre may be one of many services to disappear as the council hunts for £87m of savings

For many children from across Leeds, a visit to the Sailing and Activity Centre in the semi-rural town of Yeadon, on the edge of the city’s council area, represents a rare opportunity to get out into nature. “The staff say to us, ‘Our young people were really excited on the way here – they’ve never seen a cow before’,” says Jackie Friend, a retired instructor.

“Often they’ve spent all their time within their estate or within their close-knit community at home and not had the facilities to travel out into the countryside.”

But the service is under threat, due to £87m worth of cuts outlined in Leeds city council’s budget, which means staff could be made redundant and equipment sold off if a private sector operator cannot be found within a year.

“For people with money, a car and time, yes, you could travel to the Lake District. But what a shame not to have these resources here,” said Friend, who is part of a local campaign group hoping to save the centre.

A lack of funding from national government combined with the effects of the pandemic meant the Labour-run local authority was forced to make some huge savings in its 2021/22 budget, including cutting 800 jobs.

Council leader James Lewis said the situation was “pretty dire”, adding that if any more cuts needed to be made they would come from more essential services.

“If we had to reduce services further, we will be reducing back to sort of the basics of local government services, so child protection, protection of vulnerable adults and older people, keeping the highway network safe.”

The council was fortunate not to have to borrow money from national government by using reserves to prop up its finances and hoping that next year, revenue from services like sports centres and visitor attractions in the city would return.

Cllr Lewis said: “Obviously using reserves is money councils can only spend once but we were able to avoid having to go for a bailout.”

Leeds will no longer be showing big sporting events on the large screen in Millennium Square, including England’s appearances at the Euros this year, and has cancelled Christmas lights events, saving £88,000.

Theatres, museums and galleries are also facing a 15% reduction in grants.

Leeds Playhouse executive director Robin Hawkes said the cut would be “tough to deal with”, particularly as it was the last year of a four-year funding package that had been already accounted for.

“In one sense, we were counting on this money but the impact of the pandemic is such that a lot of the assumptions have needed to be reassessed anyway.

“The process of creating a balanced budget for the playhouse for next year was not going to be an easy one in the first place, so that just adds to that pressure.”

However, he praised Leeds city council for its ongoing support for culture, particularly compared with councils in other parts of the country, and acknowledged that the local authority had to make difficult decisions.

More controversially, some of those difficult decisions involved closing two care homes and three community centres, saving £689,000 in total.

Lib Dem councillor Stewart Golton, who represents Rothwell, said the decision to close the Windmill Youth Centre in his ward was shortsighted.

He said: “They need to make savings wherever they can but it’s how you make those savings. You should be making savings with the community, instead of against them.”

The centre, and others like it, had suffered so many cuts they had been hollowed out to the point where they had become “ghost buildings”, he said, with no staff based there during the day and bookings taken centrally in Leeds.

“It makes them easier to axe,” he said.

Indeed, despite the large scale of the cuts, the public reaction has been subdued, Cllr Lewis said. “We’re in our 11th year of austerity, it’s sad to say but people are used to job losses and services closing.”

source: Robyn Vinter

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