More fly tipping at the Old York Road Library 15 June 2011

Once again the Old York Road Library is the scene of fly tipping.  This time a domestic fridge, broken vacuum cleaners and household rubbish are amongst the things that have been abandoned there.  The site is just behind the All Saints Primary School and the rubbish, especially the fridge, presents a serious danger to any adventurous children who might be tempted to play there.  This matter has already been reported to the relevant council department.

The old library building itself has still not been made secure as the vandal-proof door has been vandalised yet AGAIN and the temporary roof which the landlord was ordered to put on the building (he chose plastic) is already torn and coming lose exposing some of the rafters to the weather.  

The fitting and repairing of the drain pipes to the building, as ordered in the Schedule 1 issued by the council, was not done at all and what water the damaged roof does manage to catch simply runs down the walls of the building, either internally or externally.  These matters have also been reported to the council officers.   COVEN and the Civic Trust are continuing to monitor the state of the building.

While this building is in its present state it will continue to attract many forms of illegal and anti-social behaviour, some of which will have to be paid for by the landlord but some of which have to be put right by the council (such as the constant fly tipping and recent theft of the drain covers).  

This building needs to be properly secured and then it needs to be found a use which would mean that as an occupied building it would offer less chance of further vandalism.  As things stand at the moment the council and therefore us the Council Tax payers will have to continue to fork out for the costs of repeated clean ups around the area of the building until a proper solution is found. 

The Old York Road Library - the story so far

Copyright COVEN 2011

You will remember that previously and after much hard work and constant lobbying by the residents of the area and with the help of Cllr Richard Brett, Cllr Graham Hyde and Phil Ward (Team Leader - Conservation at the Sustainable Development Unit of Leeds City Council) an order was issued to the landlord requiring the fitting of a temporary roof to this Grade II listed building to prevent any further damage to the structure of the building.




COVEN have been keeping a very keen eye on the work being done on the library to see how well it was done and we have also been making sure that the building itself is secure as it has frequently been broken into in the past and is in fact the focus of much anti social and criminal behaviour.



Copyright COVEN 2011

Unfortunately as you can see from the picture above the building has recently been broken into again and it is again being used as a drug den.

This building is very close to All Saints Primary School and young children can be very adventurous we fear that one will climb in and be badly hurt. 

Copyright COVEN 2011

The original fireplace has been ripped out of the wall and was stacked by the door, presumably so it could be carted away and sold for scrap.

Soon there will be nothing left of the building's unique features, the tile work, the parquet flooring the beautiful glass partitions.

Copyright COVEN 2011

As you can see from the pictures here the work does not appear to have been done to the required standard expected and the building is in a very vulnerable state.



 Daylight can be seen quite clearly through the rafters and the sheeting is blowing in the wind.

Copyright COVEN 2011

Copyright COVEN 2011

In the picture above you can see that the drainage pipes are clearly not working as the water is running down the wall and here is a picture of the damage done to the rafters in order the throw the rare blue slates from the roof into the building instead of placing them carefully inside as stated in the work order.

COVEN know that Phil Ward at the Sustainable Development Department is on top of this project and is writing to the landlord about the state of the building and quality of the work undertaken and when there is any more news we will bring it to you.

In the meantime COVEN will keep on monitoring the Old York Road Library building and bringing you regular updates because we here in this area have so very few things that are worth saving but this building is certainly one of them.







The old York Road Library

Despite the wildly exaggerated claims in the latest Lib Dem leaflet it was in fact the COVEN campaign which kick started the drive to save the Old York Road Library and got the landlord to reluctantly undertake the necessary work to protect the fabric of this Grade II listed building with an energetic and vociferous campaign led entirely by and driven by local residents.

Attempts to get answers about the Old York Road Library and its future through the Richmond Hill Forum (chaired by the Lib Dems) since 2008 had failed miserably and emails from that time to Cllr Hollingsworth on this subject show that the whole matter was hopelessly stalled and going nowhere at that point so COVEN, a local pressure group made up of concerned residents, themselves went on the offensive; we wrote letters and sent emails to the relevant people; interested the Victorian Society; English Heritage; The Civic Trust; the Inner East Area Committee and our local MP in the case. We lobbied hard through this Blog, You Tube, local press, Guardian Leeds and East Leeds FM and even met with the head of Rushbond, a property developer with an interest in the area, trying to bring about a satisfactory solution and stop the building from rotting away.

Eventually the sustained pressure paid off and a meeting was arranged with Cllr Graham Hyde (Lab), Cllr Richard Brett (Lib Dem), Phil Ward, Team Leader Conservation at the Sustainable Development Unit and council officer Richard Fenton at which COVEN put forward such a convincing case for saving the building from further damage that Cllrs Hyde and Brett agreed to take the case to Cllr Richard Lewis (Lab) who managed to secure the necessary funding to undertake the work needed if the landlord refused to do it, and this was the key to getting the work done!

If any one person can justifiably claim the credit for this success it would be Sam Hirst of COVEN who has campaigned tirelessly for several years to preserve this building and chronicled its sad decline in pictures and video but, in truth, I think that Sam would be the first to say that saving the Old York Road Library was a community effort, no one person and certainly no one party can claim the credit.

What this area really needs now is more community engagement and less party political points scoring. We know there is an election coming but it would be a solid achievement for the residents of Richmond Hill if, just for once, the councillors put the residents' best interests ahead of party political advantage. We need our councillors to work together for the good of our area and to leave the rest of the party political nonsense behind. Perhaps celebrate the fact that a bunch of committed local activists, with help from councillors of all parties and council officials, local and national organisations, our local MP, and with the help of local media all worked together to save one of the few remaining iconic buildings left in Richmond Hill, pat each other on the back if necessary but learn the lesson that if this area is going to succeed the politicians are going to have to put their constituents needs ahead of their party's - so no claiming credit for this achievement from one political party - this was a perfect example of a community led joint effort delivering the right outcome which may not go down well at party headquarters but is going down well where it really matters - here with the residents!