New Farnley has a distinctive char-acter, formed as a result of its his-

toric development and its setting in acountryside landscape at the edge ofthe city. The Village Design Statementprovides guidance for anybody de-signing or building in the area -whether its an extension or some-thing bigger – so that the area won'tbe spoilt by development that doesnot respect or improve that character.

It has been a long process, but theVDS is now adopted policy and can beviewed on the city council website atwww.leeds.gov.uk/council/Pages/De-sign-Neighbourhood-and-Village-Design-Statements.aspx . It will nowbe used by the planners and planninginspectors in deciding whether pro-posed developments conform to itsguidance, both when preparing plansfor the area (including site alloca-tions) and when determining applica-tions. But that does not mean thatyou, as residents of New Farnley, cansit back and let it do the work.

Leeds is currently consulting on Is-sues and Options in relation to pro-posed retail, housing, employmentand greenspace allocations as part ofthe Local Development Framework

(www.leeds.gov.uk/council/P a g e s / S i t e - A l l o c a t i o n s -

Deve lopment - P l an -Document -%28LDF%29.aspx). Although nohousing sites in the New Farnley areahave been given a green light in theconsultation documents (sites arecoloured green if acceptable, amber ifacceptable in principle but with draw-backs, or red if considered unaccept-able: still others have been “sievedout” because they are not acceptableunder any circumstances), commentsshould be made on those proposalsby 29th July and the Design Statementcan provide background on the con-text of those sites (see page 2 aboutan “amber” site in New Farnley).

In respect of planning applications,if you are contemplating an extensionor alteration to your house, take sometime to look at what the VDS saysabout how best it can be done with-out compromising the appearance ofthe street you live in. Keep an eye onproposed developments in the village.If you think a planning applicationdoes not measure up to the ideals ofthe VDS, make your comments moreeffective by including appropriate ref-erences to the VDS in your comments.Support the applications that domeasure up.

The VDS also includes a series of

suggestions for improvement – manyof these need to come from the localcommunity, so get involved and helpmake New Farnley an even betterplace than it is already.

It has been a pleasure for me to beinvolved in helping to produce theVDS, and especially to work with sucha dedicated team of people in the Vi-sion Group. There is a real sense ofcommunity in the village and pride inthe place where you live. It is becauseof places like New Farnley and its peo-ple taking the initiative that the con-cept of localism in planning hasgained credibility. I hope that theVDS will help New Farnley retain itsdistinctiveness long into the future.

Peter Baker, Architect

New Farnley Vision Group Supporting the Community - www.cwnf.btck.co.uk/ 1

Issue 11 Summer 2013

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It is with great sadness that weheard of the death of Audrey Fildes

on 14 December 2012. Audrey was apillar of the community who servedSt James Church, the Womens Insti-tute (WI) and other organisations formany years. She was known through-out the village for her tireless workon behalf of others and supportingefforts to improve community life.For a time, Audrey was also a mem-ber of the New Farnley Vision Group.Our thoughts are with Audrey’s fam-ily at this sad time. She will be greatlymissed.

Village Design Statement

Seven years ago, residents wereinvited to ‘Your Vision for New

Farnley - Consultation Event’ at theCommunity Centre. The hall therewas packed and the evening a greatsuccess. After listening to the viewsof many residents, it was suggestedby a member of the West Area Com-mittee, Steve Crocker, that we con-sider developing a ‘Village DesignStatement’. (The area committees arerun by the City Council and are de-signed to enhance local decision-mak-ing).

A committee was subsequentlyformed, which eventually became theNew Farnley Vision Group, and an ap-plication was made to the Area Com-mittee for funding to undertake the

project. The group was successful intheir funding application, allowing theVision Group to employ the servicesof an architect, Peter Baker, to workin partnership with the group and res-idents of New Farnley in putting to-gether the Village Design Statement,which has just been published.

As a way of now saying thank youto residents, individuals and organi-sations that have participated in theplanning and development of the Vil-lage Design Statement, members ofthe New Farnley Vision Group wouldlike to invite you to a ‘CelebrationEvent’ at the New Farnley CommunityCentre 11th October at 7.30pm.Refreshments and snacks will beprovided. We hope the current andformer MP, councillors and others willattend.

Maggie Thompson

Celebration of Design Statement

Audrey Fildes

New Farnley Vision Group Supporting the Community - www.cwnf.btck.co.uk/2

Members of the New Farnley inBloom group have met several

times since the last newsletter. Wehave recently planted all 23 tubs inthe village with summer beddingplants. Unfortunately, we have hadthree tubs stolen, including two fromWalsh Lane and one from outside theChippy.

The group have also worked inpartnership with members from theNew Farnley Vision Group in contact-ing various services from Leeds CityCouncil to either clear litter/debris orcut grassed areas. Some examples in-clude the ginnel near Playground, thearea at the side of the GP’s surgery(this is not council owned), Back Lane,New Farnley Park and behind thebench and tubs opposite the Wood-cock. The In Bloom group initiatedthe new landscaping to the rear ofFarnley Park.

Once again, thank you to Parks andCountryside for these improvements.Thank you also to Ron Bradshaw forplanting the tubs to the entrance ofSt James’s and thank you to the Bowl-ing Club for their planting.

Members from both the VisionGroup and New Farnley In Bloom havealso suggested the possibility of a‘Friends of Farnley Park’, bringing in-terested parties together from Oldand New Farnley to improve and safe-guard the heritage of the area. Coun-cillor John Hardy has agreed to takethis project forward and will be ar-ranging meetings in the future foranyone interested.

Along with the spring, summer andwinter planting of tubs, the group arekeen to work on new projects. How-ever, in order to be able to undertakeadditional work, the group would wel-come new members. If interested,ring Maggie Thompson 2854219.The group also looks forward toworking again with Parks and Coun-tryside.

Maggie Thompson

New Farnley in Bloom

Lancasterian School Room bicentenary summer fete

On Saturday 6th July we had thepleasure of Emmerdale’s Nicola

Wheeler (Nicola King) opening the2013 Village Fete. She was very inter-ested in the fact that it was the bicen-tenary of the school room.

The sun was out and so were thevillagers. It was a wonderful after-noon with tombola, cream teas, BBQand everyone purchasing food and

goods with profits going to charity.The band were fantastic keepingeveryone in a very jolly mood for thewhole afternoon.

Our thanks to all the volunteersand helpers who worked very hard sothat people could enjoy themselves.Here are a small selection of photo-graphs taken on the day.

Housing development?

Leeds City Council has recently un-dertaken an assessment of, and con-sultation about, possible develop-ment sites. This exercise, which is citywide, is known as the Site AllocationsPlan. Concern has been raised locallyabout the mention of land for poten-tial housing development for 129dwellings at the back of Castle IngsGardens. About 30 people turned upto Councillor David Blackburn’s sur-gery on Saturday 13th July to air theirconcerns and seek clarification. Somepeople live near the site have also hadletters and objection forms fromCouncillor John Hardy.

Each site included in the plan iscolour-coded green, amber or red.Green means the site has the greatestpotential for development, ambermeans there is potential but thatthere are issues and red means thatsites are not suitable. The field at theback of Castle Ings Gardens has beenassessed as amber, so it means thatthe site would not necessarily be ripefor development.

The meeting heard that a majorissue - if the site was to be developed- would be the problem of road ac-cess. A further concern would be thepressure that additional houseswould put on local services and facil-ities. The site is also poorly drainedwith the footpath and gardens at theback of Castle Ings regularly becom-ing flooded. Despite the site’s amber

status, residents at the meeting werenevertheless encouraged to registertheir objections, particularly ongrounds of access, facilities anddrainage, as part of the consultationprocess, which ends on Monday 29thJuly.

Maggie Thompson, the New Farn-ley Vision Group Co-ordinator,pointed out to the meeting, there wasnow also on obligation for the CityCouncil to consult the Village DesignStatement, which identifies and triesto protect the chief characteristics ofthe area in any development applica-tion. The article by Peter Baker, the ar-chitect who helped with the designstatement, on page 1 of this newslet-ter, also considers the role of thestatement in these circumstances.

Objections and relevant documen-tation about the Site Allocations Plancan be viewed at Leeds City Council’swebsite (www.leeds.gov.uk). Once onthe website, click on ‘Planning’ nearthe top of the page and then on ‘SiteAllocations Plan – Issues and Op-tions’. A section at the top right cor-ner of this web page entitled, ‘Make acomment on the Site Allocations Plan’allows residents to object but only be-fore 29th July. There should also becomment forms available at the Com-munity Centre. Once completed,these should be returned to LDF Con-sultation (Site Allocations Plan) For-ward Planning 2, Rossington Street,Leeds, LS2 8HD.

Gerry Lavery

First Left: Nicola opening the fete,Left: Nicola with Gladys GrimesAbove: Looking at the cakesRight: The wonderful turnout

ave you ever felt that dog wasteand litter in our local public

spaces and elsewhere are scourgeswhich we shouldn’t tolerate? Youwouldn’t be alone. Apparently, MPsand councillors receive more corre-spondence about these two prob-lems than any other.

Litter and dog-fouling have manyproblems associated with them. Lit-ter not only spoils the environment,but, according to research, it can belinked to crime and anti-social behav-iour, lead to a loss of business andcan be ingested by wildlife.

Dog fouling has far more seriousconsequences, particularly for chil-dren. Children who play outside neardog waste are in danger from bacte-ria and parasites, from flies whichcan spread diseases found in petwaste, from retinal disease, whichcan cause blindness, and from the E.Coli bacteria. Is uncollected dogwaste, therefore, potentially a formof child abuse? And none of us wouldwant to tolerate child abuse.

According to research, one of themost effective ways of tackling litterand dog fouling is by educationalcampaigns applied consistently andover the long-term. Obviously, otherapproaches, such as the adequateprovision of bins and the consistentapplication of penalties, can alsohelp. Anyone caught dropping litteror not collecting their dog’s wastecan be fined £75.

The New Farnley Vision Group hasstarted an educational campaign ofits own, beginning with dog-fouling,as this is the most pressing problem.A poster has been produced entitled‘Clean up after your dog’ and pinnedup at strategic points in the area. Theimpression is that the posters havealready begun to make some differ-ence.

If you are dog owner we wouldask that you:

• always clean up after your pet;• never dispose of pet waste down

a drain (people locally have beenseen to do this);

• bag dog waste and place it in a bin (some dog owners have beenknown to bag it and then throwit away in a public space).

If you are concerned that peopleare not picking up their dog’s waste,you can contact the EnvironmentalAction Service on 0113-2224406.However, we wouldn’t advise you totackle such people directly as thismay put you at risk.

As part of the New Farnley VisionGroup anti-litter campaign, we hopeto produce publicity and organise lit-ter picking campaigns in the comingweeks.

Mrs. Smales (or Bessie as she likesto be known) celebrated her 100th

birthday with family and friends fromaround the world. Her brother Derek,85, travelled from America just for theoccasion and they both thoroughly en-joyed catching up on what’s been hap-pening and reminiscing about the olddays.

The Community Centre where theparty was held was bursting at theseams with friends from bingo, thechurch and around the village. Herchildren, grandchildren and greatgrandchildren all enjoyed the festivi-ties to mark Bessies great achieve-ment.

Bessie has called the bingo numbersfor quite some time and has only justdecided to retire from that position.She is often seen walking around thevillage - without a walking stick!

We at the New Farnley Vision Groupsalute you Bessie and wish a veryhappy 100th birtday

3 New Farnley Vision Group Supporting the Community - www.cwnf.btck.co.uk/ 3

Fighting fit BessieSmales hasn’t let age stop her

Dog fouling and litter

What’s on corner

The New Farnley VisionGroup website has a host of ac-tivities to view that are held atSt James Church, LancasterianSchool Room and Community

Centre.

Check out the website for allthe details at

www.cwnf.btck.co.uk

Bowling ClubThe Bowling Club will be providingcream teas at the Bowing Club

Pavilion for the Band in the Parkevent with the Tenderloin RagtimeOrchestra on 11th August. Therewill also be a bowling competition.An end of year presentation willtake place in November (precise

date to be confirmed).

Community Centre - Ladies Night (80s Fancy Dress)with 80s band Footloose.Saturday 28th September, £15.00per ticket - includes raffle tickets,food, prizes and entertainment -See Cheryl or bar staff for yourtickets.

Local improvements

Local residents might have noticedtwo recent improvements in New

Farnley. The first is the refurbishedentrance to Farnley Hall Park (seephoto below). The second is the theuse of tarmac to improve road sur-faces on Playground and West End,near the doctors’ surgery. We aregrateful to Councilor John Hardy inhelping to secure these improve-ments.

On On Saturday 30th June a stonewas laid to mark the New Farnley

Village Green. The stone was sourcedby Kevin Wainwright and had beenkept in his barn. The inscription wascarved by Brian Chapman. Jean Milnerthen painted the letters and Roger Mil-ner and Kevin sealed the stone.

John, Kevin, Roger & Jean wentdown to the green and placed thestone in position. Brian Chapman, hiswife, June, and Josie Tearle from theCommunity Centre were all present tosee it placed into position. Finally,when the stone had settled, Jeanplanted the flowers around the base.

The stone was provided to the vil-lage as a gift. The green is an unspoiltarea within the village that is used forchildren’s community events. The vil-lage green is important to the NewFarnley, and we respectfully ask thathorse riders and car and motorbikeriders do not ride across it.

Jan Ingham

The Bowling Club in New Farnleywas founded in 1908 and it is

amazing how many people say theydid not know that there was a bowlinggreen in the village. Hopefully, thiswill change as we now have a nicenew welcome sign at the entrance tothe green. The green is open from April to Sep-

tember and we have 9 teams runningat the moment. Somebody is aboutmost afternoons and nearly everyevening, so, if you fancy watching andhaving a cup of tea, call in - you willbe made welcome and, who knows,you might fancy having a go.

The Annual Awards Evening was agreat success. With all the awards an-nounced and presented to proud play-ers, it was left to the evening’s foodand superb entertainment and danc-ing to finish a brilliant night.

If you are interested in joining theBowling club, come and visit us at thegreen during the bowling season andhave a chat.

Jan Ingham

New Farnley Vision Group Supporting the Community - www.cwnf.btck.co.uk/4

Bowling Club

As the first manager of Neighbour-hood Action in Farnley, New Farn-

ley and Moor Top, I was invited tojoin in a double celebration on Friday28th of June which was held at Hill-side Hall, Farnley. Members and in-vited guests enjoyed a deliciousafternoon tea as they gathered to cel-ebrate the tenth anniversary of thecharity and also the purchase of theirnew mini bus.

The money for the mini bus hasbeen raised over many years by themembers through different initia-tives, and has been purchased jointlywith 'The Owls', (a neighbourhood

scheme operating in the Kirkstall areaof Leeds). Extra funding was securedby the committee and the staff. Sowhen you see the bright yellow bus,please remember the unselfish dedi-cation of the residents to secure thiswonderful asset for our communities.

My special thanks go particularly toAnne Braviner, Pauline Moore, JeanPickering and Diane Shipman whowere the original committee mem-bers and they continue to work asvolunteers for the project. They ap-pointed me on a part-time contract,and I was joined later by Jessica, Joeand Dee. I want to pay tribute to themany volunteers, past and present,such as Kath Gouland, who enablethe work to continue and grow. I am

pleased to say that a new managerhas recently been appointed to over-see the project.

Through my involvement withNeighbourhood Action, I have seenand experienced the true meaning of‘Care in the Community’ exemplifiedby the residents in our areas whocare and look out for each other.Here's to the next ten years!

Ailsa Mayers

Maggie Thompson (Co-ordinator) Tel: 2854219Jenny Jamieson (Treasurer) Tel: 2853536Steve Fletcher (Chair) Tel: 2194623Christine Edmunds (Secretary) Tel: 2852453Gerry Lavery (Vice Chair) Tel: 2637006Liz Room (Editor & Designer)

Tel: 2799966

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The Village Green

Congratulations