Lara Goane Blue 1530 programme 2902

Leeds City Council has introduced parking charges for parks, causing public outrage. The council claims it needs the income to address budget problems. Locals argue that parks should be accessible to everyone. Plans have been submitted to regenerate a former school site in East Leeds, including housing, shops, sports pitches, and a special needs school. A new coffee shop called Hole in the Wall is thriving in Leeds, focusing on sustainability and local produce. Leeds residents are happy with the introduction of glass recycling bins. Skew, a kebab shop in Leeds, has been named one of the best in the industry. Leeds Rhinos head coach is building on positives from last week's game. The Leeds Rhinos netball team is ready for their third league game. Juventus star Paul Pogba has been banned from playing for four years due to alleged steroid use. Good afternoon, it's 3.30, I'm Josie Shaw and this is Leeds Hacks Radio News. Leeds City Council have put in place a plan for parking charges for parks across Leeds, causing an uproar amongst members of the public. Many parks across Leeds will be affected. Abbey Johnson has more. Parks are a place that members of the public can visit with loved ones to explore the outdoors without the ever-growing cost of living crisis affecting them. Leeds City Council have implemented a plan for parking charges to give back money to the council. The rationale by the council is they have budget problems within the council and they are needing any source of income they possibly can provide income. Leeds City Council leader James Lewis blames the Tory government for their recent proposals and claims they will be unpopular. He says the budget they have is not manageable so changes have to be made. Many locals are angry about these recent changes. I think generally parks are meant to be free anyway. They're a natural green space that should be accessible by every single person and I think by putting a charge on something like this it's going to be a massive negative, especially with communities around the area. Leeds Council are terrible. I'm actually fuming. I'm absolutely fuming. I'm a pensioner who's recently lost my husband. So being able to park free of charge, it gets me out walking in the fresh air and helps with my anxiety and depression. The parks that will be introduced will be at Barley Hill Road, Netherfield Road, Marsh Street and Fink Hill. Chris Calvert, a Labour candidate for horses, talks about the effects at Fink Hill and its local area. I've set up a petition against it and people have been writing to me saying that this will put me out going shopping in the area. It'll affect lots of different things. There's a church right next door and it'll affect people going there. It'll affect people going to the park. It's ridiculous. That's all from me. Back to the studio. Plans to further regenerate a former school site in East Leeds have been submitted by City Council. The plans include the building of sports pitches, shops and a new school and housing. Kate Page has more. I am currently stood at the site of what was Copperfield College and now a deserted space. But it will soon be transformed. The former school site is set to be developed into housing, shops, sports pitches and a special educational needs school. The development of the school is already underway and due to open in September 2024. Councillor for the area, Luke Farley. It's going to be all the way through from primary school right through to secondary and that's desperately needed. The plans look to develop 150 much needed affordable homes, Councillor Farley explained. We're crying out for such housing, affordable housing. The whole project is set to be complete in around 2027 with the retail development being the final build. Thanks for shopping at Fenwicka. Owner of Leeds based coffee bar, Ed, is championing local produce in the new and trendy Liverts. The Hole in the Wall shop is an attachment of the wardrobe next door and is thriving in its first few days of business. Joe Jacklin has the story. I'll just pop it here, that's alright, yeah? A third coffee shop, a Hole in the Wall cafe on South Euston Square has opened. It's focus is on sustainability, local produce endorsement and customer service. I spoke to Ed about the goals of the shop and it's early start to life. Increasingly we just thought that there's clearly a need for a good coffee shop around here so we sort of stepped in and trying to get as many independent businesses from Leeds under one roof. We're working with North Style Coffee, Machines from Lamazocco which is just around the corner of Munro House. We've got all of our fresh breads that we get from our little bakery in Harrogate called Balsy Sands and we've got our brownies from Brown and Bones. In fact this coffee shop's named after an architect named Ed who built a social housing development here called Quarry Hill. So we're all about sustainability, enhancing the sense of local community and sort of being like a little hub for people to come in on their way to work, grab a coffee, grab a nice little sweet treat, have a catch up with people, get out the office. Really overwhelmingly positive from everyone, everyone seems really, really excited that we're here. Already getting a lot of boutique customers, people come in a couple of times a day, two times a day. We've got a loyalty system as well. Just trying to keep our heads through at the minute and just get this started off to the best start it possibly can be. But there's definitely a lot of room for future endeavours and stuff like that in the future. I think we're just completely focused on nailing this site and getting everything on form. People of Leeds are happy with the council's plan to provide kerbside bins for glass recycling. Millie Agar, a Leeds resident, hopes that the new kerbside recycling bins will reduce litter in her area. It's really good that the council are allowing glass in green bins. Living in Hedden we have noticed a lot of glass bottles left next to recycling bins or just discarded on the street so hopefully it'll make the area nicer and cleaner. It is estimated 11,400 tonnes of glass are put into black bins rather than being recycled. It will now be easier for Leeds residents to be able to recycle them from their home. Councillor James Lewis. The council is working on plans to introduce kerbside glass recycling collections for the first time ever in Leeds, enabling residents to use a green bin for glass bottles and jars. This will make it easier for residents to recycle more from their home without the need for more coloured bins or containers. Lara Gowen headed to the streets of Leeds to see what the locals thought of the new kerbside bins. I'm Lara Gowen and I'm here in Hyde Park asking residents if they know about the new kerbside bins put in place by Leeds City Council. The bins have been put in place to help recycle glass and make Leeds a more environmentally friendly place. This is what the people of Leeds said. It will make Leeds a cleaner place. The recycling in Leeds is not great. The separation of bins is pretty rubbish compared to... I'm from Oxford. That's all from me in Hyde Park. Now back to Daisy in the studio. Now who doesn't love a kebab last thing after a night out? Well, if you're in Leeds, you're in luck. Skew, a kebab shop based in Leeds city centre, has been named one of the best in the industry. Always one for a bit of food, I went down to see for myself what all the fuss was about. I'm Samuel Clinton. I'm the kitchen manager at Skew. The main guy, Mitch, he's been going through this shop for nine years now. Got it open two and a half years back. Ever since then we've just been working on getting this marketing up. You know, bringing the people in, we know that we've got this product. We've worked on it so hard. So will this award make a difference and will it inspire the restaurant to get even better? Winning this award just means everything to us. When we were there, it was just overwhelming, breathtaking how it all was. We were with all those other partners as well. Other people there winning, it was so important to us. From now we're just going to be bringing people in, getting the award out there. Well, I know where I'm going tonight. Now, Jacob Grattidge with the sports. Thank you, Daisy. Leeds Rhinos head coach Rowan Smith has said they were unlucky last time out against Hull, but promised fans that he was building on the positives of last week. Our D was really good last week. I thought we just had a couple of moments there with a few deflections. It sort of let us down, but we've conceded one line break in two weeks. So we're building a base there and not presenting the opposition with many opportunities. Leeds Rhinos netball team are ready to give that season a big boost ahead of their third league game on Saturday. The Rhinos take on Cardiff Dragons at Sheffield's Cullen Medical Arena. Leeds Rhinos netball player Cassie Howard said she's excited to start the season this weekend and that she's confident in the players around her. For this weekend and being in front of home fans to begin with for the first home game. But yeah, we've got a good mix, so many experienced players. Juventus star Paul Pogba has said he is shocked at the news of his four-year ban. News broke this afternoon that ex-Premier League star would be banned from playing for four years due to the fact that he is believed to have used steroids. In a statement he said that everything he's built in his professional career has been taken away. He said he would never do anything to enhance his performances and that due to legal restrictions he wasn't allowed to reveal the full truth. The ruling means a 29-year-old Frenchman won't be allowed to play till 2027 when he's 33, signalling the end to what once was a very promising career. VTACS Radio News, it's 3.39.