Council housing scheme opens door to local green space improvements

The Leeds City Council development, currently nearing completion at Brooklands Avenue in Seacroft, will provide a total of 33 high-quality homes for affordable rent.

But the scheme – part of Leeds’s Council Housing Growth Programme (CHGP) – will not just have a positive impact on the lives of the people who move into the finished homes.

Funding made available through the development has also been used to carry out improvements to existing green space close to Brooklands Avenue. Key elements of this work include:

• The tidying of a woodland area that sits between Brooklands Avenue and Seacroft Village Green;
• The planting of trees, shrubs and bulbs on two pieces of land next to The Green, a road which leads off Brooklands Avenue;
• Enhancements to a footpath that runs between The Green and Redmire Drive.

The improvements were carried out in partnership between the council and environmental charity Groundwork Yorkshire following consultation with residents and other regular users of the green space.

And the difference that has been made to the area left two senior councillors hugely impressed when they paid a recent visit to Brooklands Avenue.

Councillor Jess Lennox, Leeds City Council’s executive member for housing, and Councillor Mohammed Rafique, Leeds City Council’s executive member for climate, energy, environment and green space, helped out with the planting of a tree during their visit.

Funds generated by the Brooklands Avenue scheme and another council housing development in the Ambertons area of Gipton are also being used to improve the biodiversity of 1.14 hectares of amenity grassland near the Denbigh Heights and Denbigh Croft flats, off Wykebeck Valley Road. Work here has included the planting of native scrub, providing a variety of food sources and shelter for wildlife.

Councillor Jess Lennox, Leeds City Council’s executive member for housing, said:

“The Brooklands Avenue development illustrates how our successful Council Housing Growth Programme is continuing to deliver the kind of high-quality, affordable homes that can change lives for the better.

“Homes are more than just bricks and mortar, they can add social value and vibrancy to existing communities. I was really pleased, therefore, to see the positive difference that this particular scheme has made to green space in the surrounding area.”

Councillor Mohammed Rafique, Leeds City Council’s executive member for climate, energy, environment and green space, said:

“The work that has taken place at Brooklands Avenue and Wykebeck Valley Road is a great example of how the council, with support from residents and partners, can provide and enhance local green space.

“Making our parks, fields, woods and footpaths as attractive and accessible as possible will encourage more and more people to use them and enjoy the benefits for health and wellbeing that come with spending time outdoors.”

The Brooklands Avenue development will comprise 25 one-bedroom apartments – in a five-storey building named after Doris Storey, a Leeds swimming champion of the 1930s – and eight two and three-bedroom houses.

The council is meeting most of the cost of the development, with additional support coming from the West Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Brownfield Housing Fund.

Around 700 homes have been built or acquired via Leeds’s CHGP since 2018, supporting ongoing efforts to ease local affordable housing pressures.

By increasing the number of appropriate properties available to tenants looking to downsize, the programme has also helped free up some homes that are best suited to larger families.

Places where new housing has recently been delivered by the CHGP include Barncroft Close in Seacroft and Scott Hall Drive in Chapel Allerton as well as a site in Middleton formerly occupied by Throstle Recreation Ground and Middleton Skills Centre.

ENDS