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Let's hope Gordon will deliver
PRIME Minister Gordon Brown was hardly going to turn up in Leeds and tell us to forget about getting a trolley bus system.
But the fact he made positive noises about the scheme at least gives us heart that our years of missing out may finally be coming to an end.
It's not what we wanted of course.
First choice was Supertram – but when the Whitehall bean counters baulked at the price tag that dream was dead in the water.
So the trolley bus scheme may be second best but it's better than nothing – and that's what we feared we would end up with before the PM's visit.
Gordon went a long way to calming those fears by telling us the Government is keen to invest in public transport and is doing a lot of work on the Leeds proposal.
"We want to see public transport in Leeds improved and we know there are issues of congestion," he said. "We are keen to invest in a public transport scheme."
They're encouraging words for a city that has had to sit back and watch others get cash to get their own public transport projects off the ground.
Now we just need to see Mr Brown put his money where his mouth is.
A costly mess
DISCARDED clothes, smashed TVs and rat-infested mounds of rubbish.
No, we're not talking Third World slums, this is the state Leeds finds itself in every summer.
Most of the students may have left but the majority of their belongings seem to have stayed, with overflowing bins spewing rubbish on to our streets.
Often they haven't even bothered putting the stuff in sacks – despite concerted campaigns by the city council and universities to educate them on the need to leave Leeds tidy.
Kirkstall councillor Bernard Atha is now demanding that landlords pay for their tenants' thoughtlessness.
His argument that they make a healthy profit from renting out student properties and should be treated like any other business is a compelling one.
Especially as our taxes currently pay for the mess to be cleaned up at a cost he estimates to be more than 100,000 a year.
If the students can't clean up then we shouldn't be the ones who are taken to the cleaners.
Feeling the heat
AFTER a couple of washouts we're finally getting a summer to remember.
The mercury has pushed the high 80s in what has been the hottest spell of weather for three years.
Being Britain, there have of course been one or two grumbles.
Getting to sleep hasn't been easy and doing even the most minor of household chores has been enough to leave you feeling hot and sticky.
Still, we really should make the most of it while we can.
Being Britain, who knows how long it will last?
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Weather for Leeds
Wednesday 23 May 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 9 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: North east
