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Minister told of Headingley school land fears
Campaigners demanding that a former grammar school's grounds in Headingley be protected for community use have been putting their case to a government minister.
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Leeds Girls' High School at Headingley has been shut down and boarded up.
The school has merged with Leeds Grammar School on a new site to the north of the city.
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The Headingley site is a key piece of mainly green land and includes playing fields, tennis courts and a swimming pool in a built-up inner-city area of Leeds.
Developers want to build housing on the site and have submitted half a dozen plans to Leeds City Council.
But local residents are opposing the plans. They want land released for community use – including playing areas for children.
Three primary schools serving surrounding communities do not meet Government minimum levels of play areas, depriving children of chances to develop at sport.
There is also no local access to a swimming pool, though the former school has one.
Four residents met the Government's Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Hazel Blears at the site, with Labour's Leeds North West Prospective Parliamentary Candidate Judith Blake.
If the developer's plans are rejected, any appeal could end up on Ms Blears' desk. Ms Blears said she could not comment on an individual case or pre-judge the issue.
"But what I can say is that here you have a group of local people who are very concerned that their area should be developed as the sort of place in which they can live and work and bring up their families," she said.
"They are not opposed to development but it has to be the right kind of development. It is important that we find play space for our children, but that is a general comment."
More than 1,000 local people have signed a petition calling for community use of some of the site.
Sue Buckle, one of the campaigners, said: "You cannot pass up a chance of talking to a government minister. It is always good to pass on information."
The residents say release of the school site is the last chance local communities will have to open up facilities
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Sunday 05 February 2012
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