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Headingley Network: Lesley Jeffries interview
Lesley Jeffries is chair of residents' group Headingley Network and a director of the Headingley Development Trust, which campaign to improve life for long-term residents of the student-heavy Leeds suburb.
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The 53-year-old is a professor of English language at the University of Huddersfield and an active member of the Green party. She is married to Dave, an engineering professor at Leeds Metropolitan University.
The couple have a son and a daughter and live in Headingley.
"I'm so proud of the work of the Headingley Development Trust, which was started by residents four years ago.
The Trust has over 800 members now and they are incredible.
We've done a number of things, including setting up a monthly farmers' market, but the big one is taking over Headingley Primary School as a community arts and enterprise centre called HEART.
"It's going to be beautiful. We imagine people will run yoga classes and adult education courses there. It will be a place where new businesses can start up and there will be space to stage small performance events.
"We want to make it a meeting place for all people in Headingley, not just us old ones but our children and the students as well.
I teach students so I'm certainly not anti-student. Many of them are just perfectly pleasant, normal people.
But they vary in their politeness and tolerance of us long-term residents.
The presence of lots of young people is not a bad thing in itself, it makes the area exciting. Although I think the balance has tipped too far.
Being a campaigner in a Headingley residents' group often feels like being part of an underground guerilla movement.
When you're up against something you work well with the people on your side.
"This is our community and we're determined to make it as we want it.
I couldn't live without my trumpet. Everyone who knows me knows I'm obsessed with it. It's my midlife crisis, my motorbike.
I've been playing about four years now and play lots of gigs with the North Leeds Jazz Orchestra.
"My first job was a holiday job filling children's ready mix paints at a factory in Enfield in North London where I grew up.
It paid 15 a week for 40 hours work. We used to get incredibly filthy.
"To relax I watch rubbish on TV. I've been hooked on House recently. It's really well written and I find it very funny.
The thing that would surprise people about me is that I'm insecure and shy.
"I still have to overcome it, you learn strategies for coping with it. When I was a child I was painfully shy, I used to hide behind my mother's skirts in a very literal way.
"I can't remember the best piece of advice I've been given, but the best advice I could give other people is to get stuck in.
You feel better about things when you start doing them.
Often when you think you don't want to do something it's because you're scared.
"Once you start doing something it's alright, often it's enjoyable. Be brave in doing things you secretly want to do and you'll get there.
The best thing about Leeds is its size. I don't think it's too big, but it's big enough to have an awful lot of good things going on.
It means that you're likely to recognise someone in the street, even in the centre of town, which I like, and it's close enough to get to the Dales which is one of my favourite areas to visit.
"The last time I cried was thinking about a friend of my son's who died. He was only 28. I cry every time I think about him.
I never actually met him but it's watching your son go through that kind of pain for the first time. It's horrible.
"My outlook on life is a positive one. I'm definitely a half-glass-full sort of person. I think it helps to make life easier.
I'm optimistic about the future of Headingley, for instance. There are signs that more families are staying here because the schools are filling up.
We are determined to make it better so that people don't keep leaving.
"My favourite joke is the one about the white horse behind the bar.
The customer comes in and says, "There's a whisky named after you!"
The horse says, "What? Eric?"
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Weather for Leeds
Saturday 19 May 2012
Today
Light rain
Temperature: 6 C to 10 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North
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