Recreations Holbeck: Leeds council hails positive impact as £900k transformation of city suburb completed

The scheme is aimed at helping residents in the Recreations area of Holbeck, live healthier, happier and better connected lives.

Ingram Road Primary School pupils are using the changes to now help safely get to school, with a new pedestrian crossing installed outside their school. The crossing along with numerous other transformative improvements to the area has seen £900,000 spent.

Headteacher Sarah Millard said: “The council engaged with the local community about the changes they could make to the area. They have listened to the outcomes, as residents wanted the traffic calmed, safer areas to play and greener areas – the scheme has delivered all of these.

“The pupils have commented they’ve liked being able to play safely in the streets which have been closed off to through traffic. The introduction of parking for parents/carers is better and all the new trees planted make the area look softer – very much improved.”

The works include:

A new pedestrian school crossing

Widening 14 sections of footpaths

Enhancing green spaces with five new grassed areas

Planting 28 trees

Introducing traffic calming measures with ten through roads closed at one end and three one-way road systems created

Building 425 metres of segregated cycle lanes in the residential area and connecting a piece of the city centre to Elland Road cycle scheme.

The changes will mean a reduction in both car usage and air pollution, encouraging people living in the Recreations – which is one of the most deprived parts of Leeds – to lead more active lifestyles by getting out and about on foot or by bike.

The scheme is also designed to strengthen the area’s sense of community – and help break its pattern of short-term tenancies – by making the local streets safer and more attractive places for children to play and residents to spend time with each other.

Coun Helen Hayden said: “I was hugely excited to visit the area as this scheme is a great example of our efforts to work to understand the issues that undermine the safety of Leeds’s roads and develop solutions to eliminate road deaths and serious injury.

“The residents and especially the children in the Recreations I know love the changes, with more greenery on their doorsteps and attractive new spaces where they can meet and interact with their neighbours”

In addition, the scheme gives people in the Recreations easier access to employment and education opportunities in the city centre by linking in with two major infrastructure projects – the Elland Road cycle superhighway and the recently completed Ingram Distributor cycling and walking route.

The project was complemented via a programme of repairs and upgrades to hundreds of homes in the neighbourhood over the last five years, with more than £8.4m spent on measures such as the provision of new windows, roofs and doors and improved external wall insulation.

The Recreations works started in April 2022 and completed in September 2022.