Brainstorming
- Community day like Hyde Park Unity Day
- Series of creative workshops
- Working with primary schools
- General awareness campaign
- Art Club like Leeds Arts Young Creatives
- Big collaborative mural
My idea was to combine the societal issues with a screenprint fair in which the local community could learn to screenprint, as this was the idea I initially wanted however my table decided to take a music approach whereas we would take a local community based approach. We chose to go with this idea, while also adding an awareness campaign element where the product of the print fairs would be used as posters.
Plan
- Contact and speak to locals in Woodhouse, Hyde Park, Headingly and Burley
- Create posters with contact info on wanting to collect info from locals - what do you want to change?
- Contact primary schools and student unions - targeting students around the Hyde Park Area
- Contact competitors/related groups
- Organise creative workshops
An issue discussed was whether locals and students would respond to a poster - is this the most efficient method for them? Would we only be collecting information from people who feel the need to tell us?
Began considering online questionnaires to be posted on local facebook groups.
Research
- Already exists as a concept within the university
- Could collaborate with this
- Or make it different to this? Different target audience as this is just children? - how do we be more inclusive of all demographics within the community?
- Mural idea has been done however we prefer the print fair idea.
- Really nice project with successful outcomes
- Doesn't necessarily involve locals with students - how inclusive is this?
Historical Context
90's riots - Hyde Park Unity Day
Have 20 Years of Leeds' Unity Day Free Party Actually Brought Anyone Together?
"But things haven't always been so chill in LS6; in the mid-90s, the area was hit with "riots" sparked by an allegedly overzealous policing operation. Local residents argue that, although there was some unrest, calling it a riot is just plain ludicrous. There's a lot of contradictory (mis)information online regarding those events, so only a few things are for sure: a pub was burned down, cars were vandalised and it led to a lot of negative coverage in the national press."https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/wdab45/unity-day-party-leeds-20-years
Leeds HMO Lobby
THE PROBLEM
2 Community’s Concerns
· Concern about the numbers of students in certain streets in Headingley was first raised twenty years ago in the late ‘80s (the Council responded with action on HMOs: see 26D).
· A decade later, individual groups voiced their concerns: in 1999, Headingley Against Landlordism was founded (which published a survey of residents’ views), and South Headingley Community Association held a public meeting on the issue.
· In 2000, local groups joined forces to form Leeds HMO Lobby, to campaign locally and nationally for action on concentrations of HMOs, especially student houses.
· Concern about the numbers of students in certain streets in Headingley was first raised twenty years ago in the late ‘80s (the Council responded with action on HMOs: see 26D).
· A decade later, individual groups voiced their concerns: in 1999, Headingley Against Landlordism was founded (which published a survey of residents’ views), and South Headingley Community Association held a public meeting on the issue.
· In 2000, local groups joined forces to form Leeds HMO Lobby, to campaign locally and nationally for action on concentrations of HMOs, especially student houses.
2A Scale of Problem
· In 1991, students constituted c20% of the population of Headingley Ward. By 2001, this has risen to 61%.
· In 2001, the area with a student population of 25% or more extended NW from the universities, for nearly two miles, in a band over a mile wide (‘Two square miles of housing hell’, as it was christened by the Guardian); the area with a lower proportion extends much further.
· Student penetration (as the Council calls it) was deepest in South Headingley (or Hyde Park): an area of a quarter square mile, comprising 72 streets, houses 10,000 people – two-thirds of whom are students.
· Currently there over 40,000 students at the two universities, most in & around Headingley, and three-quarters in the private rented sector (PRS).
· In 1991, students constituted c20% of the population of Headingley Ward. By 2001, this has risen to 61%.
· In 2001, the area with a student population of 25% or more extended NW from the universities, for nearly two miles, in a band over a mile wide (‘Two square miles of housing hell’, as it was christened by the Guardian); the area with a lower proportion extends much further.
· Student penetration (as the Council calls it) was deepest in South Headingley (or Hyde Park): an area of a quarter square mile, comprising 72 streets, houses 10,000 people – two-thirds of whom are students.
· Currently there over 40,000 students at the two universities, most in & around Headingley, and three-quarters in the private rented sector (PRS).
5 Meaning of Studentification
· Studentification is defined by the Lobby as ‘the substitution of a local community by a student community.’
· Studentification therefore means primarily demographic imbalance (61% students in Headingley Ward, and only 7% children and 8% older people), and arising from that, a whole range of problems, social, environmental, economic, etc (see below).
· To those who experience it, studentification also means alienation (‘like living on a university campus’), including oppression and isolation, revulsion from the condition of the locality, anger at the perpetrators, and despair at the neglect by government.
· Studentification is defined by the Lobby as ‘the substitution of a local community by a student community.’
· Studentification therefore means primarily demographic imbalance (61% students in Headingley Ward, and only 7% children and 8% older people), and arising from that, a whole range of problems, social, environmental, economic, etc (see below).
· To those who experience it, studentification also means alienation (‘like living on a university campus’), including oppression and isolation, revulsion from the condition of the locality, anger at the perpetrators, and despair at the neglect by government.
7 Economic Impacts
From a balanced economy to a resort economy
All suburban economies have undergone change of late. But in & around Headingley, this is demonstrably the result of studentification. The area has developed the economic characteristics of two quite different sorts of resort, rural and coastal.
· Like rural resorts, subject to demand for holiday-homes, Headingley has suffered property price inflation, due to demand for second-homes for students (in 1995-2001, house prices in Leeds 6 rose half as fast again as in Leeds as a whole).
· Like coastal resorts subject to tourist demands, the Headingley economy has responded with more, larger, longer-opening pubs, with huge numbers of take-aways (13 in Headingley Centre alone), and with a proliferation of letting agencies (40 where once there were 8).
· Like all resorts, the economy is seasonal (though a mirror-image of the usual holiday seasons), which has been fatal for many small shops. These have also been hit by high rents, and by conversion to accommodation.
· Correspondingly, employment too is seasonal, and as in resorts, much is part-time. Overall, employment in the area is half the city level.
· Knock-on costs are high. Sheer pressure on resources means high service costs, including policing, cleansing, highways, planning, environmental health, and so on. And insecurity (see 9) means high insurance premiums, for property, contents, vehicles.
From a balanced economy to a resort economy
All suburban economies have undergone change of late. But in & around Headingley, this is demonstrably the result of studentification. The area has developed the economic characteristics of two quite different sorts of resort, rural and coastal.
· Like rural resorts, subject to demand for holiday-homes, Headingley has suffered property price inflation, due to demand for second-homes for students (in 1995-2001, house prices in Leeds 6 rose half as fast again as in Leeds as a whole).
· Like coastal resorts subject to tourist demands, the Headingley economy has responded with more, larger, longer-opening pubs, with huge numbers of take-aways (13 in Headingley Centre alone), and with a proliferation of letting agencies (40 where once there were 8).
· Like all resorts, the economy is seasonal (though a mirror-image of the usual holiday seasons), which has been fatal for many small shops. These have also been hit by high rents, and by conversion to accommodation.
· Correspondingly, employment too is seasonal, and as in resorts, much is part-time. Overall, employment in the area is half the city level.
· Knock-on costs are high. Sheer pressure on resources means high service costs, including policing, cleansing, highways, planning, environmental health, and so on. And insecurity (see 9) means high insurance premiums, for property, contents, vehicles.
9 Social Impacts
From social cohesion to social fragmentation
Headingley used to be home to a diverse but balanced and coherent population: it comprised the chattering classes (from the universities) and working-class residents, it comprised students and young professionals, and it included various other ethnic groups (especially Asian). There was a normal age profile, sustaining a range of institutions (like schools) and associations.
· But studentification has meant an exodus: emigration is pushed by loss of amenity, and pulled by the lure of high house prices; immigration is deterred by exactly the same factors.
· Services have been lost, especially schools – necessary not only to attract new families, but also to establish social networks. Two or the three primaries recently closed in Leeds were in Headingley, and more are anticipated
· Absenteeism has become dominant: most properties (60%) are no longer owned by residents but by absentee landlords; and most residents (tenants) are absent for a third of the year.
· The transient population, and consequent loss of social networks, leads to isolation, especially of the elderly. Two-thirds of students don’t know their neighbours (Unipol survey, 2002).
· Low-level antisocial behaviour is endemic (during term-time) – noise (especially at night), minor vandalism, evacuation by pubbers and clubbers (vomit, urine, faeces).
· Crime levels are high, especially burglary – worst not only in the city, but also in 2001 in the country (1 in 10 households) (soft targets, rich pickings).
From social cohesion to social fragmentation
Headingley used to be home to a diverse but balanced and coherent population: it comprised the chattering classes (from the universities) and working-class residents, it comprised students and young professionals, and it included various other ethnic groups (especially Asian). There was a normal age profile, sustaining a range of institutions (like schools) and associations.
· But studentification has meant an exodus: emigration is pushed by loss of amenity, and pulled by the lure of high house prices; immigration is deterred by exactly the same factors.
· Services have been lost, especially schools – necessary not only to attract new families, but also to establish social networks. Two or the three primaries recently closed in Leeds were in Headingley, and more are anticipated
· Absenteeism has become dominant: most properties (60%) are no longer owned by residents but by absentee landlords; and most residents (tenants) are absent for a third of the year.
· The transient population, and consequent loss of social networks, leads to isolation, especially of the elderly. Two-thirds of students don’t know their neighbours (Unipol survey, 2002).
· Low-level antisocial behaviour is endemic (during term-time) – noise (especially at night), minor vandalism, evacuation by pubbers and clubbers (vomit, urine, faeces).
· Crime levels are high, especially burglary – worst not only in the city, but also in 2001 in the country (1 in 10 households) (soft targets, rich pickings).
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