LEEDS
Friends of Beckett Street Cemetery
NEWSLETTER NO 17 APRIL 2006
There has been a dramatic change of fortune for the Friends who last year were overwhelmed with problems.
The Leeds City Council decided to conduct a feasibility study into the cemetery's conservation and funding prospects and the consultants turned to the Friends for help. Lynda Kitching who suceeded Sylvia Barnard as secretary takes up the story:
We felt from the beginning that the cemetery was being respected and that the issues were being grasped by the consultants from Parkstone. They had been tasked with providing three options for improving the cemetery, needing minimal, medium and optiminal interventions. Many of their written findings might have been copied from Sylvia Barnard's writings 10-15 years ago and I have spoken to her to say that I believe that she has been vindicated!
Despite our reservations about how the myriad of city council officers involved would react to the findings and recommendations, we were surprised, nay astounded, when they were accepted with hardly a murmur. From the start, the council's parks and countryside managers talked about it as a 'park' or 'greenspace' and are already exploring the options for lottery funding. Among interested supporters are the staff of the Thackray Museum, [opposite the cemetery] who are keen to involve in the cemetery their thousands of young visitors as part of Victorian studies and the Royal Armouries have said that they wish 'to have a presence'.
We cannot claim responsibility for the turnaround. the political climate has obviously changed - Leeds City Council signed up to the CABE Space 'Parkforce' during the summer wherby staff will work their allocated park and last month they announced £3 million allocated to local parks, including Beckett Street, the only cemetery.
So trying to keep things in perspective, the Council has a substantial recruitment and re-training programme to embark upon; we are applying for charitable status to unlock other funding. In the meantime, the Probation Service offenders with Community Service Orders are working three days a week to clear it of years of growth. The public had been asked to vote for an area that they would most like to see cleaned up and Beckett Street won. We need to keep the pressure up, but I'm accepting that there is some planning going on as to the way forward and just how Parkstone's recommendations could be put into action.
