YEP Letters October 25

HS2 will bring massive benefits to city

Coun Neil Buckley, Alwoodley Ward

I was a little disappointed with the negative tone of your recent HS2 coverage. This is a huge project and there are bound to be a range of issues to resolve, but let’s also not lose sight of the massive benefits and opportunities that High Speed Rail will bring to the city.

Building new £500m Leeds HS2 station ‘may hit residents’ quality of life’

The improved connectivity to and from Leeds is a huge prize, not to mention the thousands of jobs, targeted investment and city-wide growth that will be generated. The cities that succeed in the future will be those that can unlock the potential of new technology, creating highly paid jobs and careers which attract and retain the best talent. HS2 is a key part of that.

We should also be looking at HS2 as a critical part of our wider transport ambitions, improving connectivity within the city and across the region. Let’s get serious about HS3 and a mass-transit system for Leeds to embed inter-connectivity across the North.

We need to listen to what people say in the consultation, but now is also not the time to be overly negative about some of the challenges that lie ahead. Now is the time to bang the drum for Leeds and make sure those in Whitehall can hear us.

Something should be done to end ‘nightmare’

Carol Lee, Cookridge

What is the question most asked in Holbeck? If you asked a resident there they would say “Are you looking for business?”

This is a question posed to male residents by prostituted women when they go to the local shops or, as happened to my partner, when they are just getting out of their car to go into their house.

It is asked of most tradesmen who enter the area, as happened to my plasterer when eating his sandwich in his van. It is asked by kerb crawlers to innocent female residents as they are walking along the streets, no matter what age they are or how they are dressed and that disturbingly includes young teenage girls.

There are around 80 drug addicted prostitutes in the area and the consequences of the managed area for prostitution is affecting thousands of people in the Holbeck residential area plus business owners and workers in the Holbeck Lane “zone” area.

There are so many personal hidden costs to this problem that do not get publicised, one of which is the cost to many businesses who have had to put railings round their premises to prevent sex acts and sex litter in their grounds.

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