Why playing a part in rebirth of Leeds has meant so much to me: Carolyn Lord

Leeds was quite a trailblazer in early public-private partnerships and there was a buzz about making seemingly impossible changes happen.

The city has come a long way since the 70s when it was given the oft-lamented moniker of ‘Motorway City of the North’ - the antithesis of how Leeds now wants to be recognised, as a progressive champion of inclusive sustainability.

However, many opportunities for new jobs and homes did spring from the new connectivity provided by strategic roads, including the ‘new’ motorway of the ‘90s, formerly named the A1-M1 Link Road, now the M1.

Major highway changes revived key entrances to the city to the south and east, including Thorpe Park and Aire Valley, Leeds, and I was lucky to be involved in advising on strategic outer east Leeds developments for many years. Driving along the East Leeds Orbital Road across to Thorpe Park is particularly gratifying.

Over the last few decades, technical advances resulted in water and waste-water treatment works being rationalised and the old treatment work sites were released for new developments such as the White Rose Centre.

My colleague at Clarion, Kate Butterfield, and I were fortunate to be involved in these and other brownfield land regeneration projects when we were partners in a niche planning law firm.

Developments along the River Aire were unviable in the 80s, although it’s perhaps hard to believe now. Swathes of semi-derelict land and buildings lay at Leeds’s heart. After clean-up harnessed by a multi-party approach, the River Aire became a resource which adds value in so many ways, particularly now that it is controlled by the Flood Alleviation Scheme.

One long-running issue of industrialisation, reinforced by the notorious ‘70s motorways, was the severance of inner south Leeds from the more prosperous centre.

Holbeck in particular suffers from multiple infrastructure barriers to jobs and services in the centre and there are now moves to mitigate this.

Ground zero location for the industrial revolution in Leeds had been Water Lane in Holbeck with Marshall’s four flax mill sites. From the days of the Council’s Urban Development Unit in the 80s, the Council had identified the need to do something about the many declining Holbeck industrial heritage buildings. I knew the area fairly well.

My father had worked at (now largely redeveloped) Doncaster’s Monkbridge on Whitehall Road from the 1950s until the late ‘80s.

As a child, I learned to swim in Holbeck Baths. All these years later, it is a thrill to have worked on the masterplan for the new Temple district in Holbeck and to witness CEG’s flat-iron Globe Point as the first new office

building there.

Some 20 years ago, Kate Butterfield had obtained the first of many planning permissions in this part of Holbeck and went on to promote the adjacent Bridgewater Place in 2004. We also worked on the first of the Whitehall Road/Wellington Road sites, where the city’s ‘West End’ is rapidly completing, meaning that South Bank must supply the quality new generation of office space that the city’s inclusive growth needs, supported by adjacent build-to-rent apartment schemes in an area that now feels so alive.

Equally exciting is the more holistic view of Leeds as part of the West Yorkshire Combined Authority area, where new connections will bring neighbouring cities and towns closer together for work, learning and leisure.

With Leeds strengthening its position at the economic heart of the North, it’s satisfying to see its continual re-birth and vibrancy making it one of the UK’s fastest growing cities.

Carolyn Lord is a Partner at Clarion