Plans for new park in Leeds city centre

WORK on a new city centre park for Leeds could begin as early as next year, the Yorkshire Evening Post can reveal.

The creation of a park in the heart of the city has been a long-standing element of the civic vision for the sprawling South Bank Leeds regeneration area.

And now a report to Leeds City Council’s executive board has outlined important new details about the proposals. Key points from the report include:

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*The finished park would be around 3.5 hectares in size, with part of it running in an arc shape across the former Tetley brewery site;

FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.
FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.

*The section on the Tetley site would be “delivered and funded” by landowner Vastint UK as part of a wider development masterplan that includes up to 850 new homes;

*Council-owned land at Meadow Lane – near the Adelphi pub – would also be used in the creation of the park;

*A new footbridge could be built to provide a direct link between the park and green space in the thriving Sovereign Square area on the other side of the River Aire.

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Construction work on the park could get under way in late 2019, with a programme of “phased implementation” planned over five years.

FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.
FLASHBACK: Demolition at the former Tetley Brewery site in 2012.

Coun Richard Lewis, the council’s executive member for regeneration, transport and planning, told the YEP: “The new city centre park at the heart of the South Bank is a hugely exciting project.

“It will help make the city centre cleaner and greener, and it will be a welcoming new destination and attraction for the city in its own right, a place where people will want to live, work close to, visit and spend time.”

The plans will be considered by the executive board at a meeting taking place at Leeds Civic Hall tomorrow.

Covering a space the size of 250 football pitches, Leeds’s South Bank stretches along the southern side of the River Aire from Holbeck to Leeds Dock.