The Socialist 19 August 2020

Students 2 : 0 Tories - Protests work!

Students 2 : 0 Tories - Protests work!

Student protests force government retreat

"As a working-class student, I already faced struggles"

Tory track and trace failure

Tory planning deregulation: a charter for building profitable slums

NHS workers demand improved pay - 15% for all now!

Revolutionary mood in Lebanon following horrific explosion

Mass protests and strikes rock Belarus

80th anniversary of Leon Trotsky's assassination

Yorkshire: Celebrating the life and ideas of Leon Trotsky

September school return must be safe for all workers and students

NHS pay: unions must take fight to U-turn Tories

75 years since the publication of Animal Farm: From 'two legs bad' to 'two legs better'

300 Covid cases at Northampton food plant - management to blame, not the workers!

PCS union: Vote Yes in DWP ballot! Reject longer opening hours

Support the Tower Hamlets council workers, vote for Hugo Pierre!

Black Lives Matter: this generation is willing to stand up and fight

We can't take any more cuts

Nottingham: oppose the far right and attempts to divide us

Your donations help us campaign

Leeds: Little London residents are celebrating

To push change we need to be organised - why we joined the Socialist Party

Sheffield: Support Sue

Brighton: Another luxury development

The Socialist: back to weekly soon

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Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/1098/31226

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Leeds: Little London residents are celebrating

Little London, Leeds, photo Mtaylor848/CC, photo Mtaylor848/CC (Click to enlarge)

Tenants and residents in Little London, an inner-city, Leeds council estate, are celebrating. Private developer Engie has just withdrawn its application to build an 18-storey monster block of unaffordable flats on a valued green space, locally known as the Mound.

Little London is a densely populated. Poverty and overcrowding are rife. So when this application was first announced, nearly two years ago, local people were furious.

Loads of people came to public campaign meetings and talked about the lack of local amenities and safe spaces for their children to play.

They also expressed concern at the loss of over 50 mature trees - a disgrace in a city that has declared a 'climate emergency'.

It took much hard work to get the developers to back down. Even after having the application thrown out last August, the developers attempted to bypass local democracy by appealing to the government's Planning Inspectorate.

Without a concerted campaign involving meetings, protests, petitions and lobbying, this development would almost certainly have gone ahead.

Having beaten back the developers, we are determined to turn this victory into a beginning, not an end.

Plans are now in place to use this site for food growing initiatives and outdoor learning projects for local children.

We hope that the networks established throughout this campaign will be used to strengthen local tenant and resident organisation, so that solidarity can built around community issues in the future.