The Kirkstall Valley Campaign Home Page

Historic Archive

Apart from this notice, this site was last updated in 1997, when the Kirkstall Valley Campaign Ltd was wound up on the application of the Treasury Solicitor, unsuccessfully seeking to recover their High Court costs. From this you may judge the government's real commitment to community politics. Fortunately, the Kirkstall Valley Campaign's incorporation as a limited company operated as the law provides, and individual losses were painful but limited. Almost everything that we said at the time has been proved right by subsequent events, and it is difficult to identify a single area in which we were mistaken. To discover what has happened since, you could visit some of the survivors at http://www.kirkstallward.net .

politics, sleaze, jobs, environment, health, money, sport, traffic, planning, roads, shopping, schools, open spaces, freedom of information

This Website is about the issues that affect your daily life.

It tells of a ten-year struggle by people living near the Kirkstall Valley to run their own lives without outside interference. It describes our experience with big business, city bosses, lawyers, politicians, property developers, and the whole rag-bag of parasites and hangers-on who walk the corridors of power. It tells you how to work the British legal and political systems, and how, very often, those systems fail to protect the public interest. You can learn by our mistakes, and our successes, what you should do when your own community is in the firing line. We can help you, but you could also help us. If, like us, you believe in democracy, equality and truthfulness, then click here to find out what you can do.

To visit the whole site in a fairly logical sequence, click the Royal Route icon at the foot of each page. There is also a Keyword Index, and a Table of Contents below. If you have any comments, queries or suggestions, mail these to John Illingworth at john@illo.demon.co.uk

Table of Contents

• Quick Summary - the bare essentials of our story
• Introduction - how the whole amazing business started
• Leeds Development Corporation - a non-elected quango
• Sports and Open Spaces - how kids lose out in the inner city
• Planning for Real - asking the people what they want
• Kirkstall Nature Reserve - wildlife in central Leeds
• Local Ombudsman - how the system doesn't work
• The Berkshire Plan - property developers move in
• Employment issues - how to hoodwink the public
• Environmental Assessment - getting around the law
• The Bums' Rush - how to secure a planning consent
• Judicial Review - off to the High Court in London
• Court of Appeal - dirty tricks by government lawyers
• Detailed chronology - a blow by blow account
• Maps and plans - zoom into the Kirkstall Valley
• Historic Kirkstall - look around our ancient monuments
• Latest news - how you can help the Campaign
• Conclusions - what we really think about the system