Fabian's Blog

A Welcome New Addition to Chapeltown

Monday 18th October 2010 10:34 AM

Amid all the gloom and doom of the Commons announcement this Wednesday, a small but important event is happening tomorrow morning. The new Joint Services Centre on Chapeltown Road in my Leeds North East constituency is opening its doors.

A legacy from the last Labour Government, now more than five months dead, the new modern bright and brilliant building will literally lift this part of Leeds which over the years has become famous for all the wrong reasons.

Regeneration is not a popular subject these days, but the new Reginald Centre (named after the street on which is has been built) has risen from the ashes of the old Hayfield pub, long gone and unlamented, Chapeltown Community Centre which was demolished some years ago because of poor repair and asbestos (it was also a former Synagogue) and the lock-up single storey shop units built in the nineteen thirties and also in poor repair. The money for the new project came through the LIFT NHS scheme introduced by the last Government to provide community medical facilities and much more.

Much more is what it will provide if my sneak preview almost two weeks ago becomes reality, as I am certain it will. This is a real community public building which will offer some excellent and much-needed services to a deprived area now being gradually regenerated. More than two hundred people will also be coming to work here, which will also provide a boost to the local economy.

In my rapid tour of the almost-complete building the Tuesday before last, I was impressed at not only the design but also the services which will be offered. There's a medical practice, of course, community dental facilities, a pharmacy, the Primary Care Trust will have a call centre, as will Leeds City Council - in fact the two are working closely together to offer integrated services to the public. There's also a library and the benefits service will be operating there as well. I'm even using it myself for Advice Surgeries twice a month.

This is the kind of initiative which, tragically, only came to fruition in the dying days of the last Government, but which really makes a huge difference to the lives of the people who live in the area. It's such a great new addition to Chapeltown life and is bound to be well used by local residents. I only hope that the great Spending Review on Wednesday does not pull the rug from under a project like this and stop its funding. That would be a real waste.

So, thank you to everyone who made it possible. It's such a pleasure to see a brand new building opening in Chapeltown offering such important and essential service to everyone. I know that a lot of hard work went into making this dream a reality and I am certain - notwithstanding George Osborne - that it will be a huge success.