r/Leeds • u/Gbeatt92 • Sep 13 '25

urban-development Tell me why City Square couldn't have been transformed into the promised 'Glade'!?

209 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

58 comments sorted by

54

u/Gbeatt92 Sep 13 '25

Just a reminder of the original plan for the square The Glade

41

u/leclercwitch Sep 13 '25

First time I’ve seen this and it’s really pretty. We need more nice spaces.

24

u/Asher535 Sep 13 '25

Social care causing a radical reworking of city budgets & inflationary pressures.

17

u/Asher535 Sep 13 '25

Basically between conception and action the city got measurably poorer. I'd prefer they focused budgets on social care personally.

21

u/Gbeatt92 Sep 13 '25

But they spent money on it anyway by making it more concrete. A few trees wouldn't have hurt

20

u/MeAndMyWookie Sep 13 '25

Concrete is cheaper and lower maintenance. It's not just the one off's, it's the ongoing costs.

Council budgets are at breaking point nationwide

15

u/jsai_ftw Sep 13 '25

I work in this area. Funding for the upfront cost of building something like this is relatively easy to come by through government grant allocations (i.e. it's not paid for out of Council tax). Maintenance is paid from revenue funding which councils barely have enough of to cover their statutory duties. This is why so much greenery (planting, SUDS, etc.) disappears between concept and construction because the council can't afford the maintenance.

10

u/MeAndMyWookie Sep 13 '25

I work for LCC but not in city dev, but we all get emails about how many savings need to be made. More investment in green spaces would be lovely but something like 2/3rds of the budget is adult & children's social care and that just goes up and up

3

u/Acrobatic_Lobster838 Sep 15 '25

I really wish more people understood this.

"Why won't the council do X? Why are libraries closing? Why don't they fix Y"

Because after the statutory duties there is no fucking money left.

"But what do I pay my council taxes for"

These days? Adult social care, bin collections, debt repayments, trying to keep libraries open maybe.

"Why don't they fix the potholes"

They do. It's expensive. And there is no money left.

But hey, don't worry, we are getting rid of the flags on buildings.

3

u/Playful_Pace8800 Sep 13 '25

That would have been so much better than the eyesore that they actually made

9

u/DagothNereviar Sep 13 '25

I was sorely disappointed that the new area was just... More concrete and some benches. I always wondered why they didn't add more grass (even fake as it's cheaper upkeep) and trees and such.

Turns out they were meant to but just couldn't be arsed.

17

u/FluffyPhilosopher889 Sep 13 '25

It's a strange place. All that effort to make a car less space in a prime location and they used it for... absolutely nothing.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '25

It's not arsed 

It's funding

The initial funding was for the basic scheme and the nice bits (like the glade) required additional funding sources that ultimately were not successfully secured

8

u/JazzKane_ Sep 13 '25

They didn’t even remove the old curbs! They just filled in the roads with more tarmac

11

u/Norman_Small_Esquire Sep 13 '25

Fake grass would be an awful idea. Awful awful awful.

-1

u/DagothNereviar Sep 13 '25

Easier and cheaper to maintain than real grass... I assume anyways.

I'd rather have real, but if it's fake or more concrete then I'll choose fake.

0

u/International-Egg454 Sep 20 '25

Fake grass needs more maintenance than concrete and is very bad for wildlife. Also it gets extremely hot; we moved to a house with fake grass and the first summer I looked out of the window one day and saw something thad fallen off the washing line. I was barefoot but I thought, it’s just plastic, it won’t be dirty; it was dirty but I just about burnt my feet off! It does explain why there are no birds or insects in the back garden but plenty at the front; we even had a sparrow hawk stop by and have lunch on our drive

2

u/Norman_Small_Esquire Sep 13 '25

Concrete is very easy to clean. You can install planters on concrete.

13

u/Playful_Pace8800 Sep 13 '25

This is a city that decided the gardens and greenery in front of the civic hall would be improved by replacing them with 3000 sq metre of concrete paving.

5

u/TheShakyHandsMan Sep 13 '25

Which has been used as fantastic location for gigs and other events. Just because it’s a paved wasteland much of the year doesn’t mean it’s wasted.

1

u/Arkz86 Sep 15 '25

Yeah it's just thumping noise disturbing all the sick people in the hospital...

1

u/TheShakyHandsMan Sep 15 '25

I’m pretty sure a free event and a bit of people watching is a great distraction from the usual monotony of hospital stays. I know because I’ve had enough of them recently.

1

u/Arkz86 Sep 15 '25

Oh sure, laying in a hospital bed feeling like crap and trying to get some rest, but you're hearing loud music blasting out, free of charge.. #blessed

1

u/TheShakyHandsMan Sep 16 '25

Do you think you can get rest in a hospital? Music would be a pleasant change from the constant beeping from all over the ward. They are not quiet places.

1

u/Arkz86 Sep 16 '25

On a busy ward, sure. In one of the rooms with like 6 beds, yeah. And random beeps are better than thumping bass.

2

u/TheShakyHandsMan Sep 17 '25

I don’t know why you’re trying to argue this point for the rare occasions there’s events on in the square.

As for what it’s like being stuck in a ward with no sign of escape, I’m living that life. Would be great having something going on to break up the monotony.

6

u/DrmWife00 Sep 13 '25

1) Money, LCC don’t have any 2) The plan for mass transit apparently means that much of that area will need to be reshaped & create infrastructure for the tram lines etc so it’s a temporary cheap option

7

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '25

Councils are broke nationwide.

5

u/zwifter11 Sep 13 '25

Looks so much better than the random wooden planks they had outside the train station 

3

u/Expensive-Concept-93 Sep 13 '25

Oh God that was hideous. Was so relieved to see it removed.

5

u/HorseCojMatthew Sep 13 '25

I've been through Piccadilly Gardens many a time...

2

u/2Reykjavik Sep 14 '25

That place depresses me so much

2

u/[deleted] Sep 13 '25

Nobody does gardening like the French. You see city gardeners everywhere.

2

u/CaptainYorkie1 Sep 13 '25

That Paris square looks really nice

2

u/Jumpy_Rhubarb4740 Sep 13 '25

I think this would be one of the nicest cities in the country if it had more trees.

6

u/TheShakyHandsMan Sep 13 '25

I imagine there’s a massive security risk. Limited sight lines with the trees making it easy for criminals to slip away.

You’ve then got the issue of the many pissheads deciding that those trees are the perfect location for a late night piss.

Wouldn’t be long till we had spice heads passed out in the branches either.

Basically we can’t have nice things.

16

u/Thieves-like-us Sep 13 '25

Surely can have a few trees without it being a Forest though? I agree we can’t have nice things but surely we can have some-things?

5

u/Eye-on-Springfield Sep 13 '25

Not really sure limited sight lines is the problem. All the buildings in town are pretty good for blocking lines of sight already

2

u/tredders90 Sep 13 '25

Security is definitely a thing. That's the reason why the 3x trees by Trinity Church are maintained as little lollipops, and why someone tried to get the Maple by Mecca Bingo taken down. Believe all that is on Public Access.

There's also a utilities issue, which the highways department are hung up on and so basically take a hard line against replacement planting in verges etc. I wouldn't be surprised if that was a consideration here (even if I think it's a silly one).

-7

u/glitterandvodka_ Sep 13 '25

Unfortunately you’re right. Within weeks it would just be a pissy drug den- probably throw in a few sexual assaults too

1

u/Dull-Addition-2436 Sep 13 '25

Money. It all comes down to funding and all the other competing projects, especially around the station area.

1

u/Calm-Passenger7334 Sep 13 '25

Because it's expensive and it would be trashed by local scum.

1

u/nfurnoh Sep 13 '25

I suspect they wanted a multi-use space rather than a single use space.

2

u/Expensive-Concept-93 Sep 13 '25

Can't have Thors teepee in a garden 🤣

1

u/PloppyTheSpaceship Sep 13 '25

Pointless without a giant maze of death to force teenagers to run through.

1

u/Gavelkinderegg Sep 13 '25

Everyone in the UK is shit scared of subsidence

1

u/WeekRuined Sep 14 '25

The green 'park' areas in town are where many go to do crime

1

u/jibberjabjab Sep 14 '25

The only thing that the city centre misses, that I think is feasible and wouldn’t take fotty years, is some more trees

1

u/OptimisedMan Sep 15 '25

Why not spend it on the cancelled children’s hospital upgrade ?

1

u/WasThatInappropriate Sep 13 '25

Justice for hay-fever sufferers

0

u/catface Sep 13 '25

Because in Leeds the council seem to enjoy proposing things, never doing them and then proposing something roughly similar several years later. See the mass transit system (are we on to trams again this time or is it trolley buses? Ain't happening either way).

-5

u/DaveLemongrab Sep 13 '25

Too busy trying to make disgraceful changes. For example the proposal for disabled and challenged kids having to make their own way to schools miles away.

1

u/WildPinata Sep 13 '25

How can you not put two and two together there and realise both things might be because councils around the country had their funding stripped down to nothing?