Dear readers — welcome to the first official edition of The Exchange. We’re thrilled to finally get going.
The edition you’re reading now was only possible because 500 people committed to support a new kind of local journalism in West Yorkshire. If you’re one of them, thank you from the bottom of our hearts for backing this fledgling venture. We’ll be taking payment tomorrow — if you have any issues with your subscription, please contact us here.
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If you missed our latest e-mail, we’ve hired two brilliant journalists to steer The Exchange forward: Brad Deas and Mia Jankowicz. You can read their stories, and why they wanted to launch The Exchange, here.
Here’s the plan. To begin with, we will publish three times a week:
- A Monday briefing — like this one — that gives you a round up of the big things going on, plus things to do and see
- A Wednesday article, which will only be available to our paying members
- A Saturday long read, which will be entirely free to read
We’ll see where we go from there. We’ve also launched our new website; if you’re reading this in your inbox, then click here to take a look! We hope you’ll agree it’s pretty swish. (You might need to login — you can just type in your e-mail and it’ll send you a code.)
So onto today’s briefing. It’s got bus bulk buying, small beer and peregrine falcons with strong feelings about the best place to live in West Yorkshire.
The round-up
🚌 West Yorkshire mayor, Tracey Brabin has put in a bumper bus order, signing off on a £100m deal with Wrightbus, who will be providing 193 single and double-decker buses for the Weaver Network. It’s been a good week for the Northern Ireland-based company, who also received an order for 125 vehicles from our friends in Manchester. Hopefully they’ve got enough capacity for all this bus building.
🍺If you’ve got a bit of time, drink deep of this long read about the state of Leeds’ beer scene from Pellicle. The piece looks at the rise and rise of Kirkstall Brewery (via a pub crawl where its beer is being sold everywhere) and asks whether this seeming monopoly is a problem. “Leeds drinks well, but it drinks narrowly,” is perhaps the key line from the piece, which argues that Manchester, Sheffield and Liverpool are all doing a better job of nurturing their independent beer scene. If you’ve never tried any of the beers from Piglove, we can attest that they’re incredible, particularly their smoked Kölsch-style beer Holy Cosmos.
🎸 We loved this piece in the Guardian about local post-punk band Yard Act, who burst onto the scene during the pandemic and are releasing their new album in July. You’re Gonna Need a Little Music is the first album they’ve been able to record in the studio they built in Leeds and their singer James Smith says staying in the city (rather than decamping down south) has helped him stay grounded despite the fame. “On our first two albums, we almost felt like competition winners or something,” adds bassist Ryan Needham. “It took a lot of time to get over that and think, ‘No, we’re fucking good. We deserve a seat at the table.’”
🐦 Bradford or Leeds? If you’re a peregrine falcon, there’s apparently only one answer: Bradford. This follows news (BBC) that a webcam has been set up to allow you to watch the chicks nesting in Dalton Mills, Keighley (watch it here). “If you're a peregrine, Bradford's really attractive,” said local bird enthusiast, Paul Wheatley. “Some fantastic heritage, tall buildings, great places for them to nest. More attractive than Leeds.”
Coming up
On Wednesday, we’ll be looking at the complicated debate around a new housing development and how it’s affecting the surrounding community. And, on Saturday, we’re going straight for the big one: a long read on the Leeds tram (or lack of). Know things? Have opinions? Send us an e-mail.
The big story: Panic! At the council
Top Line: In Kirklees, the council has reached a complete impasse after failing for a second time to appoint a new leader. Confusion has reigned since voters set councillors an incredibly tricky puzzle to solve.
The fallout: Kirklees provided one of the most extraordinary results of election night:
- A district which has mostly had Labour leaders for several decades elected not one Labour councillor
- Reform ended up as the largest party, with 29 councillors. But this is still some way off the 35 needed for a majority
- The rest of the council is a heady mix of a big block of 14 independents (themselves split between the “Kirklees Independents” grouping and the “Valley Independents”), a large-ish block of Green councillors (12), nine Conservatives and five Lib Dems.
Take one: The first time the new council met at Huddersfield town hall to try to pick a leader on 20 May, they got nowhere. (This was the meeting where the new Reform leader, Sarah Wood, unwillingly went viral after admitting she didn’t quite understand how council processes worked.)
Take two: The councillors met again last Thursday to try to hash something out, with both Wood and the Green party leader Andrew Cooper putting themselves forward to lead the council. This time, councillors voted in secret, perhaps in the hopes they would be able to get somewhere if they didn’t have to worry about appearances. Unfortunately, at the end of the meeting, both hopefuls had received 29 votes apiece, with others abstaining. The fact that Wood’s support exactly tallied with the number of Reform councillors suggests that none of those outside Reform are willing to help put them in charge.
Tories in the hot seat: The group that find themselves kingmakers are the Conservatives, with Reform to their right and the others (broadly) to their left. They might be expected to join a right block with Reform UK, but relationships have soured. Local Democracy Reporter Lyra Auld reported that, at last week’s meeting, Wood accused Conservative councillor Martyn Bolt of “name-calling” during the official ceremony to appoint a new mayor, something Bolt denied. Wood said that in between the two meetings there had been “fragmentation” rather than everyone pulling together.
A way out? One option being mooted to break the deadlock is for the council to adopt a “committee” system, where decisions are made jointly by representatives from all parties. Cooper has argued for this system for some time before this election, and believes it might be a way to resolve the stalemate. But Reform UK are understood to be against the move, pushing instead to keep the traditional leader and cabinet model. As the largest party, they may be expecting to end up in control.
Bottom line: In a highly unusual move, for the next six weeks the council will be run by its chief executive, Steve Mawson, who was not elected by the public. He’ll be keeping the top seat warm until at least 15th July, when another vote is scheduled, although The Exchange understands the council may have another go at picking someone earlier than that. In the meanwhile, the voters of Kirklees will just have to wait.
Home of the week
This three-bed in Wortley offers lots of light and a tap so good it’s been chosen as the main Rightmove image, although it’s all a bit too grey for our taste. If you’re a fan of neutral colour schemes, however, it’s yours for £325k.
Things to do
Run 🏃There are still tickets for this evening’s RunFest at LeftBank Leeds. Show up from 6pm, check out various branded gear, then go for a relaxed run in a small group, before returning for a night of DJ sets, food and drink.
Gardens 🌷On Wednesday morning, visit York Gate gardens to enjoy a special tour by the head gardener. Designed in the Arts and Crafts style, the gardens are presented as a series of “rooms”. Tickets here.
Film 🎞️Go and see The Christophers at Hyde Park Picturehouse, the acclaimed new film starring Ian McKellan and Michaela Coel. With several five star reviews, it’s both very funny and an opportunity to reflect on the value of art in the company of “Gandalf’s darker twin” (to quote Wendy Cook, head of cinema at HPP).
That’s it for now — we’ll be back on Wednesday.
