You heard it here first

Welcome back readers after The Exchange’s biggest week so far, with our bombshell story on Mothin Ali’s allowance, and the questions around it, getting a lot of attention.

We’re now back from a slightly surreal weekend. We were basking in the flickering glow of Mia’s interview with the man fighting to keep the dying art of neon-bending alive. “A fascinating read. Makes me want to go out looking for signs”, said reader Simon Huddlestone. (A word of warning: if you do this, you will start seeing fake LED neon everywhere.)

But on Saturday night, we were alerted to the fact that an institution no less august than the Sunday Times had nicked our homework. “The Sunday Times can reveal that Mothin Ali, a Leeds city councillor who has served as co-deputy leader of the Green Party in England and Wales since last September, is the owner of two rental buy-to-let properties,” Katie Tarrant wrote.

As you, dear readers, know all too well, this was in fact revealed by The Exchange three days earlier. We didn’t make a huge deal out of it because, frankly, we thought questions over the use of Leeds taxpayers’ cash were more important. Nonetheless, by the end of the weekend, the Sun, the Telegraph and the BBC had all gone in hard on the landlord story (the Greens have pledged to abolish private landlords). I guess it just goes to show that we’d never make it in the cut-throat world of Westminster journalism.

Which is just as well — our calling is to write local news. But now we need your help. The biggest thing that will give our journalism more impact (and make it harder for others to pinch it) would be if we can get more people reading us. We now have just over 5,000 total readers on our mailing list, and the next big target for us is to double that to 10,000.

So who do you know who would enjoy The Exchange? Why not forward them this e-mail, or ping our website link — www.theexchange.news — onto every WhatsApp group chat you’re part of (they’ll thank you, trust us). It’s the biggest thing that you could do to help us today — thank you.

The round-up:

🟢 A Leeds Green councillor, Cristiana Mirosanu, has resigned from the group, in news received by The Exchange minutes before going to press. Mirosanu previously spoke out about what she saw as issues with Mothin Ali's Special Responsibility Allowance (SRA). She will now sit as an "Independent Green" in the chamber. This leaves the Greens with ten councillors, barely hitting the 10% threshold that entitled them to the SRAs in the first place. (There are 99 seats on the council.)

🚉 The overhaul of the entrance to Leeds Station has been pushed back once again, the YEP reports. Having initially been projected to reopen in autumn 2025, it’s been delayed umpteen times, most recently promised for … about seven days ago. The project goes hand in hand with maintaining the historic mill goit that forms part of the station’s famed Dark Arches — read all about them here. The latest date we’ve got for the reopening is October. 

🛰️ Keighley could get a high-tech space testing centre, which would provide environmental testing for satellite hardware and radio frequency tech. According to the local democracy reporting service, this will include a “vacuum chamber, thermal chamber, humidity chamber and a vibration table to recreate conditions encountered in space.” Tomorrow, Bradford Council will consider whether to allocate £4.5 million — roughly half the project cost — to BSC Filters Ltd to set up “Space Test North”. The money would come from the pot formerly known as Levelling Up money, meaning “there would be no cost to the Council base budget,” the agenda item states. 

🪧 A protest against the planned Skelton Grange data centre is set to take place in central Leeds this Saturday. We reported on the plans for the Microsoft data centre on the site of a former power plant back in June, but since then the No Leeds Data Centre campaign has grown enormously. It’s been easily the most talked-about thing on the Leeds subreddit in ages, with energetic debate from both sides of the argument.

The anti-side appears to have gained momentum — aside from a huge response to its petition and a mass of new objections on the Leeds city council planning portal, they’ve also garnered the support of 11 Leeds Green councillors and Labour MP Richard Burgon. Burgon has also got 20 MPs to back his Early Day Motion calling for a national moratorium on data centres. 

To recap, the centre was given a provisional green light in April. Though Microsoft conducted a consultation, campaigners say that it escaped most people’s notice anyway — hence the massive reaction after the closing date. Responding to some of the campaigners’ environmental concerns, a spokesperson for Microsoft said: “The proposed facility would be air cooled for more than 95% of the time, we match all our energy use with renewable energy in the UK, and Microsoft remains committed to our goals of becoming carbon negative, water positive and zero waste by 2030.”

Kirklees Lib Dems have come out fighting after the Reform Party announced a new flag policy. It’s broadly in line with Reform’s efforts elsewhere and limits what can be normally flown to four flags. As well as branding it divisive and “completely out of touch with what residents care about,” Lib Dem leader Anthony Smith accused the party of doing very little else all summer. 

Kirklees has already lost a lot of time after the leadership battle — finally won by Reform’s Sarah Wood — stretched on over weeks of deadlock. Over the summer, the council then scrapped every cabinet meeting, in order to "allow staff to brief new Cabinet Members fully on the key issues,” given decisions need to be announced 28 days ahead of meetings, a council spokesperson told the Huddersfield Daily Examiner.

Reform have shot back on Facebook to say that actually, they have been busy: they’ve also taken the “serious and significant” action of writing a letter asking for Kirklees to be included in the grooming gangs inquiry. 

✝️ What is it with statues disappearing? A new mystery surrounds a statue that disappeared from St Mary’s Church in Oxenhope, Keighley, last week. The two-foot wooden carving of St Cuthbert disappeared from its spot above the communion table some time between 9am last Monday and 5pm Tuesday, Rev Denise Hayes told The Exchange. “It just doesn’t make any sense at all,” she said — the statue is heavy and is not particularly valuable, and it was positioned out of easy reach. St Cuthbert, depicted holding the head of King Oswald, has been a fixture there for almost 100 years. 

Rev Hayes emphasised what the statue means to her congregation, and is appealing to whoever took it to bring it back. “Just bring it back and we’ll just leave it,” she said. “We all make wrong choices sometimes.” Despite the theft, Hayes says she’ll keep the church open during normal hours for the community as always. “We don’t want to start locking our doors,” she said. “We’ve lost what we’re about when we do things like that.” 

Keep your eyes peeled for this fellow:

🦷A rescue horse found on a Bradford roadside was found to have “two almost completely normal-sized teeth” growing in his skull, the BBC reported. According to World Horse Welfare, which rescued the horse — a Welsh pony called King — he had a rare defect known as an “ear tooth”. "King's case was certainly one of the most bizarre we've experienced,” said vet Kai Cahun. As of August, King has recovered from some very complex dental surgery, is now in fine fettle and is ready to be rehomed (and is apparently really friendly). 

The big picture:

Perfect symmetry and crystal-clear reflection on a still day at Leeds’ Call Lane, thanks to Kirran Gibson on Instagram — follow here for more great shots of the city (and a very smart looking cat).

Home of the week:

A doer upper: this two-bedroom flat in Moortown, Leeds has just been reduced to £135,000. It’s a leasehold and described as “an ideal opportunity for first time buyers or buy to let investors”. Up to you if you want to negotiate for what we’re dubbing a “multi-coloured earbud” rug being included. Take a look here.

Things to do:

📚 Horror lovers, rejoice. Waterstones, in Albion Street, Leeds is welcoming the “Queen of Horror”, C.J. Tudor, to the city on Tuesday evening. The event celebrates the release of Tudor’s new book, ‘Serenity Falls’, which officially comes out on Thursday (but you can get hold of it two days early). The new title is described as “Stephen King meets Twin Peaks” in an “addictively disturbing thriller”. There will be time for audience questions and book signings at the event, which runs from 7pm until 9.30pm. Tickets are £5 or £22 with the book.

🤘 Wake me up inside! If you instantly know what that’s about you’re probably already going to the Evanescence concert at the First Direct Bank Arena tomorrow night. If this is the first you’re hearing of the GRAMMY® Award-winning rock band coming to Leeds, then act quick. There’s still a fair few tickets left, ranging in price from £56.45 to £78.95 (unless you’re flush enough to be able to afford the two remaining premium seats in The Mixer — a cool £333.25 each).

🐦 Grab your binoculars for this all-female birdwatching and bird photography morning. This one is for all abilities and takes place at the RSPB (Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) St Aidan’s Nature Park, between Leeds and Castleford on Wednesday. It’s free to get involved (but do book tickets), with the group meeting at the nature reserve’s cafe at 10am. And who knows, you might even make it onto ‘The Big Picture’ section in one of our future editions. Do feel free to send over your snaps.