Leeds Valley Park.

[Leodian]

When in the centre of Leeds today a coach drove by that had 'Leeds Valley Park' (LVP) as its destination. I had never heard of LVP before so I did a search and in the website of the LVP owners it is described as a business park "located immediately to the South-East of Leeds city centre and bounded by the M1 and M621 motorways. The Park is also situated within the Aire Valley region which is one of the most significant areas of investment opportunity in the Yorkshire and Humber Region...Along with residential development and leisure opportunities focused on the river and canal corridor, Aire Valley Leeds is poised to become a key driver for the future prosperity of Leeds and the wider region".I have not been in that area for very many years now so it has clearly been developed a lot. I keep finding out that I know even less of Leeds than I thought I did!

[tyke bhoy]

LVP has become to some extent the bain of my life. The roundabout on the A61 on Bell hill combined with the traffic light installation on the A61 at the wood lane junction have totally kyboshed the southeast bound traffic in the evening rush hour. Vetura and Arla are ther most obvious occupants and probably the formers but to some extent the latters employees will also abandon cars in barely legal ways in order to drive to and park near work

[raveydavey]

tyke bhoy wrote: LVP has become to some extent the bain of my life. The roundabout on the A61 on Bell hill combined with the traffic light installation on the A61 at the wood lane junction have totally kyboshed the southeast bound traffic in the evening rush hour. Vetura and Arla are ther most obvious occupants and probably the formers but to some extent the latters employees will also abandon cars in barely legal ways in order to drive to and park near work Every 'enhancement' to traffic flow in that area only ever seems to make things worse. Given the fact much of the remodeled road layout is relatively new it's a mystery to me how poor traffic flow is.It's almost like someone designed it like that....I wonder if that is related to the fact that this was one of the roads that had the 'shadow' congestion charging trial installed and where Metro keep insisting they want to install a tram / electrobus and park and ride..?    

[Bruno]

The first half of LVP to be built, North of the A61 bridge over the M1, lies pretty much on the site of Beeston Pit. An interesting fact about this area is that in 1753, a group of workmen digging a cutting here on Bell Hill uncovered a Roman stone coffin containing the remains of a woman. A Roman horseshoe was also discovered by workers digging the foundations for the brewery at Carlton Bridge in 1870.Leeds Valley Park is one of those white elephant developments which nowadays are thrown up indiscriminately alongside any motorway junction which lacks one. LVP is the facility for J44 of the M1, built when the M1 was extended to meet the A1 (whenever that was, it all becomes blur, probably around 2000). In an unusual twist on the usual model, this 'park' was built half a mile down the road from the junction itself.I live nearby and used to pass every day, and Arla was, as far as I can remember (and I'm happy to be corrected here) the only occupier of any of the buildings for several years, until Ventura, encouraged I imagine by some kind of discounted business rates or other incentive from LCC, decided to open a call centre there. Unfortunately, LCC, although happy to endorse and partially claim the credit for the equivalent of 600+ new full-time jobs, refused to allow the car park to be extended by a single space above the 150 originally built, in case it caused increased congestion. You didn't have to be Mother Shipton to see what the result of that was going to be.You can't blame the Ventura staff for wanting to drive to work, no doubt many of them will be working 3 or 4 hours shifts, mothers and the like, who have to know they'll be able to get back in time to collect their kids from school. It's not going to be possible for them to take two or three buses to get to work, and equally, as most of us know, it's a dangerous game to rely on public transport running to the timetable.No doubt the council will be able to blame 'the government' for being hamstrung over parking regulations, if pressed.        

[tyke bhoy]

Whether you regard the M621 into Leeds or the Link Road as the M1 I'd say the whole of LVP is pretty much North of both. Thre first phase was built around the private road between the A61 and A639 and while I would agree Arla were the only major occupants I do think there were several of the smaller units taken up including a couple of retail (food) units. Arla occupied an Industrial unit at the A639 end and Offices at the A61 end. Ventura moved from Hepworth Point (off Clay Pit Lane) to the building opposite Arla on the A61. I couldn't comment on the reasoning or incentives behind that move. Phase 2 of LVP which I thought when works first started was the much needed link between the M1 (link road) south and the M621 (old M1) north-west, turned out to be a white elephant for a few years but finally seems to be beginning to be occupied.From memory the link road opened around 2000, LVP phase one was soon after that and phase 2 probably around 2005.

[Bruno]

tyke bhoy wrote: Whether you regard the M621 into Leeds or the Link Road as the M1 I'd say the whole of LVP is pretty much North of both. You're quite right, of course, tyke bhoy. I get into a knot with directions when I'm not looking at a map. My skewed logic went like this: when you're driving into Leeds on the A61, you go over the motorway bridge and if you turn right at the roundabout into LVP you will be travelling the same way as the Northbound traffic on the motorway, hence I called it North. I believe this part is LVP Phase 1.If you were to turn left at the roundabout into what I believe is strictly speaking LVP Phase 2, you would be travelling the same direction as the Southbound traffic on the motorway, hence South. However, the fact that the motorway is running pretty much east/west at this point rather mucks up my method of navigation.I thought LVP was just the office park, does it include Arla's Depot as well?I spoke to an old mate who worked at Ventura for several years around that time, he says they definitely opened for business there in 2006, but the jobs were new ones, they didn't move anybody out of Leeds centre. Their Claypit Lane offices were Hepworth House (8/9/10 storey? 1960s style block) which was sold before then to Unite who built the massive student block alongside it, and Providence House, formerly known as Providence works - this is the c150 year old building which Ventura still occupies, and which was formerly the Hepworth Tailoring Factory. Sorry to introduce my family again, but my grandfather spent most of his working life at Hepworths Providence Works as a Master Cutter, initially they cut out everything by hand, later on they went on to cut out suit pieces many at a time using band saws. My grandad died in 1963, his lungs clogged solid with tiny cloth fibres - no health and safety in those days. When I first worked in Leeds City Centre as a young man, my grandma used to warn me to keep away from The Cobourg Pub nearby, having heard the stories my grandad told about the kind of people who used to frequent it in the 1920s and 30s. Sounds like it was bit of a red-light district at that time.Apologies Leodian, this is now way off the subject of Leeds Valley Park, but isn't it odd how one thing links to another?

[Leodian]

Hi Bruno. "Apologies Leodian, this is now way off the subject of Leeds Valley Park, but isn't it odd how one thing links to another?"No apology needed. I find it interesting how many threads lead off topic but usually to things equally interesting. A recent thread on the location of the White Horse Farm at or near the White Horse Inn on York Road got me to look at some old maps of that area which is near where I used to live. From the maps I then found that there were more old coal pits very near to where I lived than I thought. I might do a thread at some stage.

[tyke bhoy]

Bruno wrote: I thought LVP was just the office park, does it include Arla's Depot as well?I spoke to an old mate who worked at Ventura for several years around that time, he says they definitely opened for business there in 2006, but the jobs were new ones, they didn't move anybody out of Leeds centre. Their Claypit Lane offices were Hepworth House (8/9/10 storey? 1960s style block) which was sold before then to Unite who built the massive student block alongside it, and Providence House, formerly known as Providence works - this is the c150 year old building which Ventura still occupies, and which was formerly the Hepworth Tailoring Factory. Bruno my mistake this time. The industrial estate, as opposed to, Businees Park, over the A639 from LVP definitely predates LVP although I couldn't place when ARLA occupied it. They were definitely the first obvious occupants of LVP probably because of the proximity to the depot. Nout doubting your mate for a minute but the decant from Hepworth point occured at almost exactly the same time as Ventura opened at LVP and so I assumed that was the migration. Leeds Met did occupy 2-3 floors of Hepworth Point from approx 2006 to 2010 when completion of the Rose Bowl and Broadcasting place made it surplus to requirements