Rob Calver

@botzarelli @thomasforth 20 years ago! I wonder if more would turn back into houses if the school was still there?

@thomasforth Very handy for the boys to go to the grammar school too.

A bit of a scrub and a touch of paint and you can just about imagine back to when the houses on Woodhouse Moor were among the most desirable in Leeds. Late 1800s I guess.

@thomasforth Interesting how lower Leeds is, I suppose there are still vast tracts of empty brownfield 1km out.? Can think of 14 towers going up in that zone currently and twice as many with planning permission though

Got the tool (it's very slow, be patient) finished last night. Still looks to work this morning. For Great Britain only (sorry NI) --- how Manchester came to be a normal city, with high core density, and density decreasing as you go out. tomforth.co.uk/ringpopulation…

I think this is now wrong. North English Cities are now just as dense as their European equivalents like Amsterdam, Hamburg, Copenhagen, etc... with extremely strong economies. There are some different patterns within that density I admit, but I don't think it matters much.

@Fat_Jacques @thomasforth If anyone fails to understand they are the same/stricter than double yellows they need a ban. It's pretty simple/intuitive

@thomasforth Does anyone in Leeds know what they mean?

Are these the first double red lines in Leeds?

@PoliticalUklist @thomasforth I assume the Jewish population moved here because it had become cheap/unfashionable and left when they got better off. Although I imagine the centre of that community was further down the hill and in, now demolished, Buslingthorpe which had less fancy houses/slums

@thomasforth When was this area last fancy? 50 years ago Peter Sutcliffe was stalking it. Maybe 100 years ago just before the local Jewish population moved further North.

Been snooping around formerly fancy North Leeds.

@thomasforth Very slowly gentrifying in Chapeltown. Obviously very fancy once, will be again sooner or later. Chapel Allerton/Gledhow have already become distinctly bijou long ago

Actually a lot more £££s than I'd have guessed. But it is enormous and in fantastic condition.

@1he0pposite @Birdyword @danwwang Until the 50s

@Birdyword @danwwang Didn't Leeds, originally have trams?

.@danwwang's annual letter is a real treat as ever. I'm glad to have made a footnoted contribution, always important to stay on message.

@thomasforth The SNP breakthrough in 2015 possibly changed everything about these relationships - take a while to see how it works now

Now seeing it on a graph I'm being a bit harsh. Still a while until we can think about saying.

I had hoped that a Labour government would reduce support for Scottish independence, as it always has in the past. Sadly for the Union, that doesn't seem to be happening this time. Or at least not yet. tomforth.co.uk/unreasonablesu…

All the questions about TRAMS you were too afraid to ask, number 7 will SHOCK YOU

@botzarelli @thomasforth Part of it. Also a brewdog

@thomasforth Wasn’t that once a Pizza Express?

Nice.

@AdamDabrowski99 @SophyRidgeSky @PJTheEconomist Relative economic stagnation and penury are not insurmountable! Just deeply unpleasant

@Navarthian @SophyRidgeSky @PJTheEconomist Not saying there won't be challenges but they're not necessarily insurmountable.

The most important thing you’ll read today. The birth rate has plunged to just 1.4 children per woman. Plus net immigration is falling sharply - could we see net emigration? And are we remotely prepared? @PJTheEconomist says no

@thomasforth It's quite new that local government isn't broadly powerful - our levels of centralisation are far from the tradition

I don't think that the "keep everything in Westminster, that's traditional" people have the monopoly on respecting and cherishing British traditions that they often seem to think they do. There are future traditional paths we could take, guided by paths not taken in the past.

We’re consulting on plans for our high street and city centre that will restrict bike riding, limit where street pedlars can sell, and extend pedestrianisation 💬 Have your say 👉 orlo.uk/eIlxn

@AdamDabrowski99 @SophyRidgeSky @PJTheEconomist Still, it's worth noting that the "adjustment" will involve higher taxes, lower spending, worse social care staffing, later pension ages, a crisis in working out how to pay for pensions and the nhs with less workers, etc

@SophyRidgeSky @PJTheEconomist Since David Attenborough noted that he hadn't seen any environmental disaster that hadn't been caused by human overpopulation, I think we should welcome this. The economy will adjust to new circumstances, whatever they might be.

@surplustakes @60sJapanfan That it takes so long for business cases is a choice! Is there a law that needs changing or guidelines so they take 6 months?

@60sJapanfan Defence also, but doesn't matter here anyway as HMT already allocated budget for Leeds tram works, so not an affordability issue

Consider that we have a government that has staked its political and financial capital on increasing investment and that the PM makes speech after speech about "backing the builders, not the blockers" The current Westminster bureaucracy has rendered the country ungovernable.

@JP_Spencer_ I'm not sure it's a good use of 3 years

@Navarthian I think the business case requirement is fine / standard - especially as they are basically used to set out what the plans are, confirm scope etc - but is all about proportionality.

I’d planned to post today about West Yorkshire’s economy. But this has been hastily rewritten following the tram delay news! What follows is a short thread on both. How has West Yorkshire been growing and what could be done to speed up the tram? 🧵 1/8

@horses54321582 @nos_raerf1 @MayorOfWY The average speed of that train is 30mph! Embarrassing

@nos_raerf1 @Navarthian @MayorOfWY The railway is perfectly good, takes well under half an hour and is little used.

There has been some disinformation around the West Yorkshire Mass Transit project. The programme has funding, is backed by government, local leaders and the business community. It was, as is usual for a project of this size, subject to independent review. I promised to deliver Mass Transit - and that is exactly what I will do. For more info - westyorks-ca.gov.uk/news/new-partn…

@SilverDraws I'd like a motorway city of the 70s T-shirt!

@horses54321582 @MayorOfWY Stopping trains, slow buses. A tram to link 1.5 million people isn't much to ask. Especially, if it allows the train line to be upgraded to something better that a cattle truck route

@MayorOfWY A tram from Leeds to Bradford. A route served round the clock by buses. And connected by a railway for the best part of two centuries. Transport nobody needs from a Mayor that wasn't wanted.

@realdealer79 @MayorOfWY @TracyBrabin Bradford is 2nd biggest, I think

@MayorOfWY @TracyBrabin Leeds is the biggest city in western Europe without a tram system and now we've been shafted again this is the 4th major transport scheme to be shelved we are treated like dirt in Leeds didn't help by putting every town in west Yorkshire in the scheme ..