Leeds’ Chelsea garden contender goes on a shopping spree…

Caption: Leeds City Council Parks and Countryside Quality Assurance Officer Michelle Glover (left) and Technical Officer Claire Hern (right) hold a model of The HESCO Garden 2010 at the Victoria Quarter promotion

Bargain hunters heading to Leeds’ most famous shopping street this week will be greeted by a must-see item of a very different kind.

As well as taking part in a spot of retail therapy, shoppers visiting the Victoria Quarter on Briggate in Leeds city centre will be able to find about all about the city’s latest Chelsea Flower Show garden entry as a special promotion will be in place there all week.

Staff from Leeds City Council’s Parks and Countryside Service who are creating ‘The HESCO Garden 2010’ will be on hand all week to talk shoppers through the design of the garden which will take on the best in the world at the prestigious show in London next month.

As well as leaflets and images of the garden, the stand will also feature small floral displays and a model of how the completed garden is going to look, so the public will be able to find out all about the garden which is representing Leeds at the world-famous event.

The week will also see a special appearance by a member of the design team Martin Walker, who will on hand from 12 noon to 3pm on Wednesday 28th April to talk about The HESCO Garden 2010 and also to conduct his very own gardeners’ question time where keen gardeners can question him on any gardening matters.

Leeds City Council acting head of parks and countryside Sean Flesher, who is managing The HESCO Garden 2010 project, said:

“We are very keen to get everyone in Leeds behind this year’s Chelsea garden project so we thought it would be great to go and show the public the plans in one of the busiest places in the city.

“The whole team is hugely excited to be building our largest and most ambitious Chelsea Flower Show garden yet, so it would be fantastic if people come along during the day, take a look and ask any questions they may have and then go home and spread the word to their family and friends about what we are doing.”

This year’s garden entry created by the council’s Parks and Countryside Service with engineering support and sponsorship from Leeds-based company HESCO Bastion Limited is based on the theme of celebrating the green linkages which connect the city centre to the countryside in and around Leeds, as well as the importance of protecting the local environment and raising awareness of the proven health benefits green spaces provide.

To demonstrate this the team have chosen a stunning snapshot of the iconic Leeds-Liverpool Canal as the basis for the design, with the centrepiece being a pair of 12-feet high lock gates. The gates and canal element are then flanked by three distinct sections – woodland, wetland and a floral meadow – which can all be found in green spaces in Leeds.

The HESCO Garden 2010 will be on show at Chelsea from May 25-29 in the elite show garden category alongside gardens designed by some of the biggest names in the horticulture industry.

The event, held annually in the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London, attracts over 150,000 visitors from all over the globe as well as receiving extensive coverage from the world’s media.

Leeds City Council and HESCO Bastion teamed up for the first time on last year’s garden, which was hugely popular with visitors and earned an impressive Silver Gilt Flora award.

Sponsors HESCO Bastion Ltd, who are world-leading manufacturers of products used in civil engineering, said:

"HESCO Bastion has an international reputation for engineering excellence and innovation, so we were pleased to be asked by Leeds City Council's Parks and Countryside Service to provide not only the financial support but the engineering support at Chelsea, with our products forming the framework for this year’s HESCO Garden.

“HESCO are extremely proud to sponsor a project which focuses on the engineering developments of the past and the present, all of which contribute to the vibrancy of Leeds.”

Leeds City Council has enjoyed great success at Chelsea in recent years, with all seven previous gardens dating back to the first in 1997 earning bronze or silver category awards. Four of these gardens can now be visited by the public at sites around the city.

For full details and the latest news about The HESCO Garden 2010 visit the official website at www.leedsatchelsea.com and follow the garden’s development on Twitter at http://twitter.com/leedsatchelsea

ENDS

For media enquiries please contact:
Roger Boyde, Learning and Leisure Media Relations Officer,
Tel 0113 247 5472, Email: roger.boyde@leeds.gov.uk

Border run fails to hide trail and leads to £1,500 bill for flytipping businessman

A businessman from Goole whose commercial waste ended up flytipped on a Leeds road faces a £1,500 bill.

Jason Majid, who runs the Mobile Phone Zone on Pasture Road, Goole, was today (26th April) fined £400 and ordered to pay nearly £1,100 in costs at Leeds Magistrates Court after pleading guilty to his own vehicle being used to flytip as well as admitting to allowing his waste to escape from his control.

Mr Majid, of 50 Primley Park Drive, Leeds, had told the local council where he runs his business, East Riding of Yorkshire Council, that he stored waste at his shop before recycling it and never disposed of any waste.

However, when officers from Leeds City Council investigated complaints of flytipping at Manor House Lane in Alwoodley, Leeds, they discovered material that was traced back to Mr Majid’s phone shop in Goole.

When initially questioned by members of East Riding of Yorkshire Council’s environmental enforcement team, Mr Majid denied ever disposing of commercial rubbish and refused to fully explain to the officers what he did with waste from the shop. He also failed to provide to them written proof of any of his waste transfers or waste disposal. When formally questioned by officials from Leeds, he again refused to comment.

When asked by magistrates if he had proper waste disposal arrangements in place, he told them he did, despite never proving to either council how he disposes of his commercial waste.

The magistrates found in Leeds City Councils favour after being supported by witnesses from East Riding of Yorkshire and Jason Majid was subsequently fined £400 and ordered to pay the Councils costs £1100 as well as a £15 victim surcharge.

Graham Wilson, Leeds City Council’s head of environmental action, said:
“This case wouldn’t have been possible without the existence of the Yorkshire and Humberside Environmental Enforcement Group, which meets every few months and allows 20 local authorities to work closely together to tackle environmental crime across our region.
“A close relationship between Leeds and East Riding of Yorkshire meant the two teams we were able to successfully work together to solve this case.
“It shows that you will not be allowed to get away with flytipping just by hopping over to another authority to dump your rubbish.
“Illegal deposits of commercial waste and other indiscriminate fly tipping cause s a major problem for the environment and the clean up costs to councils run into hundreds of thousands of pounds each year.”

ENDS
For media enquiries please contact:
Michael Molcher, Leeds City Council (0113) 224 3937
e-mail: michael.molcher@leeds.gov.uk