|
 Project:
Big City Survey: Leeds
Publication:
The Business
Summary of work:
Supplied all the editorial content for a 24 page guide to Leeds which covered areas such as the economy, sport, education, transport, property and tourism
Chapters:
Economic highlights
Business and industry
Property
Transport
Education
Retail outlets
Entertainment
Tourism
Football
Investment
Social developments
Healthcare
The future
Samples of the copy:
Anyone who had predicted Leeds would become a major financial centre and enjoy a period of unprecedented economic growth would have been laughed out of Yorkshire a decade ago.
The city was in a poor state: ravaged by recession and full of gloomy old red-brick buildings. Its zest for life had gone, missing in action; nobody expected it to return home.
The self-esteem of the city was pretty much at an all-time low. Industries such as clothing and textiles – important if not exactly dominant – were beginning to falter and the pubs were certainly not full of lofty ambitions.
Everyone realised something had to be done but making that all-important first step was proving to be too much of a leap into the unknown.
“We needed to instil come confidence back into the city which had gone through a fairly depressed state for some years.” So says Kathy Kudelnitzy, the director of the Leeds Initiative which has been widely credited for helping to transform the fortunes of this once-great hive of industry. “It was run-down and the general feel about the place was of a gloomy, dismal northern city. Many people have worked hard to turn that position around.”
Walk through the city centre of Leeds today and it is hard to believe those dark days ever existed. Everywhere you look there is opulence and success: from the cars on the street, through the suits worn by the workers and to the plush, modern office blocks with their glass-fronts. It is vibrant. It is affluent.
........So what’s next? Well, it’s a job partly done so far. Aside from the rather obvious problems surrounding the two speed economy, which are being tackled by a string of multi-million pound community regeneration projects, there is the transport situation.
Thousands of commuters come into the city every day by car causing vehicle mayhem. But new link roads are being planned and the city has at last got the go-ahead for the Supertram project which will allow cleaner, quicker public transport across the city and inner city areas.
No-one can doubt that Leeds has come a long way in 10 years, probably further than anyone could have imagined, but there are still serious issues to be tackled.
Those living in the city centre will wake up today full of hope for the future. The day those in the inner cities have the same feeling then the job will be done.
   
Rob Griffin Media Services is a trading name of Rob Griffin Limited.
Company number: 4537004
Registered office: 4, Mayo Rise, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, TN39 5DB
| 
