{"id":806578,"date":"2026-03-05T22:40:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:40:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/806578\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T22:40:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T22:40:19","slug":"best-chance-in-decades-to-take-control-of-farnleys-future-heres-how-to-get-involved","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/806578\/","title":{"rendered":"“Best chance in decades to take control of Farnley\u2019s future” – here’s how to get involved"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Mark Sewards,<\/strong> MP for Leeds South West and Morley<\/p>\n

After months of work with the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government, I was genuinely delighted to see \u2018Farnley East\u2019 selected as one of the neighbourhoods for the Government\u2019s Pride in Place programme.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This is a once in a generation opportunity: \u00a320 million to be spent over ten years, with local people deciding how that money is spent. <\/p>\n

Whether it\u2019s improving parks, supporting community centres, funding local events or backing interesting new ideas, all of the decisions will be made by people who live in Farnley or have a vested interest in its success.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Decisions on how the money will be spent are going to be made by a Neighbourhood Board. This must be made up of residents and people who want Farnley to do well. <\/p>\n

That Board will be led by an Independent Chair. The Board must consult with all local people before decisions are made.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"A map of \u2018Farnley East\u2019, where the money is proposed to be spent. Image: Google Maps<\/p>\n

The Neighbourhood Board will also determine the final borders for the area called \u2018Farnley East.\u2019 To make the original decision, The Office for National Statistics divided up the country into something called \u2018MSOA\u2019 areas and this is what the Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government used to allocate spending to the area they refer to as \u2018Farnley East.\u2019<\/p>\n

However, I don\u2019t think anyone has heard of Farnley East. That\u2019s why I\u2019m arguing that the Board should change the boundaries to include all of Old Farnley. \u00a0<\/p>\n

For example, I\u2019m arguing that the Tong Estate, the Stonebridges, the Stonecliffes and Farnley Hall Park should be included, because I want as many parts of our community as possible to benefit. Ultimately, that will be a decision for the Neighbourhood Board, not for any politician.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In order to create (and accelerate) the process required to set up the Board, I set up a Local Reference Group; a group of volunteers from Farnley who could make the very first decisions about the money and the board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Local Reference Group has now created that process. We can now recruit the Chair and the Board Members. The sooner these roles are filled, the sooner we can get spend the money.<\/p>\n

If you live in Farnley, or have a strong interest in its success, please consider applying to be on the Neighbourhood Board or even be the chair. \u00a0<\/p>\n

More information about each of the roles can be found here:<\/p>\n

All applications and questions should be sent to:\u00a0PrideinPlace.Farnley@Leeds.gov.uk<\/a><\/p>\n

The deadline for Independent Chair applications is the 22 March 2026, while applications for Independent Board Members will initially close on the 17 April 2026, with further submissions considered on a rolling basis.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re passionate about this community and want to deliver real, lasting change in Farnley, please apply. <\/p>\n

This is the best chance we\u2019ve had in decades to take control of Farnley\u2019s future, and I want as many local people as possible to be part of it.<\/p>\n

Sponsored content <\/p>\n

\"\"www.bramleybaths.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Mark Sewards, MP for Leeds South West and Morley After months of work with the Ministry for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":806579,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8814],"tags":[748,393,215174,4884,1860,116657,151720,16,15],"class_list":["post-806578","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-leeds","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-farnley","tag-great-britain","tag-leeds","tag-mark-sewards","tag-pride-in-place-programme","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116178978595949062","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806578","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=806578"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/806578\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/806579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=806578"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=806578"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=806578"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}