Policy

Local Policy

Contents

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• Leeds Girls High School site Motion

Passed by Union Council: 3rd December 2007
Expires: 3rd December 2010
Policy level: one

This Union Notes:

1. The site of the Leeds Girls’ High School, including the Eleanor Lupton Centre, has been put up for sale.
2. The school is situated at the centre of the area where most students live, and the future development of the site could have a massive effect on the community in that area.
3. Currently, the highest bidder for the Eleanor Lupton Centre is Wetherspoons.
4. Members of the local community have been campaigning for a community-friendly, responsible development of the site, but the school have refused to listen to their calls. Community consultation has been inadequate and little-publicised.
5. The council, as elected representatives, have a duty to protect the interests of the community. So far they have been unwilling to do this, and cancelled a public meeting on the issue at the last minute.

This Union Believes:

1. There are currently tensions between students and the wider community, and Otley runs and excessive drinking are a major cause of these tensions. A new “super pub” on the Otley Road would only serve to escalate tensions.
2. Such a development would be detrimental to the students living in the area as well as to long-term residents. It would attract undesirable elements from other areas and increase noise, litter and security problems.
3. A message from students, as an important part of the potential “market” for such a pub, could add substantial weight to the campaign against this development.
4. It would also send a message to the wider community that many students stand with them on this issue, thus improving relations between students and the community.

This Union Resolves:

To formally support the campaign for community-friendly development of the Leeds Girls’ High School site in the following ways:

1. To send a letter to the relevant councillors and the local press expressing LUU’s support of the campaign and our opposition to a new Wetherspoons in the area.
2. To inform the Leeds Girls’ High School Action Group of LUU’s support.

Proposed by: Christine Cooper 200070867
Seconded by: Sara Gill 200123773

• Should Landlords Be Held To Account?

Passed by Union Council: 11th February 2008
Expires: 11th February 2011
Policy level: one

This Union Notes:

1. That, every year, students start signing for houses immediately after the Christmas break.
2. That January is often nine months prior to the start of occupancy and this means many students often pay three months full rent for an empty house.
3. That there is a surplus of student housing in Leeds.

This Union Believes:

1. That landlords can exert a lot of pressure on to students to sign for a house.
2. That students very often get a rough deal from landlords due to their haste to sign for a house.
3. That many students are enticed to sign for a house on promises that never materialise.
4. That many students continue to live in badly maintained properties diverting time and energies away from their education.
5. That most students cannot afford three months of rent on a residence that they are not occupying.
6. That the City Council is not fully utilising laws to prosecute landlords who do not use proper schemes for students paying housing deposits.

This Union Resolves:

1. To join with Leeds Met Student Union and Unipol to bring an end to students being forced by fear into signing contracts for houses over 5 months prior to the start of their contracts and in many cases 9 months prior to the start of occupation.
2. To run a joint publicity campaign with LMSU and Unipol emphasizing the housing surplus to students, encouraging students further to wait until Unipol releases its lists.
3. To press for the City Council to prosecute for harsh penalties on landlords that create false tenancy deposit scheme details, and ask the Council to look at the unregulated market that has developed in signing fees as some landlords attempt to bypass the tenancy deposit scheme.
4. To pressure the City Council and Unipol to remove licences from landlords who are legally required to show the following, and fail to, prior to the residents signing the contract:
   
   • The HMO license
   • Details of the tenancy deposit scheme.
5. To lobby the City Council to undertake spot checks on those landlords/ agents that the student advice centre have had a large number of cases on.

Proposer: Rob Damiao, 200117185
Seconder: Joseph Sherry, 200100551

• Should LUU Campaign For Cheaper Buses?

Passed by Referendum: March 2009
Expires: 12th March 2012
Policy Level: one

This Union notes:

• In 2008, the cost of a ‘FirstDay’ ticket in Leeds was £3.00, in 2005 it was £2.30 – a percentage rise of 30.5%.
• The cost of a term ticket in Leeds is around £90, in 2005 it was £77 – a percentage rise of 16.9%.
• Nationally, statistics show the cost of transport by road rose by 10.3% between January 2005 and January 2008.
• In 2008, 17% of University of Leeds students travelled to and from campus by bus; this is down from 24% in 2004.
• In 2008, 20% of University of Leeds students owned a car in Leeds.
• In 2008, FirstGroup, the parent company of First Leeds, posted annual operating profits of over £360 million.
• The ‘Green Zone’ is First Leeds’ inner-Leeds discounted zone, but it stretches only to the Arndale Centre in Headingley, cutting out students in halls like Bodington or Oxley.

This Union believes:

• Our continued commitment to tackling climate change means we should be doing everything we can to develop more sustainable means of transport for students.
• Public transport is a vital part of a sustainable transport policy and as such needs to be accessible to all.
• Many students are put off using the bus in Leeds due to the high prices.
• That price rises for 2009 have not yet been announced, but prices are likely to rise further.

This Union resolves:

• To run a campaign calling for First Buses to guarantee a maximum student price of £1 per journey within the Green Zone.
• To ensure all Halls of Residence are within the Green Zone.
• To work with the University in developing this system.
• To network the campaign nationally with other students’ unions who experience similar problems with bus prices.
• To mandate the Community Officer to run the campaign until it is successful in achieving these resolves.

Proposed by: Rob Damiao
Seconded by: Emma Hargrave

• New Coal in Leeds

Passed by Union Council: 17th November 2008
Expires: 17th November 2011
Policy level: one

The Union Notes:

1. Banks Developments have submitted a proposal for a new open cast coal mine in the Fairburn, Ledston and Ledsham area, within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, to the east of the city itself (Application Ref: 06/07671/FU).
2. The plans have faced opposition from local people as well as from across Yorkshire.
3. Coal is the most carbon intensive traditional fossil fuel.
4. CO2 emissions from burning coal contribute to climate change.
5. Clean coal technology can reduce CO2 emissions from burning coal by as much as 90%.
6. 9,031 people in Yorkshire and Humberside are employed in the mining industry and 800 new jobs have been created by clean coal developments over the past three years, with the potential for a further 3,000 jobs to be created by clean coal developments over the next ten years.

The Union Believes:

1. Climate change is one of the greatest threats that mankind has ever faced.
2. Climate change will have an adverse effect on people across the world including LUU’s members.
3. Mankind must seriously reduce its CO2 as a matter of urgency to deal with climate change.
4. Expansion of open cast and dirty coal use seriously undermines the UK’s international commitments to CO2 emissions reduction.
5. An expansion of open cast and dirty coal is incompatible with Union Believes 3.
6. The proposed new mine would, if built, cause disruption and distress to residents of the area.

The Union Resolves:

1. To mandate the Communications and Internal Affairs Officer to write to the Leeds City Council Leader, Council Party Leaders, Leeds MPs and the members of the Plans Panel East stating opposition to proposed mine and the reasons for this.
2. To communicate in these letters support for cleaner means of energy production such as clean coal, wind, solar and combined heat and power, in particular the proposed Hook Moor Wind Farm to the east of Leeds and the clean coal power station at Hatfield in Yorkshire, which has the support of Friends of the Earth.
3. To oppose all new open cast and dirty coal projects in Leeds and Yorkshire.

Proposed by: Guy Mitchell

• Solidarity with the Tetley’s Brewery Workers

Passed by Union Council: 26th January 2009
Expires: 26th January 2012
Policy level: One

This Union Notes:

1. Tetley’s has been brewed in Leeds for over 186 years and is part of the city’s heritage.
2. The current factory site in Hunslet provides 170 jobs in Leeds.
3. Many small businesses in the area rely on the existence of the factory in Hunslet for their survival.
4. Carlsberg UK, the parent company of Tetley’s, made an operating profit for 2007 of £12,400,000.
5. The Leeds Brewery site is based on prime building land in the centre of Leeds which has been estimated to be worth over £80 million.
6. Carlsberg UK have decided to end production of Tetley’s in Leeds and to close the Leeds Brewery site down by 2011, with all current employees to lose their jobs.

This Union Believes:

1. That the loss of Tetley’s production in Leeds will be seriously damaging to the culture and heritage of the city.
2. That the loss of 170 jobs in Leeds will be bad for the city’s economy.
3. The Tetley’s Brewery workers have been treated disgracefully and do not deserve to have their jobs taken away to further boost the profits of the multi-millionaire directors of Carlsberg.
4. With Carlsberg making increased profits over the last few years, the decision to close is a cynical exploitation of the economic climate to make huge profits from the sale of the building land that the Brewery is based on.

This Union Resolves:

1. To condemn the decision by Carlsberg to close the Leeds Brewery and end production of Tetley’s in the city, with the Student Executive to write a letter to Carlsberg UK expressing the Union’s disappointment.
2. To express support and solidarity with the workers of Carlsberg in their fight to keep their jobs.
3. For the Student Executive to write a letter of support to the GMB trade union in their campaign to keep the Leeds Brewery open.
4. For the Communications and Internal Affairs Officer to write to NUS Services Limited, informing them of the situation and asking them to consider withdrawing from their current deal with Carlsberg UK to supply student unions if they proceed with their closure plans.

Proposer: Danial Adilypour 200181953
Seconder: Rob Damiao 200117185

• Royal Park School Motion

Passed by Union Council: 20th April 2009
Expires: 20th April 2012

This Union notes:

• That in 2004, the Royal Park Primary School closed down and has been empty ever since.
• That the recently favoured bidders for the site have retracted their bid.
• That with the withdrawal of this bid, the plan is to demolish the building and leave the site undeveloped until a new bidding process begins.
• That the Royal Park Community Consortium (RPCC) is a community group that wishes to see the building restored and returned to the community.

This Union believes:

• That the Royal Park Primary School building is a beautiful piece of Victorian architecture located at the heart of Hyde Park.
• That once demolished, nothing will bring back this building.
• That the loss of this building would be a great loss to the whole community.
• That the location of the school is perfect for a community space and would create an ideal inclusive space for all local residents, student or otherwise.
• That a community space like this would be ideal for bringing students and residents together.

This Union resolves:

• To support the RPCC campaign to keep the Royal Park Primary School building as a community friendly space.
• To enable to the Union Community Reps with space and support from the Community Officer to run a petition and letter-signing campaign.
• To mandate the Community Officer to write an official letter on behalf of LUU, endorsing the community campaign and to send this letter to any relevant bodies.

Proposer: Pippa Denton
Seconder: Rob Damiao

• ‘Low Pay! No Way! Support the Bin Strikes’

Passed by Union Council:9th November 2009
Expires: 9th November 2012
Policy level: One

This Union Notes:

1. That Leeds City Council has undergone a review of salary grading for some of its employees
2. That refuse collectors are set to lose up to £6000 per annum under the new regarding system
3. Average Salaries for refuse collectors are currently around £18 000 per annum. This is already over £4000 per annum less than the average wage of a man in Britain in 2008
4. That the reason given for the pay cut has been to eradicate unequal pay based on gender
5. That after 6 weeks of strike, Leeds City Council offered a new deal which would have meant workers losing up to £300 per annum and working longer hours
6. That the above deal was rejected by a democratic meeting of workers with a 92% No vote
7. That the strike is now entering its 9th week

This Union Believes:

1. Equal pay and gender equality should not be used as a smokescreen in an attempt to cut the wages of vital public service workers
2. If there is a gender pay gap it is because women are not paid enough not because men are paid too much
3. That GMB and UNISON workers voted democratically for strike action and have since voted unanimously at union meetings to continue the strike
4. That Leeds City Council rejected the results of 3 pay reviews which would not have let to such cuts
5. That it is in the interest of all concerned for this strike to be resolved and it is therefore important that we offer our support to these workers who provide such a vital service
6. That even in a time of economic recession, it is not reasonable to ask workers already being paid less than the average workers wage to accept a pay cut, especially in return for longer working hours
7. That uncollected bins represent a danger to the welfare of students and all communities in Leeds and the solution is fair pay for fair work, not employing outside contractors at huge cost to the tax payer

This Union Resolves:

1. To issue a statement of support for the striking refuse collectors and send it to Leeds City Council
2. To make a link to this statement on the LUU homepage
3. To invite Leeds Student to print the statement
4. To circulate the statement to our members
5. To look into having collection boxes for the union strike funds in the union building

Proposer: Hanif Leylabi
Seconder: Hannah Greenslade