A Lot of Potential

From the collection of

The Yorkshire Film Archive at York St John University save and celebrate screen heritage made in or about Yorkshire. They connect broad and diverse audiences to their cultural and socially significant collection that reflects the life, landscape, and identity of the people of the region since the 1890s. Together with their sister archive in the North East they form the Yorkshire and North East Film Archive, a unique pan-regional resource with over 75,000 moving image artefacts. They unlock the collections for artists, academics, curators, programmers, researchers, and producers to reveal compelling stories from the vaults. www.yfanefa.com

A Lot of Potential

Yorkshire Film Archive
Beeston
2000
Sound

The people of Beeston share honest accounts of a troubled neighbourhood, but some of them believe it can be saved.

This film features the Beeston and Holbeck Community Involvement Unit, who arrange focus groups and consultation days with local residents. Community Involvement Units are teams within local government whose role it is to connect with local residents in order to discover more about the needs and aspirations of neighbourhoods.

The value of such exercises is to increase participation in local democracy and mitigate the effects of social isolation and extremism. Partnership working between councils and local communities has been demonstrated to deliver successful outcomes for neighbourhoods which may feel isolated and marginalised.

In November 1999 Leeds City Council set up special events and meetings and recorded people's views in Beeston and Holbeck to find out what changes the community would like to see. The area has suffered from deprivation, and, as a result, a rise in drug crime and vandalism.

This video is a record of some of the events and consultations which took place including interviews with members of the community of different ages and ethnic backgrounds.

Looking at Beeston

Hope and community aspirations for a new millennium. A snapshot of the not-too-distant past shows how radically life has changed for one West Yorkshire community.

Beeston is an area of Leeds which has drawn unhappy international attention more than once in recent decades. Struggles with economic disadvantage, crime, drugs and derelict homes have created unbearable living conditions for some residents. But this is a community which has refused to be daunted by the scale of the challenge and has found imaginative ways to tackle its many problems. These videos provide evidence of the difference strategic funding can make at a grass roots level and the power of community action.