So, assuming you were in control of the budget, what would you do?
1) Get the fucking TBus built, and get it done properly so it serves most areas of Leeds and runs on to nearby large towns.
2) Supertram, possibly, on top of TBus, going further afield to maybe Castleford, Wakefield and Bradford
3) Arts-Develop a proper Art Gallery in Leeds, bigger than the City art Gallery, for people who’ve lived/worked/studied/been born in Leeds and stuff available for exhibition. Also have the best student each year from the art college get a full exhibition
4) Encourage public art on the streets e.g. The Brick Man (get it built, better late than never), and more greenery with trees & flowerbeds.
5) Reopen lots more urban rail stations in Leeds (e.g. Armley Canal Road, Hunslet) and electrify the lines out to Halifax, Huddersfield, Pontefract and Knaresborough to give Leeds a proper urban rail network.
6) Re-regulate the buses
7) Provide incentives packages for businesses to relocate to the city, and try and get more public bodies moving north out of London. Also similar measures for renovating & restoring disused buildings e.g. Majestic
8) Encourage developments and don’t hold them up in planning consent e.g. Criterion place, Lumiere, also get someone to do something with the Merrion Centre
9) Build the Arena, as an arena not a big theatre
10) Develop museums in the city, possibly as satelittes of national museums, or as local ones using historic buildings e.g. Braime’s as the Leeds Museum of Industry and Science. Also get Thackray certified as the National Medical museum, and draw more attention to the Media Museum in Bradford and Saltaire world heritage site.
11) build more & renovate existing social housing in the region
12) Try and attract more businesses & encourage local business in the regions towns
13) Clear up the unsightly mess that is the cente of Bradford
14) Get both Trin and Eastgate built