Seacroft
Encyclopedia
Seacroft is an outer-city suburb consisting mainly of council estate housing covering an extensive area of east Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

, West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire
West Yorkshire is a metropolitan county within the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England with a population of 2.2 million. West Yorkshire came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972....

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. It is 4 miles (6.4 km) east of Leeds city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

 and lies in the LS14 Leeds postcode area
LS postcode area
The LS postcode area, also known as the Leeds postcode area, is a group of postcode districts around Leeds, Wetherby, Tadcaster, Pudsey, Otley and Ilkley in England...

.
The area's population is 18,000 and includes one of the largest council estates in the country. The name is often used as a catch-all for Seacroft and the neighbouring areas of Whinmoor
Whinmoor
Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

 and Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

, other large east Leeds council estates which merge into each other.

Seacroft is Yorkshire's second largest council estate, after Bransholme
Bransholme
Bransholme is an area and a housing estate on the north-eastern side of Kingston upon Hull, England. The name Bransholme comes from an old Scandinavian word meaning Brand's water meadow ....

 in Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull
Kingston upon Hull , usually referred to as Hull, is a city and unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Hull at its junction with the Humber estuary, 25 miles inland from the North Sea. Hull has a resident population of...

. Being so large it has often been referred to as a town. The original vision, envisaged by the council was that it would be a 'Town within the City Limits', and the Seacroft Civic Centre, was often referred to as the 'Seacroft Town Centre'.

The Green

Seacroft was at one time a small village between Leeds and York
York
York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

. The village green
Village green
A village green is a common open area which is a part of a settlement. Traditionally, such an area was often common grass land at the centre of a small agricultural settlement, used for grazing and sometimes for community events...

, known as "The Green" still exists, and is one of the oldest in the country with the stretch of land being mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

. It has the pub, the Cricketers Arms on the North side and the parish Church (St James, built 1845, architect T Hellyer) on the South side. John Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

 preached on The Green, and as a result a Wesleyan Chapel (Methodist Church) was built close by.

Seacroft Village

Seacroft village is mentioned in the Domesday Book
Domesday Book
Domesday Book , now held at The National Archives, Kew, Richmond upon Thames in South West London, is the record of the great survey of much of England and parts of Wales completed in 1086...

 (1086). Evidence of much earlier inhabitation was found during construction of the estate in the 1950s. A stone axe dating from the Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 age (3500-2100BC) was found on Kentmere Avenue. In addition, two silver Roman coins were found on The Green in the 1850s.

Seacroft Village is the original part of Seacroft, around The Green and Cricketers Arms (pictured above), and is often referred to today. Seacroft Hall was built in the seventeenth century by the Shiletto family incorporating extensive landscaping and parkland. Despite being a listed building the hall was demolished in the 1950s The original entrance lodge still stands on York Road with Parklands School on South Parkway now occupying the location of the hall. There is one shop in the area that would have originally been Seacroft Village, a small village off licence, which has been built since the building of the estate.

Seacroft Grange was built in 1627 for the Tottie family and is also known as Tottie Hall. It is a grade II listed building, along with its service buildings. Although the English Heritage record says it was rebuilt in 1837 other sources record the building as original, noting that in 1837 the new tenant John Wilson renamed it to Seacroft Grange and set his coat of arms over the door. The building included a celebrated late 17th century staircase thought to have been brought from Austhorpe Hall
Austhorpe Hall
Austhorpe Hall is a house built in 1694 at Austhorpe, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is a grade II* listed building. The house is of red brick with stone quoins, seven bays and three storeys, with a triangular pediment over the door...

 which has been removed by the council for safe keeping as the Grange is currently empty and boarded up. In December 2008 plans were under discussion to re-use it as a residential home, and plans were submitted in March 2009.

See also The Seacroft Village Preservation Society.

There is an old non-operating windmill, that pre-dates the estate, which has been incorporated into a hotel (now known as the Ramada
Ramada Jarvis
Ramada Jarvis was a chain of 42 3 star and 4 star hotels located throughout the mainland of the United Kingdom . The Elcot Park Hotel in Newbury was one of the hotels in this chain, along with multiple others in large locations such as Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Birmingham, Manchester and...

 Leeds North).

Satellite Town Within The City Boundary

The Village developed slowly over the centuries, and saw very little change until the post war years. Work on the estate began in the 1950s. Many of the older houses on the estate are more traditional red-brick semis built around the Beechwood area, to the North of the estate. In the 1960s many prefabricated housing and high rise flats were constructed on the estate. Two main roads were built through the estate, these being North Parkway and South Parkway. North Parkway was built as a dual carriageway, in a similar way as had been done to Oak Tree Drive, Coldcotes Drive and Gipton Approach in neighbouring Gipton.

In 1934, Leeds City Council bought 1000 acres (4 km²) for municipal housing and after World War II the majority of houses and blocks of flats were built. The council had planned for Seacroft to be a "satellite town within the city boundary"

In addition to this vision, other areas surrounding Seacroft were built using the same principle, in the 1960s work started on building the Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

 and Stanks areas and in the 1970s work began on building Whinmoor
Whinmoor
Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

, none of these were however as large or ambitious as Seacroft, the intention being that these areas will use many of the amenities built along with the Seacroft Estate such as the Civic Centre and Seacroft's secondary schools. As such amenities were kept to a minimum in Swarcliffe and Whinmoor, with the estates only having small local shops, public houses and primary schools. Seacroft also has the main central bus interchange for North East Leeds, although the nearest railway station is in Cross Gates.

Seacroft Civic Centre

The 1960s also saw the construction of the Seacroft Civic Centre, which was at the time a novel way of building an outdoor purpose built town centre. The Civic Centre had a Grandways supermarket and a Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group
Woolworths Group plc was a listed British company that owned the high-street retail chain, Woolworths, as well as other brands such as the entertainment distributor Entertainment UK and book and resource distributor Bertram Books...

 as well as many other smaller shops, banks, pubs and a library. In the 1990s it had become apparent that the condition of the Civic Centre had deteriorated significantly in the 30 years since its construction. Talks were held with Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

, and Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 were found as the preferred bidder to rebuild the Seacroft Civic Centre.

Seacroft Green Shopping Centre

In 1999, work began clearing the site and in the 2000s the new 'Seacroft Green Shopping Centre' opened. The Tesco
Tesco
Tesco plc is a global grocery and general merchandise retailer headquartered in Cheshunt, United Kingdom. It is the third-largest retailer in the world measured by revenues and the second-largest measured by profits...

 was cited at the time to be the largest supermarket in Europe, a claim which may not have been true. It was however still an enormous supermarket spread over two levels (the second being a large mezzanine level, which was built a few years after the Tesco store had opened to give more space within the store). The car park was also enlarged and other shop units were built along the side of the supermarket, making the centre a crescent shape. The huge supermarket as well as the other shops promised to create hundreds more jobs then would be lost through the loss of trade in the Civic Centre, this was no doubt one factor which made the redevelopment favourable with many Seacroft residents.
The Seacroft Green Shopping Centre is also the main transport interchange in Seacroft, with the main bus station for Seacroft and the surrounding areas being centred there. From here buses run out through the estate as well as to the city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

, Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

 and Harrogate
Harrogate
Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...

. Seacroft bus station
Seacroft bus station
Seacroft bus station serves the district of Seacroft in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.Seacroft's bus station was rebuilt as part of the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre in 2000 and is maintained by them...

 has five stands and an average daily footfall of 2,687. (See Transport)

The centre was not entirely popular with the local residents with many saying they had lost their town centre to a Tesco supermarket. To an extent this is true, although there are shops besides Tesco, they are far fewer than there was, the precinct area has been lost, the pubs in the centre have been lost and there are no offices. Until the building of the new centre, and since the closure of Grandways, it was said that Seacroft suffered from 'food poverty' and fresh produce could not be bought on the estate. This was probably not true as there was still a Co-op on South Parkway.

The rebuilding of the Civic Centre did not alter the deprivation on the estate. Throughout the 2000s the condition of many of the houses on the estate deteriorated, particularly amongst the prefabricated housing to the South West of the estate. Many houses were vacated and either condition or lack of demand dictated that the council boarded them up. The estate's high rise flats are seen as a refuge as they are harder to break into and in better condition then the houses, as such they have largely been allocated to older residents. Some (including Queensview) have become sheltered housing.

Amenities Elsewhere

Regular bus services mean many residents use amenities in Leeds city centre
Leeds City Centre
Leeds city centre is the central business district of Leeds, England. It is within the Leeds Central parliamentary constituency, represented by Hilary Benn as MP since a by-election in 1999...

, Cross Gates and Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

. The Cross Gates Centre (formerly Arndale Centre) provides many high street shops which Seacroft lacks, while Wetherby's many pubs make it an alternative destination for evening entertainment.

Architecture


Seacroft has a variety of styles of architecture. The area surrounding the green has many old buildings, dating back to the 1700s and before. The estate also shows a variety of different styles employed by Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

 for the duration of the estates construction. The earlier houses dating back to the 1950s are red brick traditional terraces and semis. In the late 1960s and 1970s the prefabricated housing built towards the South West of the estate was constructed. The build quality of these houses was considerably poor and most are now uninhabited. The older council houses were generally built to a higher quality and are still in good condition. The brutalist Seacroft Civic Centre stood until its demolition in 1999, when it was replaced by the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre, which is of a fairly standard design for a large supermarket and purpose built shops. There are also many highrise blocks of flats around the estate, mainly near to the Shopping Centre, towards the bottom of South Parkway and Beechwood Avenue, around the Ramshead area and in the Bogart Hill area.

Religious buildings include the stone-built St James's Parish Church (C of E, 1845), a brick Wesleyan
Wesleyanism
Wesleyanism or Wesleyan theology refers, respectively, to either the eponymous movement of Protestant Christians who have historically sought to follow the methods or theology of the eighteenth-century evangelical reformers, John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley, or to the likewise eponymous...

 Chapel (1874) a brick Congregational Church
Congregational church
Congregational churches are Protestant Christian churches practicing Congregationalist church governance, in which each congregation independently and autonomously runs its own affairs....

 (1951) and a brick Roman Catholic Church
Roman Catholic Church
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the world's largest Christian church, with over a billion members. Led by the Pope, it defines its mission as spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ, administering the sacraments and exercising charity...

, Our Lady of Good Counsel (1954).

Seacroft Hospital

Seacroft Hospital is Leeds' third largest hospital
Hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment by specialized staff and equipment. Hospitals often, but not always, provide for inpatient care or longer-term patient stays....

, significantly smaller than the Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds General Infirmary
Leeds General Infirmary, also known as the LGI or, more correctly, The General Infirmary at Leeds, is a large teaching hospital based in the centre of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England and is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust....

 and St James' University Hospital
St James's University Hospital, Leeds
St. James's University Hospital in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, popularly known as Jimmy's, is one of the United Kingdom's most famous hospitals...

. Situated in between Seacroft and Killingbeck
Killingbeck
Killingbeck is a district of east Leeds, West Yorkshire, England that is situated between Seacroft to the north, Cross Gates and Whitkirk to the east, Gipton to the west, Halton Moor to the south, Halton to the south east and Osmondthorpe to the south west. It blends in to the Cross Gates and...

, opposite the former Killingbeck Isolation Hospital, the hospital is accessible along the A64
A64 road
The A64 is a road in North and West Yorkshire, England which links Leeds, York and Scarborough. The A64 starts as the A64 ring road motorway in Leeds and then is a dual carriageway for the rest of its route, except parts of the road from Malton to Scarborough.The road approximates a section of the...

 York Road. Services have been moved from Seacroft Hospital to other hospitals around Leeds. Many of the buildings are in a poor state of repair by the health authority in keeping with its policy to concentrate all services at the Leeds General Infirmary and St James hospitals and is considering selling off the older parts of the hospital for redevelopment.

Industry

There is a small industrial estate in Seacroft on Limewood Approach. On this Cable and Wireless had a depot there for many years, but it closed in 2008. Seacroft Waste Sorting Facility is based there, Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

 have a major depot there and Transco
Transco
Transco may refer to:*National Grid plc, formerly known as National Grid Transco*National Transmission Corporation , Power grid operator of the Philippines*Transcontinental Pipeline, US natural gas company...

 operated a small facility on the estate until 2008. There are large factories in nearby Whinmoor
Whinmoor
Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

 where Agfa and Unilever
Unilever
Unilever is a British-Dutch multinational corporation that owns many of the world's consumer product brands in foods, beverages, cleaning agents and personal care products....

 are based.

Primary

The primary schools in Seacroft are:

Secondary

Parkland Girls' High School (built 1954) is a non-denominational single-sex 11-18 school on South Parkway.

The David Young Community Academy
David Young Community Academy
David Young Community Academy is a state-funded independent school sponsored by the Church of England in Seacroft, Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is named after David Young a former Bishop of Ripon...

 (DYCA) opened in September 2006, named after a former bishop of Ripon, David Young
David Nigel de Lorentz Young
David Nigel de Lorentz Young CBE was the last Bishop of Ripon before the diocese became Ripon and Leeds. At his appointment at the age of 46 he was the youngest diocesan bishop of the Church of England....

. It is a state-funded independent school
Independent school (UK)
An independent school is a school that is not financed through the taxation system by local or national government and is instead funded by private sources, predominantly in the form of tuition charges, gifts and long-term charitable endowments, and so is not subject to the conditions imposed by...

 sponsored by the Church of England
Church of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...

.
The main secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...

 in Seacroft was the Foxwood School, which became an adult education centre, the East Leeds Family Learning Centre
East Leeds Family Learning Centre
East Leeds Family Learning Centre was a large Adult Education Centre in Seacroft, Leeds, England. The buildings were originally used as a secondary school, Foxwood School. The school is notable for its use for filming The Beiderbecke Trilogy between 1984 and 1988...

, but was demolished in 2009.
The school was used as 'San Quentin High' in The Beiderbecke Affair
The Beiderbecke Affair
The Beiderbecke Affair is a television series produced in the UK by ITV during 1985, written by the prolific Alan Plater, whose lengthy credits to British Television since the 1960s included the preceding 4 part mini series Get Lost! for ITV in 1981...

. The buildings were completed in 1962 and are a complex of buildings set in a square with a central court yard. The main building was a six storey tower block. Notable former pupils include Andrew Edge
Andrew Edge
Andrew Edge is a musician from Leeds, England who has played pop music, dance, synth pop and ballads. After playing in local Leeds jazz-rock bands and Working Men's Club bands, he moved to London in the late 1970s, and joined the Thompson Twins...

 (musician) and the Right Honourable Colin Burgon
Colin Burgon
Colin Burgon is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Elmet from 1997 until he stood down at the 2010 general election.-Early life:...

 (Labour Party
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP for Elmet
Elmet (UK Parliament constituency)
Elmet was a county constituency in West Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 which includes Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

, Garforth
Garforth
Garforth is a town within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. The 2001 Census lists 23,892 residents in the Garforth and Swillington ward - 80.57% of which are homeowners, 20% more than the average for Leeds. Garforth itself has 15,394 of those people...

, Cross Gates and Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

). Burgon himself is however from Gipton
Gipton
Gipton is a suburb of East Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is joined with Harehills as a City Council Ward...

.

See Leodis Photograph for a picture of the school when new.

Politics

Seacroft falls in the Seacroft and Killingbeck ward for the Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council
Leeds City Council is the local authority for the City of Leeds metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England.-History:The city council was established in 1974, with the first elections being held in advance in 1973...

 local elections, in 2007 it voted for a Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 representative. Seacroft is also in the Leeds North East Constituency
Leeds North East (UK Parliament constituency)
Leeds North East is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

, which is represented by Labour
Labour Party (UK)
The Labour Party is a centre-left democratic socialist party in the United Kingdom. It surpassed the Liberal Party in general elections during the early 1920s, forming minority governments under Ramsay MacDonald in 1924 and 1929-1931. The party was in a wartime coalition from 1940 to 1945, after...

 MP Fabian Hamilton
Fabian Hamilton
Fabian Uziell-Hamilton is a British Labour Party politician who has been the Member of Parliament for Leeds North East since 1997.- Education and professional career :...

. Other estates on the fringes of Leeds in the Seacroft area come under Elmet
Elmet (UK Parliament constituency)
Elmet was a county constituency in West Yorkshire represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elected one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election....

 which is also a Labour Stronghold and represented by former Foxwood School history teacher Colin Burgon
Colin Burgon
Colin Burgon is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Elmet from 1997 until he stood down at the 2010 general election.-Early life:...

, however there is a proposal to alter the boundaries, bringing these areas in with Seacroft and focusing Elmet on Wetherby
Wetherby
Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

, Garforth
Garforth
Garforth is a town within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. The 2001 Census lists 23,892 residents in the Garforth and Swillington ward - 80.57% of which are homeowners, 20% more than the average for Leeds. Garforth itself has 15,394 of those people...

 and Rothwell
Rothwell, West Yorkshire
Rothwell is a market town on the River Dolphin in the south east of the City of Leeds metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, situated between Oulton to the east, Belle Isle to the west, Woodlesford to the north east and Robin Hood to the south west. Swillington, Methley and Kippax are located...

. The results of the 2007 local elections for the Seacroft and Killingbeck Ward were as follows:
  • 1st - Vonnie Morgan (Lab) 2,789 (54.18%)
  • 2nd - John Michael Powell (BNP) 862 (16.74%)
  • 3rd - Sadie Fisher (Lib Dem) 799 (15.52%)
  • 4th - Donald Holford Townsley (Con) 698 (13.56%)


Total Votes Cast:5148

Local media

The local newspaper for Seacroft is the Yorkshire Evening Post
Yorkshire Evening Post
The Yorkshire Evening Post is a daily evening publication published by Yorkshire Post Newspapers Ltd in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England...

, however the Wetherby News is also sold in the area (although its news coverage generally stops after the Shadwell and Whinmoor
Whinmoor
Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

 areas). The local BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 radio station is BBC Radio Leeds
BBC Radio Leeds
BBC Radio Leeds is the BBC Local Radio service for the English metropolitan county of West Yorkshire.- Frequencies :It broadcasts from its studios at St...

, there are many other Leeds radio stations, however East Leeds FM
East Leeds FM
East Leeds FM is a community radio station based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The station started in 2003 when Heads Together, a Huddersfield based community arts organisation, joined forces with local ease Leeds high school John Smeaton. The two organisations had worked together previously...

 deals specifically with Seacroft and surrounding areas. Neighbouring areas such as Whinmoor are often covered in Wetherby's Tempo FM
Tempo FM
Tempo FM is the local radio station for Wetherby, West Yorkshire as well as for surrounding villages and Leeds districts. The radio station mainly plays easy listening music.-Background:...

.

Reputation

Seacroft has a poor reputation across Leeds, a large section of housing is council owned and jobs tend to be low paid casual or manual work. Many of the houses, particularly prefabricated housing around South Parkway have boarded up and beyond any future habitation. This is due to a multi-million pound city re-development scheme whose earlier progress can be seen in the similar estates around the Coal Road area. The area's poor reputation has been focused on by journalist Donal MacIntyre
Donal MacIntyre
Donal MacIntyre is an Irish investigative journalist, specialising in investigations, undercover operations and television exposés. His work is in the area of care homes for the elderly and the learning disabled...

. Neighbouring Gipton
Gipton
Gipton is a suburb of East Leeds, West Yorkshire, England, between the A58 to the north and the A64 to the south. It is joined with Harehills as a City Council Ward...

 also shares this poor reputation. 85.49% of occupied houses in Seacroft fall within the Band A council tax rate (the lowest based on house values).

The Negative Image of Seacroft was challenged in 2008 by a BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 article called 'The Estate' depicting life on the estate.

Recorded Crime Statistics

Below is a table from West Yorkshire Police Data, detailing crime in LS14 from 2003.
Recorded Crime Number Per 1000
All Reported Crime 3375 190.4
Domestic Burglary 417 53.1
Vehicle Crime 513 28.9
Criminal Damage 1029 58.1

Public transport

Seacroft's Seacroft bus station
Seacroft bus station
Seacroft bus station serves the district of Seacroft in the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England.Seacroft's bus station was rebuilt as part of the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre in 2000 and is maintained by them...

 was rebuilt as part of the Seacroft Green Shopping Centre. The bus station has five drive-in-reverse-out stands and a daily footfall of 2,687. The closest railway station is Cross Gates
Cross Gates railway station
Cross Gates railway station serves Cross Gates, an area in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the York and Selby Lines, operated by Northern Rail east of Leeds railway station...

, this has services to Leeds, Garforth
Garforth railway station
Garforth railway station serves the town of Garforth, near Leeds in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the York and Selby Lines and North TransPennine routes. Garforth is east of Leeds....

, Bradford Interchange, Halifax
Halifax railway station
Halifax railway station serves the town of Halifax in West Yorkshire, England. It lies on the Caldervale Line and is west from .The station at Halifax is an example of a single island platform acting as two platforms. Platform 2 heads eastbound, towards Bradford while Platform 1 heads westbound...

, York
York railway station
York railway station is a main-line railway station in the city of York, England. It lies on the East Coast Main Line north of London's King's Cross station towards Edinburgh's Waverley Station...

 Hull and Scarborough
Scarborough railway station
Scarborough railway station serves the seaside town of Scarborough in North Yorkshire, England. It lies east of York and is one of the eastern termini on the North TransPennine route operated by First TransPennine Express...

.

Proposed Seacroft bypass

It has long been noted since the 1960s that the Ring Road
Leeds Outer Ring Road
The Leeds Outer Ring Road is a main road that runs around most of the perimeter of the city of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The ring road is approximately long and consists of single and dual carriageways....

 creates a social barrier between Seacroft and Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe
Swarcliffe, originally the Swarcliffe Estate, is a district of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It is east of Leeds city centre, and within the LS14 Leeds postcode area....

. A proposed bypass to be built from Slaid Hill, past the A58
A58 road
The A58 is a major road in northern England that runs between Prescot, Merseyside and Wetherby, West Yorkshire.It runs north east from Prescot on the outskirts of Liverpool via St Helens, Ashton-in-Makerfield, Hindley, Westhoughton, Bolton, Bury, Heywood, Rochdale and Littleborough then over the...

, Barwick Road, the A64
A64 road
The A64 is a road in North and West Yorkshire, England which links Leeds, York and Scarborough. The A64 starts as the A64 ring road motorway in Leeds and then is a dual carriageway for the rest of its route, except parts of the road from Malton to Scarborough.The road approximates a section of the...

 and the A63
A63 road
The A63 is a major road in Yorkshire, England between Leeds and Hull.-Leeds – Howden:The route out to Selby is shadowed by the Leeds-Selby railway....

 has been proposed. This would be built to dual carriageway standards. However no official approval has yet been given to this scheme.

Distances to nearby places of significance

  • Cross Gates- 1.3 miles (2.1 km)
  • Whinmoor
    Whinmoor
    Whinmoor is residential area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. The area is 5 miles to the north east of the city centre, adjacent to Swarcliffe and Seacroft in the LS14 Leeds postcode area...

    - 1.8 miles (2.9 km)
  • Scholes
    Scholes, Leeds
    Scholes is a village between Leeds and Barwick-in-Elmet, West Yorkshire, England. It is part of the civil parish of Barwick in Elmet and Scholes in the City of Leeds. It is sometimes known as Scholes-in-Elmet to distinguish it from the Scholes, Holme Valley and Scholes, Cleckheaton in Kirklees,...

    - 2.4 miles (3.9 km)
  • Garforth
    Garforth
    Garforth is a town within the City of Leeds metropolitan borough, in West Yorkshire, England. The 2001 Census lists 23,892 residents in the Garforth and Swillington ward - 80.57% of which are homeowners, 20% more than the average for Leeds. Garforth itself has 15,394 of those people...

    -4.6 miles
  • Wetherby
    Wetherby
    Wetherby is a market town and civil parish within the metropolitan borough of the City of Leeds, in West Yorkshire, England. It stands on the River Wharfe, and has been for centuries a crossing place and staging post on the Great North Road, being mid-way between London and Edinburgh...

    - 8.4 miles (13.5 km)
  • Castleford
    Castleford
    Castleford is the largest of the "five towns" district in the metropolitan borough of the City of Wakefield, in West Yorkshire, England. It is near Pontefract, and has a population of 37,525 according to the 2001 Census, but has seen a rise in recent years and is now around 45-50,000. To the north...

    - 10.2 miles (16.4 km)
  • Leeds Bradford International Airport
    Leeds Bradford International Airport
    Leeds Bradford International Airport is located at Yeadon, in the City of Leeds Metropolitan District in West Yorkshire, England, northwest of Leeds city centre itself...

    - 12.1 miles (19.5 km)
  • Wakefield
    Wakefield
    Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....

    - 14.2 mils
  • Bradford
    Bradford
    Bradford lies at the heart of the City of Bradford, a metropolitan borough of West Yorkshire, in Northern England. It is situated in the foothills of the Pennines, west of Leeds, and northwest of Wakefield. Bradford became a municipal borough in 1847, and received its charter as a city in 1897...

    - 15.4 miles (24.8 km)
  • Harrogate
    Harrogate
    Harrogate is a spa town in North Yorkshire, England. The town is a tourist destination and its visitor attractions include its spa waters, RHS Harlow Carr gardens, and Betty's Tea Rooms. From the town one can explore the nearby Yorkshire Dales national park. Harrogate originated in the 17th...

    - 15.4 miles (24.8 km)
  • York
    York
    York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

    - 21.1 miles (34 km)

Location grid




External links

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