Latest news with #Horsforth
BBC News
23-07-2025
- BBC News
Alfie Lewis: Murdered boy's aunt urges action on knife crime
The aunt of a murdered schoolboy has said she is determined to stop other families experiencing the "indescribable" pain of losing someone to knife Lewis, 15, died in hospital after being stabbed in the heart and leg in Church Road, Horsforth, in November Shojaeifard, who was 14 when he killed Alfie, was detained for life with a minimum term of 13 years after being convicted of murder in aunt Mechelle Lewis was speaking at a consultation in Harehills as part of West Yorkshire Mayor Tracy Brabin's campaign to tackle serious violence. "Alfie was taken from us so cruelly and that we cannot change, but we can stand together, united with a voice and with conviction to make a change," Ms Lewis said."So, we are working alongside the mayor and community, with a call to do exactly that, make changes. Together and unified, we rise, reshape and rebuild."The new three R's for our education system."We will not allow Alfie's life to have been taken in vain." The event featured personal stories, workshops and discussions aimed at combating violence, with people invited to share their views, experiences, ideas and solutions to help shape a new strategy."I am just relieved we are finally at a point that we have a voice on a megaphone scale instead of whispering in the dark," Ms Lewis said many people were trying to get to the same point in tackling the issues but were doing so independently, when everyone needed to be "singing from the same hymn sheet"."I feel this platform is giving us an opportunity to do that."As part of this work, Ms Lewis is also collaborating with Leeds-based RedBobble to create Arts on Alfie: Forever 15 - a trauma-informed, multi-arts aims to reduce knife carrying and prevent youth knife crime through drama and art."It's verbatim, so you hear actual words you are kind of there, it takes you to the place," Ms Lewis said."If you are engaging with it and actually part of it, you can say 'OK, just pause for a moment' and say at this point 'what would you have chosen to do differently' and then the child can engage in that." 'Void will never be filled' Describing Alfie as a "beautiful boy", Ms Lewis said people needed to understand what happened to him could happen to any child."He was a child who would never have carried a weapon, so for him to be taken so tragically and so violently, it blows the mind."There is just not a big enough awareness out there and an understanding that it is prolific."We all need to know what our children are doing, what they are listening to and who they are interacting with."She said the work to tackle knife crime was in her view "Alfie's legacy" but said his death had left a "void that will never, ever be filled".Ms Lewis said moving forward she hoped the family and especially his mother would know that he had "not died in vain"."That we will make a difference to stop other families experiencing this, there's a depth of pain that's indescribable - until you live it you will not understand it," she said."So let's be unified with a vision for our youth to no longer carry knives, no longer feel they have a fear and they need to." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Hose been spoiling our summer fun?
As a long-suffering customer of Yorkshire Water, I became subject to a hosepipe ban on 11 July. The next day I read in your Saturday magazine that I should enliven my summer by turning my garden into a water park: 'All you need is a hose …' (From stargazing to slushy-making: 50 fresh ideas for a super summer on the cheap (some are even free), 12 July). Are you taking the piss? Hang on, you might just have given me an idea for keeping my garden ComaishHorsforth, West Yorkshire When Rafael Behr writes: 'Ultranationalist ideology and a personality cult around the president are embedded in all public discourse as tests of loyalty' I had to check if he was referring to President Putin or Trump (Trump isn't a reliable ally – but Nato dollars can be more persuasive than Putin's propaganda, 16 July).Kevin QuinnMusselburgh, East Lothian Having read Is your home a health hazard? 15 surprisingly filthy everyday items, from taps to toothbrushes (17 July), I concluded that, as my house is clearly a breeding ground for bugs, it's nothing short of miraculous that I've survived into my 80s with few major illnesses. It seems more likely that following the article's advice might lead to a severe attack of GladmanSwindon Reading the Guardian sometimes makes me wonder whether we need to worry about FullerAmpthill, Bedford Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
BBC News
06-07-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
Yorkshire's strawberry farm see crops thrive in hot summer
For many, British summertime means barbecues in the rain, dodging wasps at picnics and watching Wimbledon with a glass of Pimm's and the quintessential snack: strawberries and the beginning of April, industry body the British Berry Growers predicted this season's strawberry crop would be sweeter than organisation, which represents the UK's commercial soft fruit growers, said this year's strawberries would also arrive about a week early because of unusually high sunshine levels. But has this borne true for Yorkshire's strawberry farmers? In Horsforth, Leeds, Joe Kemp of Kemp's Farm runs a pick your own strawberry field, and says his produce is definitely sweeter than in other years. "It's been really sweet this year. It's been an absolutely amazing start of the season with how hot and warm it's been this year. A lot better than last year."More sunlight equals more sun photosynthesis, which means more sugar."Mr Kemp says the fruit crop has also come earlier this year."About two weeks earlier in fact," he says. "Last year, I think it was the 29 June we opened, whereas this year it was the 10 the hot weather has had an effect on the other seasonal crops at the farm."For the pumpkins, it's been a bit of an issue. We've had to water those. We've never had to water pumpkins before, growing in the ground. "But the strawberries, they're already irrigated. There wasn't much of a problem for those."The farm has been open for 42 years, and in the last decade they have begun focusing more on the pick your own side of the business. "There's 32 acres, of which there's 12km of table-top strawberries, which equates to about seven acres," he says. "Then the raspberries, blackberries, the 17 acres of pumpkins, then wildflowers and sunflowers."On a really busy weekend we can have around 2,000 people a day in for strawberries." Also in Leeds, Micklefield-based farmer Annabel Makin-Jones sells strawberries to a completely different Deliciously British brand supplies supermarkets Booths and Ocado, but also five-star restaurants and the Royal Family. She says extremely hot weather is not good for strawberries."When it's really hot, they ripen really quickly, so they're smaller and you don't get the sugar content. That's why American strawberries and Spanish strawberries taste dreadful," she says."The reason British ones are the best is because it's a slower period of time that they ripen over and it allows the sugars to accumulate so they don't ripen too quickly."She adds that it is impossible to judge a season's worth of strawberries, with each week producing a different taste."It all depends on the weather in the week that they ripen and they get picked," she says."The weather this week is different to last week. So if we have 18 to 22 degrees, brilliant. If we have 32 degrees like we had on Sunday, then they ripen too quickly. "It's not the whole season overall. Your strawberries are not the same from May to October."Ms Makin-Jones says her strawberries are about the story behind the product. "When you just go and pick up a punnet of strawberries off a supermarket shelf, you've got no idea how it was grown, who grew it. Stack it high, sell it cheap, is basically what they do, and this is very different."I've been a strawberry farmer for 22 years. "People, when they do their weekly shop, if they know where something's come from, and they know it's a family business, and they can see the person behind it, and it's honest, and it's trustworthy, people buy into that," she says. The Balloon Tree is a cafe and farm shop with pick your own fields just outside director Matthew Machin says the farm has been running a pick your own site for 43 years, and a cafe and shop for sell tonnes of fruit, including strawberries - and agree that the warm, dry weather has been good for sweetness."This year, because of the sunshine, has probably been one of the best years ever for the sweetness of strawberries," he says."There's not been much rain so most of our strawberries are under tunnels, but the ones which aren't, because we've had very little rain, they've thrived really, they've stayed very good quality all season."He says the kind of customers have changed, with more people coming for the experience than the fruit."We don't really get the traditional jamming people who used to come in and buy for jam. It's more of a family experience," he says. With the strawberries being so sweet, he says, they're perfect for that classic Wimbledon snack. "Honestly, the best thing you can have strawberries with is just the simple cream," he says. "And you shouldn't, this time of year, because it is the main season, have to add any sugar. The strawberry is sweet enough just with the cream. It's going to be perfect." Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North.
