Allerton Lower Grange CLT

13/08/2026

This is so sad, reckless and selfish individuals wrecking our community and prevent great groups like Creative Flare Yorkshire doing their great activities for local children.

Thank you to the team West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service who got the situation sorted safely, when you are next at Headquarters visit The Sugar Snap Kitchen there’s a coffee on us.

⛔️⛔️⛔️Today, our "Beck Adventures" session was cut short by an act of pure, reckless criminality. Someone intentionally set fire to the site.

Let’s be clear: this wasn’t a "prank." It was a life-threatening act of negligence. We had adults, children, and babies in our care. While we managed to evacuate safely through a side exit, the reality is that this could have ended in tragedy.

Our priority is, and always will be, the safety of our participants. It is infuriating that a handful of thoughtless individuals are willing to put our community’s children at risk. This behavior is unacceptable.

We are calling on everyone in this community to step up. If you see something, report it. Silence only protects those who are willing to cause harm. Whilst there behaviour becomes more reckless and something serious happens to either them or someone innocently visiting the beck.

A massive thank you to Alex and the staff at the at Lower Grange Community Centre for their immediate support in helping us relocate to the park so we could continue our session. We are also incredibly grateful to the West Yorkshire Fire and Rescue Service for their rapid response and the vital work they do to keep us safe in this area

Please, look out for one another. Let’s keep our community safe. ⛔️⛔️⛔️

24/06/2026

A little while back we shared the below news that the piece of council owned land off Merrivale Road was being prepared for sale.

Following consultations around the lack of affordable, quality homes that would priorities local community memebrs, we worked really hard to develop a masterplan and buisness model.

This was an incredibly cahllenging task as housebuilding is incredibly expensive, we are commited to affordable homes but grant support from the government meant our offer for the land was very low.

Our proposal was more of a parternship opportunity, one where The Council and our community - through The Community Land Trust, could work together and place people over pounds!

This offer was submitted to the councils external agents, sadly, prior to the recent local elections we were informed other higher bids were on the table and being taken forward.

We have no idea what size these bids were, who is putting the bids in or what they are propossing to do.

What we are pretty sure of is, whatever happens through a potential new owner will not want to offer the respect adn opportunity for local residents to shape whatever comes next on this land.

We are incredibly sad we didnt get a more positive outcome, however we have left the door open should there ever be a change of mind!

We still want to be part of the solution for the local housing need. Our community still needs high quality affordable homes that are planned, built and managed by our community.

We are still working on other opportunities along with a public AGM in a few months time.

We have a meeting this morning with Bradford Council to discuss the future of the land at Merrivale.

Thank you to everyone who has signed up, commented and shared, please do continue to let us know your thoughts and keep signing up as member so we can secure this land for the community.

08/05/2026

“It won’t last a month” said one local resident with a sense of dejection.

Our response - well we have to keep trying!

2 months later and the Allerton Community Orchard has received a few more trees, eating apples, cooking apples, French pears, cherries and plums.

It’s going to be a good number of years before we see a good number of fruit. But as the Guinness advert said - Good things come to those who wait!

Thank you to Champion Kids for planting these latest trees and to all the residents keeping an eye on them!

29/04/2026

Spring has sprung!

Our first saplings are blossoming. I’m not sure how many trees you need before it’s classed as an orchard, but we’ve got 6 so far!

We look forward to developing this little corner of Allerton, if you want to help we will be adding a couple more trees and doing a litter pick very soon.