Getting the Otley Run under control: our 5 point plan

The Otley Run brings thousands of visitors through our area every weekend. But it also brings problems - anti-social behaviour, litter, and disruption for residents.

It has grown in recent years, with more and more non-students taking part.

Since being elected we’ve been working on a clear five-point plan to get it under control.

Here’s what we’ve already achieved, and what comes next:

1 - Ban the behaviours that cause harm

When we were elected we made it our mission to tackle public urination on the Otley Run. Previous councillors complained about it but had no plan.

We got the local 'Public Space Protection Order' (PSPO) re-written to include bans on public urination, verbal harassment on the street, and other types of anti-social behaviour.

Now we're bringing forward a ban on offensive fancy dress. Nobody needs to see that on a Saturday afternoon.

But, we need to 👇

2 - Make sure there is policing and enforcement

First we had to change the rules so police and enforcement teams could actually take action. But once we'd done so, our priority became getting more enforcement.

We've made good progress here. There are now always police officers and Leeds Anti-Social Behaviour officers patrolling the Otley Run on Saturday afternoons. That simply wasn’t happening before.

And our Taxi and Premises Licensing teams do regular inspections.

But we definitely need more enforcement. We know incidents happen that don't get picked up - it's a really long route after all.

So we've got agreement from the premises to fund extra policing. That's a big win - the more we can get the businesses who profit from it to take responsibility the better.

3 - Stop it getting bigger

We’ve changed Licensing rules so new venues in Headingley will not be allowed to accept Otley Runners (e.g. Residence). That’s already stopped new pubs from joining the route. It's also enabled us to stop the Golden Beam Wetherspoons from joining in.

In some cases existing premises like Arcadia who already have a licence have chosen to join the Otley Run. This is much harder to deal with, we can only go down the route of bringing their licence into review. This is legally challenging, but we are prepared to pursue it where venues fail to act responsibly 👇

4 - Make venues take responsibility

We're working with the community, including the Otley Run Action Group, and with the venues themselves to get a bit of collaboration. Most venues have already improved how they deal with queuing, and some are taking on local litter for example.

But it's quite piecemeal for now, so we're (a) pursuing a couple of premises licence reviews that will force sensible new conditions onto existing premises and (b) creating a voluntary Code of Conduct for all Otley Run venues to subscribe to. Ultimate, this should help us build to 👇

5 - A permanent change to how the Otley Run works

This is the big one, but we can do it. What we really want to do is make the Otley Run something that all the venues take collective responsibility for, limiting the numbers, ensuring it's safe, paying the costs.

It should only happen when it's safe to do so, and it shouldn't be up to the taxpayer to pick up the problems.

Final note

The Otley Run isn’t going to change overnight. But we've made sure there is a clear plan to get it under control. Tackling long-term problems with creativity is something we do well, and was sorely lacking for our area previously.