Silly season at West Leeds Dispatch!

Dear supporter,

I hope you’re enjoying the summer, although as I type from my kitchen it has gone very dark and I can hear the light and ominous patter of rain on the conservatory roof!

We're in the midst of what we call the 'silly season' in journalism. Silly Season happens a couple of times a year - at Christmas and in the summer holidays. It means news is harder to come by as people are on holiday, the council doesn't meet, schools are closed, there are fewer events, fewer planning applications - even local campaigns take a break. Visits to the website also decrease.

Put simply, there’s not as much going on as people sun themselves on Blackpool beach!

In August it’s been great to see a stead flow of articles coming from our community reporters, who have covered a variety of topics in the past few weeks.

My thanks must also go to community reporters Michelle Corns and Noah Roberts for completing the first series of our West Leeds Chat podcast. I hope you’ve been listening?! The initial idea to do a podcast came from Michelle, and while the first series has been a learning curve in terms of recording and editing, more than 3,000 people have listened to the first few episodes so far.

Thanks also to the intrepid what's on crew of Win Roddy (Opens in a new window), Diane Sullivan (Opens in a new window), Noelle Williamson (Opens in a new window) and Dianne Craven (Opens in a new window) for all the events they have added to our online what’s on section. If you haven’t visited it yet, then you should - there are dozens of events listed each day!

So while the silly season is in full flow, we’re still busy here at WLD!

I’ve also been working on our bid for another three years’ funding from the National Lottery to find our community reporters’ training courses. Fingers crossed for a successful outcome - it’s been a lot of work by a great many people to get the bid together! My thanks to our hard-working trustees/board members for their help. They’re all volunteers and have lives/jobs/families but somehow find the time to help steer us forward as an organisation.

From tomorrow I’m heading off for a short family break to London and won’t be back until Friday evening, so please bear with us as our output on the website will be greatly reduced in the coming days.

Oh, and keep your eyes peeled for our next print edition, coming out at the end of September.

Finally my personal thanks for your ongoing support of West Leeds Dispatch - it is very much appreciated. We really couldn’t do it without you.

• John Baron, Editor and co-founder