MP's Notebook: Summer festivals, Middleton railway and Wesley Street church

In Leeds, MP’s Notebook reflects on a busy start to summer marked by multiple local festivals and community projects. The article describes events including Hunslet, the Beeston Festival, Belle Isle and the Holbeck Gala, noting large crowds, live music, food stalls and recurring family attractions such as climbing walls. It also highlights conversations with volunteers and groups working on issues ranging from veterans’ support and mental health to the Holbeck Viaduct project, aimed at transforming an old railway viaduct into a high-level walkway. The Middleton Railway is presented as a local heritage asset, with the author attending an event to name a locomotive “Salamanca” after the 1812 steam engine by John Blenkinsop and built by Matthew Murray in Leeds. The piece recalls the side cogwheel design and mentions historical context involving coal transport and scarcity of horses during the Napoleonic wars.