📫Letter 17 — To Imagine Leeds (with reply)

Keeping civic and institutional attention on the transition

Date: 29 October 2025
Recipient: Imagine Leeds — City hub of Climate Action Leeds

Context

The third letter of Week 3 of One Letter a Day turns to Imagine Leeds, the city-centre hub that links neighbourhood action with institutional change. Since its creation within Climate Action Leeds in 2020, Imagine Leeds has become a focal point for collaboration across sectors — a place where residents, researchers, businesses and civic leaders work side-by-side on the long transition toward a fair, nature-friendly and zero-carbon city.
This letter asks how such spaces sustain attention and coherence amid shifting political and institutional priorities.

Simon Dixon, manager at Imagine Leeds/Climate Action Leeds/Leeds love it share it, replies.

Letter

Dear friends at Imagine Leeds,

I am writing as part of One Letter a Day: a year-long civic experiment to reopen grounded conversations about the climate emergency, starting here in Leeds. Each day I write to someone whose work shapes how we think and act on this crisis, and publish both letters and replies to encourage wider dialogue.

This week turns to the organisations that give shape to civic life. In Leeds, Imagine Leeds sits at the heart of that network: a space where communities, institutions and ideas meet, and where the city can see its transition reflected back to itself.

Over the past five years you’ve built something rare: an open, physical hub that welcomes residents, researchers, businesses and public bodies into the same conversation. More than 8,000 visitors, hundreds of events and dozens of partner organisations have passed through your doors. That reach has begun to form an infrastructure of collaboration — one that holds potential not just for coordination, but for coherence.

As was highlighted during the West Yorkshire and Humber Climate Commission Gathering in September, spaces like these are civic instruments. In a time when institutional and political priorities can shift with each funding cycle, Imagine Leeds provides continuity: a shared table around which ambition and practicality can meet.

So my question is this:

Over the past five years, Imagine Leeds has hosted thousands of visitors, hundreds of events and dozens of organisations. From your perspective, what does genuine progress look like in a hub like this? And how do you leverage it to make sure that this continues to maintain institutional attention on the transition?

I ask because, as civic life fragments and attention becomes a scarce resource, spaces of continuity matter more than ever. The work you do helps keep the city’s focus steady — reminding both institutions and citizens that the transition is not an abstract goal but an ongoing civic practice. Understanding how you sustain that focus could help others elsewhere learn to do the same.

With appreciation for your work and the constancy it represents,

Vivien

📨 Reply from Imagine Leeds
Dear Vivien,

Thank you for your thoughtful letter. Your project is really impressive, and I have enjoyed reading through some of your correspondence. 

I must say your summary about Imagine Leeds is really excellent. We have been doing our best to establish a new civic institution for the city of Leeds, which is a constant work in progress. To hear someone else describe the value of Imagine Leeds, and speak highly of it, is really heart-warming. So thank you.

Turning to your questions, you ask what genuine progress looks like in a venue like Imagine Leeds. Truth be told, monitoring and evaluating our progress - our impact as a venue - can be a tricky thing. 

You quote some of our impressive statistics in your email, about the number of visitors, meetings, events, and organisations that have used Imagine Leeds. Being busy is part of our aim, to offer lots of topics people can engage with, and opportunities for meaningful connection. 

Understanding success in terms of our longer term impact is more challenging, but what I do know is that for many people visiting Imagine Leeds, their eyes light up, their hearts fill with hope, and they re-energise towards our shared sustainability mission. I see it as a compliment when people get our name wrong and call us ‘Inspire Leeds’, because that is certainly one of our aims. 

Your second question seems to be about how Imagine Leeds can influence other organisations in the city, keeping them focused on, and committed to, sustainability. To date, we can claim to have directly engaged around 1% of people in the city of Leeds. Our goal is to not only increase that number, but also to galvanise the people who visit to spread the sustainability mission across the city. We are a small, independent, civic organisation, so our leverage over larger institutions in Leeds typically happens through our community of users and visitors. That being said, I also have a role as Commissioner for Leeds Climate Commission, an independent advisory group in the city. So that role enables me to champion a community perspective in discussions across sectors and organisations.

Our ultimate aim is to provide a gateway through which ordinary Leeds citizens can engage with how the city is run; both today and in the future. We hope that one day Imagine Leeds will be able to provide the constancy you speak of, through having a permanent physical presence in the city centre. We believe it is only getting more and more important to have collaboration spaces for action on sustainability and social justice.

Thank you again for your kind words and your dedication for sparking this much-needed dialogue.

Wishing you a joyous festive period.

Kind regards,

Simon

💬 Join the conversation
Comment below or share your reflections with #OneLetterADay.

Tomorrow’s letter continues Week 3’s exploration of civic resilience, turning to Sustainable Arts in Leeds (SAIL) — the network helping artists and cultural organisations reimagine sustainability not only as practice but as possibility.