Belle Isle, Leeds
| Belle Isle | |
|---|---|
 Belle Isle Circus |
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 Belle Isle
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| Belle Isle shown within West Yorkshire | |
| Metropolitan borough | |
| Metropolitan county | |
| Region | |
| Country | England |
| Sovereign state | United Kingdom |
| Post town | LEEDS |
| Postcode district | LS10 |
| Dialling code | 0113 |
| Police | West Yorkshire |
| Fire | West Yorkshire |
| Ambulance | Yorkshire |
| EU Parliament | Yorkshire and the Humber |
| UK Parliament | |
Belle Isle is a large suburb 3 miles (5 km) south of Leeds city centre, West Yorkshire, England. It is bounded to the north and east by the M621 motorway.
The district lies in the LS10 Leeds postcode area. Belle Isle is part of the Middleton Park electoral ward.
The name "Belle Isle", French for Beautiful Island, might be a pun on Bell Hill (which derives from the distinctive "bell" shaped early coal mining bell pits of the hilly area). A "Newbell-ile" at Middleton Wood End is mentioned in the Rothwell parish register for 1762.
In the late 18th century, Belle Isle was just a small hamlet for workers at a colliery opposite Middleton Woods, near the current site of Middleton colliery railway.
Belle Isle now consists largely of housing estates built on farming land by the local authority housing department during the clearance of slum dwellings and the expansion of Leeds in the early twentieth-century; some of these homes are now in private ownership.
The estate is divided north to south by Belle Isle Road with the wide expanse of Belle Isle Circus lying at the centre of the estate.
The majority of the homes in Belle Isle are red brick semi-detached houses although this stock has been added to over the years. The majority still belong to Leeds City Council and are managed locally by Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation (TMO). BITMO is a not for profit housing company that is run by a tenant board.
Some of the council estates of Belle Isle are listed below:
Like the neighbouring communities of Beeston Hill, Holbeck and Middleton, Belle Isle is considered to be amongst the most deprived areas in the country. Examples of disadvantage found in the district include low educational attainment, low skill levels, and concerns about crime, anti-social behaviour and lack of facilities.
In 2010 the Middleton Park ward which includes Belle Isle had 27487 inhabitants of which 52.2% were female and 47.8% male and 21.5% were aged 15 or under compared with an England average of 18.7%. Life Expectancy for males and females is more than three years less than the rest of Leeds. In 2001, most residents, 96.3%, identified as White British with 71.6% identifying as Christian and over 18% having no religion. Most houses are in the Council Tax Bands A and B. In April 2012, 1493 people were claiming Jobseekers allowance which at 8.3% was nearly double the Leeds' average. While all recorded crime was below the Leeds' average, criminal damage was substantially higher and nearly twice the England average.
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