COULD everyone please stop whining now?

I've just had to endure the latest in a long line of moans about city living, this time specifically referring to the ISIS development at Granary Wharf which is striving to become more family friendly.

A worthy aspiration, you might think.

But quite a few cynics (you know the usual office/pub sages who can make the wildest statements without ever having to back their views up or act on them?) have poo-pooed the notion that they're doing it for the kids.

Now, maybe they're right. Maybe they won't achieve this. Maybe building playgrounds between apartment blocks and creating roof top gardens that kids can also play in won't be enough to transform the centre of Leeds city into some suburbanesque paradise - but at least they're giving it a go.

And that's important, because one of the legitimate criticisms that's levelled at city living is that it's become too exclusive, shutting out anyone who isn't a twenty or thirty something single professional.

So, can't we let developers at least try and rise to the challenge? Not dismiss their efforts out of hand?

Another bug-bear has been the exclusion of the very young from the plush new apartment complexes. Until now.

Two of the biggest towers in Leeds will soon come to completion offering modern student accommodation in the heart of Leeds. But when one of these developments was first proposed on Woodhouse Lane a local councillor argued that their construction would create a ghetto.Nuts.

Presumably students should have to perpetually endure living in damp, dilapidated terraces with flea-ridden carpets and reinforced steel doors (anyone who's been to university will know what I'm talking about.)

But no more. Now they can, for a while at least, enjoy the same amenities and atmosphere of the city centre that all the lawyers, doctors and advertising gurus currently corner down on the waterfront.
That's wonderful, not a ghetto.

But perhaps the most unbelievable chagrin has come with new proposals to construct a key workers village just on the edge of the city centre.

In short this aims to create roughly 800 apartments - with their own on-site facilities - which will only be given to people whose income is within a strict band, currently the suggested figure is somewhere between £14,000 and £23,000.

What this aims to do is tackle a long-standing problem which has seen thousands of people unable to buy or let properties in all but the more down at heel parts of Leeds. We're not just talking nurses and teachers, also all the call centre staff and shop assistants who keep the local economy ticking over.

What this village could do is not only break through the financial impasse but also offer the chance to live within walking distance of the heart of the city.

But yet again, a vocal minority are reluctant to give the scheme the go-ahead, citing worries about the number of people who would live there. (A strange concern in the centre of a city which already has a 700,000+ population).

It's about time those in power developed a clearer vision about what kind of city we want Leeds to be and, crucially, make some kind of commitment.

Do we want an existence which is forever divided into rich, super-rich and poor - north, south and centre? Or are we going to grab at every opportunity we can to integrate and evolve?

I'm not suggesting we simply roll over every time a developer comes up with a scheme, what I am saying is let's work with them and give them the chance to prove themselves.

There's a growing suspicion that far from trying to safeguard the long-term sustainability of city living there's a Luddite few who're battling it on the back of a self-satisfying whim. If we can't reason with them perhaps we should just ignore them.