Helen Beesley

Helen Beesley – The Lego Lady

Category : Our People

Q1. Tell us a little bit about yourself (Do you live, work, hang out here? What do you do?)

I’m Helen also known as the Lego Lady as I run the Lego Club at Levenshulme Market and Burnage Library. I live in Burnage but spend a lot of time in Levenshulme building Lego, visiting the market and local bars, cafes and businesses and visiting Levenshulme based friends.

Q2. What Interests you about the Levenshulme Bee Network (and how are you involved, if you are yet?) Tell us a little bit about yourself (Do you live, work, hang out here? What do you do?)

As I use my bike and trailer to get to and from a lot of events in Levenshulme I have a vested interest in making my journeys safer and more enjoyable. I’ve also had great fun helping out with a couple of Bee Network events and getting people to think about parklets and building them in, of course, Lego!

Q3. What do you see as the top issues in our neighbourhood?

For me riding around the area safely and enjoyably would be great, there are many obstacles to this including; the state of some roads, the amount of traffic and the speed of some of the drivers. Also simple things like being able to securely park my bike and be sure it’s going to be where I left it when I return. I also do a lot of walking around the area and some crossings are outright dangerous, they also seem to be geared towards the cars and not the pedestrians taking ages to get across some roads.

Q4. What ideas would you bring forward to make positive change the place?

Definitely more focus on people walking and cycling instead of driving, especially short distances the more people who are seen doing it the more people will do it. Making the area a nicer place to walk and cycle with changes to the crossing, making the pavements and road surfaces safer. I think we can all advocate in a positive way to get people out of their cars espousing the benefits of cycling and walking rather than being down on the drivers.

Q5. Finally, tell us what you love most about Levenshulme?

It seems to have a really active community, lots of people trying to do good things and bringing great events and activities to the local area. People seem to want to get involved and have practical solutions to issues they see in their area