(Image: T&A)
As a Leeds resident, I had only heard of Holme Wood in passing before joining the Telegraph & Argus.
Once Europe’s second-largest council estate, it is now home to around 11,000 residents.
And too often finds itself in the headlines for the wrong reasons.
My first visit to Bradford's largest estates
Fly-tipping, drug offences and anti-social behaviour are just some of the issues associated with the area, which was recently highlighted as having the eighth-lowest life expectancy for women in England and Wales.
I visited the estate for the first time last week, and my first port of call was the Holme in the Wood Café.
There, I found a welcoming community hub, friendly residents and good coffee.
Yet stepping away from the parade, the area's problems quickly become apparent.
Fly-tipping remains a huge concern
While many homes and gardens are well cared for, the level of fly-tipping on what appears to be open land is shocking.
Baths, mattresses, fridge-freezers and tyres litter almost every green space.
Fly-tipping in Holme Wood (Image: T&A)
More concerningly, horses and goats were tied up in several of these fields, often just metres away from piles of dumped waste.
Looking around, it is hard not to ask how this situation has been allowed to continue.
Ursula Sutcliffe, owner of the Holme in the Wood Café, said: "People think because the fly-tipping's here, it's us doing it. That hasn’t always been the case.
"We've got the Pride of Place now in Holme Wood, which is going to be £2 million a year for the next 10 years, and residents are really shaping how they want their estate to look.
Ursula Sutcliffe in Holme Wood (Image: T&A)
"But we need everybody coming together to make that happen for everybody."
There is also confusion among residents about who is responsible for clearing the waste.
Fly-tipping has taken place on both council-owned land and land owned by Incommunities, but it is not always clear who residents should contact or where responsibility lies.
Like many of her neighbours, Ursula believes more needs to be done.
"We need quicker action on fly-tipping. We need quicker action on the CCTV," she said.
Incommunities responds to concerns
Wanting answers to those concerns, I contacted Bradford Council and Incommunities.
Bradford Council did not respond within the required timeframe.
A spokesperson for Incommunities said: "Like our residents, we're extremely frustrated by the scale and frequency of fly-tipping in Holme Wood.
Fly-tipping in Holme Wood (Image: T&A)
"We take reports of fly-tipping on land we own or manage seriously and work closely with the council to tackle the issue, including gathering and sharing evidence to support enforcement action where possible.
"These are regular fly-tipping hotspots that we visit several times a month to clear, at a significant cost."
The spokesperson said more than 4.5 tonnes of waste and several skips of rubbish had been removed from the area so far this year.
They added that community clean-up days and Days of Action had been organised, although two planned events were cancelled because of safety concerns.
Fly-tipping in Holme Wood (Image: T&A)
Another clean-up is planned for October 27.
The spokesperson thanked residents for reporting concerns and urged anyone who witnesses fly-tipping to report it confidentially through the council's dedicated webpage.
Concerns about future
While in the Holme in the Wood Café, regulars spoke of concerns about future funding.
With the estate's social club now a distant memory, many worried about what would happen if they lost access to another vital community space.
Others raised concerns about access to some of life's basics, from the loss of healthcare facilities to the collapse of plans for a new supermarket.
Holme Wood faces significant challenges – the fly-tipping alone makes that impossible to ignore.
Holme in the Wood café has become a hub for the community. (Image: T&A)
Yet it is not short of people who care about where they live.
What seems to be missing is the support needed to match their ambition.
After my first visit, it was clear that Holme Wood is more than the negative headlines that often define it.
But it is also clear that there is still a long way to go before it becomes the thriving community hub many residents want it to be.