“Grove Village” was featured by Department for Communities and Local Government in their publication in June 2006 entitled “from decent homes to sustainable communities”. The £100m project includes the creation of a new “village centre” which is at the core of the success of the scheme.
The village centre includes new shops, office accommodation, a training centre for the local college and community facilities including a family centre and a health centre. Of the existing housing stock, 664 homes are being refurbished and 430 houses are being demolished to make way for 881 homes to be built for sale together with 9 elderly persons bungalows. The infrastructure around the existing and new built homes is being completely renewed providing roads to the fronts of homes and new private gardens to the rear. New Public Parks will be formed and the new road and footpath grid includes a ‘Green Route’ linking Grove Village with the city centre and Stockport.
The consortium is responsible for delivering housing management services, planned and responsive maintenance and combined heat and power to Grove village for 30 years. Grove Village have community officers based on the estate who have accessed various funding sources for community projects.
Some of the voids had existed for many years before the commencement of the scheme however Harvest now have a significant waiting list for most property types. As David Tomlinson, chair of the Grove Village Resident’s Association put it:
“Before PFI, we were just a small part of a larger council area. But now, we’ve been able to put in individual bids for funding like lottery grants. Among other things it’s received £19,000 for pensioner’ lunches, £2,700 for a community newspaper and £5000 for sports clubs for 15 and 16 year-olds. There’s a real buzz about the regeneration. Before we didn’t have a name, now people put Grove Village in their addresses.”
We believe that we have kept the best features of the ‘old’ estate – for instance it’s green and open feeling – but are removing the worst, such as the Radburn layout of roads and footpaths. The new homes have been designed to complement the existing and include a small cluster of bungalows for older residents. By integrating new housing with retained homes, we are creating a truly inclusive, mixed tenure, community.
Crime is a big issue for local residents and the physical changes to the estate have contributed to better community safety. Neighbourhood wardens help maintain the high quality of the environment and provide a sense of security. The local Police tell us that crime has dropped 70%.
Given the ethnic diversity of the estate the services of translators have been engaged to produce information and to translate on a one to one basis in nine languages including Urdu, Somali, Albanian, Polish and Shona. In addition deaf signers have been employed and information provided in Braille. |
