Estate plan develops
Wakefield town hall, dept leader Denise Jeffery .
PLANS to regenerate two estates with a multi-million pound government grant are gaining pace.
As reported by the Express in April last year, City Estate in Fitzwilliam, Hemsworth’s West End, South Elmsall’s Westfield Lane and a site in Featherstone are set to be regenerated with a £8.1m Regional Growth Fund grand awarded to Wakefield Council.
Developers who expressed an interest in City Estate and West End were issued with site briefs on January 20 and proposals are due back next month.
The council will then decide which developer is most suitable, and it hopes to make an appointment in May.
Work could start as soon as summer next year, but improvements to roads and the environment around the development sites could come even sooner.
Coun Denise Jeffery, Wakefield Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and economic growth, said: “People have been waiting a long time for housing in these areas and I am really pleased to see that things are moving forward.
“We have set some high standards for the new homes in terms of their energy efficiency, their adaptability to the future needs of residents and their safety. It is our aim that up to 30 per cent of the new homes will be affordable homes for rent or shared ownership to help improve the range of housing options in the areas.”
The council said it was not possible to say how many homes would be built on the two sites, but that it hoped 650 new homes would be built across all four sites over the next six to seven years. The project could create around 100 jobs and more than 60 apprenticeships.
During the 1990s the West End Estate, City Estate and the Westfield Lane area all fell into rapid decline, leading to abandoned houses, crime and anti-social behaviour.
The City estate was once branded the worst estate in Britain.
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Friday 25 May 2012
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Colmair
Saturday, February 18, 2012 at 07:07 AMIt has been so sad to see all those communities that used to rely on the coal mines falling into such a depressing spiral of decline after the closure of the mines. This led to a 'no hope' generation with not a lot to do even if they wanted to work. The decline of these areas is not the decline of the housing stock but the decline of the community. Building posh or 'affordable' housing will not solve this. There was no better example of affordable housing than the terraced streets of Top Street, West Street, etc in Hemsworth, but they were demolished. In their heyday these were strong communities. Now we seem to blame the housing for anti-social behaviour. The fix for these areas will require far more than a decent house, and cost a lot more than the £8.1 million or £12,500 per house built (I'll buy one at that price!). Our London-centric government needs to pay out a lot more than this to regenerate the communities they destroyed!
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