Star date: 16th September 2014

SALFORD COUNCIL – A `MENACE BOGGED DOWN IN FAILURE AND INCOMPETENCE'

The author of a research paper which absolutely blasted Salford City Council and co for the shocking failure of the regeneration of Whit Lane estate in East Salford is back, asking residents to speak out about their experiences in the `Forgotten Estate'.

Dr Andrew Wallace, a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, wrote how residents of Charlestown and Lower Kersal faced a "legacy of  injustice ...through inaction and failure", leaving a "decimated landscape" and a "casual disregard for residents and the limbo they have been forced to endure". Now he seeks those residents' views.

Full details here...

"In the course of the absurd, dark logic of competitive urban regeneration funding, local authorities and their regeneration partners ensnare citizens and their homes in precarious renewal visions..." Dr Andrew Wallace

Make no mistake about it, Dr Andrew Wallace has done some of the best ever research into the so-called regeneration of Salford, focussing on the Whit Lane area. His book, Remaking Community? (2010), was an intellectual and practical missile right into the heart of Salford City Council, the Charlestown and Lower Kersal New Deal for Communities (NDC) and the Labour Government of the time.

Wallace tore down the theory and the practice of the regeneration industry and, in particular the NDC and its £53million ten year scheme which he described as "a crude attempt to impose its own vision and control excluded spaces" opening up "a Pandora's box of local conflict".

Based on the realities of Westminster `managing the poor' policies, plus interviews with residents, regeneration officers and the out of touch community `reps', the book was a stunning condemnation of what he called the "space invaders". And that was before the NDC project finished in spectacular failure...

Now, take a look around the legacy of grass crofts and tinned up houses and you might think to yourself `This place needs £53million spending on it'. Indeed, Dr Wallace came back to Salford earlier this year and wrote another paper entitled Salford Loves It Big and Shiny, which devastated Salford Council and the NDC legacy even more than the epic indictment of his brilliant earlier book.

Writing about "The casual disregard for residents and the limbo they have been forced to endure", he notes that "a legacy of injustice has begun to emerge not through action to displace and renew, but through inaction and failure", where "a neighbourhood restructure was started, but stalled and stopped, resulting in a decimated landscape of semi-eviction and part-transformation"...

"These residents were threatened with eviction" he explains "then were told they could remain, and now face an extremely uncertain future with their homes 'under review', which means upgrading in the short term but possibly eviction at some later stage."

It's worth quoting in length the following observation...

"The abandonment and abjection of this estate due to project failures, not to mention ongoing cuts in welfare support as well as the Bedroom Tax, has been worsened by the closure of local shops, a local community centre and all local pubs. One shop now remains to serve an entire community. The riverside 'potential' of IR [Irwell Riverside] remains resolutely 'unfulfilled'... meanwhile local people (never of course part of that 'potential') endure a seriously devitalised and uncertain future.

"The community here might yet be further displaced, but for now they are simply placed; placed in the cross hairs and marked 'TBA'. In the course of the absurd, dark logic of competitive urban regeneration funding, local authorities and their regeneration partners ensnare citizens and their homes in precarious renewal visions.

"Battling the slick eviction industry is one thing, but battling a phantom, unpredictable menace bogged down in failure and incompetence offers even greater malevolence for residents fighting to protect their homes, yes, but also to assert and cement their rights and attachments to their community..."

Yep, it's certainly devastating. For anyone who lives or walks through the Lower Kersal and Charlestown area, all this is blindingly obvious - but to hear it from an objective, outside academic is somewhat reassuring.

Now, Dr Andrew Wallace is, yet again updating his long term research into the Forgotten Estate and seeks the views of residents for this incredibly important work.

He is running an online survey for residents in the NDC areas of Charlestown and Lower Kersal to gather information on how they feel about the progress of the regeneration and the impact of housing demolition.

We urge everyone and anyone who can to help out and get your voice heard beyond the `unpredictable menace' of Salford City Council.

To complete the survey anonymously, please go to this website and complete the short questionnaire: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/JDZLBJC

If Dr Wallace gets enough responses, results of the survey will be written up and published in a series of articles about the regeneration of Salford and its impact on local people.

You can email Andrew at awallace@lincoln.ac.uk if you have questions about the research.

Read the full article : Salford Likes It Big and Shiny – click here 

Remaking Community? New Labour and the Governance of Poor Neighbourhoods by Andrew Wallace is available from Ashgate publishers (expensive academic book but force the local library to get a copy!)

See also previous Salford Star articles...

• Whit Lane Eight Year Regeneration Mess – click here

• Salford's £53m NDC Regeneration Disgrace – click here

• NDC Community Legacy Shock – click here

• Regeneration Limbo on Littleton Road – click here

Photos of Whit Lane taken yesterday by Steven Speed