Star date: 28th August 2015

FIRST PETER KAY, NOW WEED FACTORY AS WHIT LANE RESIDENTS LIVE IN FLY TIPPING FORGOTTEN ESTATE

Back in May, it was Peter Kay's production crew who left kids playing in rubble on the Whit Lane estate after filming scenes for the new Cradle To Grave series. Now a whole pile of cannabis growing accessories have been dumped on Condor Place, as the `Forgotten Estate' becomes fly tipping central, with neither Salix Homes nor Salford Council seemingly interested in sorting it out.

"People are living in the middle of all this mess" fumes Graham Cooper of Oliver's Youth Club.

Full details here...

Yesterday, kids as young as nine were playing with the latest dumped items on Whit Lane estate – a disused cannabis growing factory complete with `Big Bud' chemical canisters, snaking foil filters and seed packets. Amidst the tinned up houses it looked like a post-apocalyptic old film set from Doctor Who.

The open bin bags and strewn weed growing accessories have been scattered around Condor Place for weeks and reported to Salford Council's environmental services by at least two people yet nothing has been done. Meanwhile, everywhere you look on the estate where houses and land have been left derelict there's piles of fly-tipped rubbish.

"No-one is taking responsibility" says Graham Cooper of Oliver's Youth Club, which runs the only activities for the neighbourhood's young people "Why aren't the councillors down there chasing environmental services and changing what's going on? People have been living in the middle of this mess for over ten years."

Whit Lane, incredibly, was at the centre of a £53million New Deal for Communities project which aimed to regenerate the area but has left the `Forgotten Estate' in limbo since the hopelessly failed scheme closed in 2011 (for background see here). Developers have come with plans for new housing and parks, and then gone, with tinned up houses and large areas of wasteland becoming a paradise for fly tippers.

Back in May, Peter Kay filmed scenes for his new BBC series, Cradle To Grave*, in a re-opened tinned up house on Condor Place, with the crew leaving behind open bags of rubble and a disrespect for the community which left Graham Cooper fuming... "That just sums up what's been going on down here for a long, long time." (see previous Salford Star article – click here)

After the Salford Star exposed the dangerous state of the estate following this incident, Salix Homes, which manages the houses and outdoor areas, suddenly sorted it out – now, four months later, parts of it are a complete mess again.

"There's street sweepers, grass cutters and housing officers on the estate yet no-one seems to have seen all this rubbish" says Graham "There's people saying `It's not my job', people passing the buck but in the middle of all that people are living in this.

"I don't know if the empty properties have been taken off Salix by Salford Council but in my eyes it's their estate, their responsibility to clean it and they should be paying environmental services" he adds "Why aren't they keeping their eye on the estate, it looks really poor? If this was in Greengate or one of their other all singing and dancing estates this would never have occurred."

There is actually an enclosed riverside wasteland area of Whit Lane, known as Green Gates - piled with more cannabis growing stuff, dumped rubble, carpets and garbage - where the local kids won't venture, following horror stories of attacks. What a contrast to Salford Council's other Greengate area with its shiny blocks of flats and riverside amenities.

It's all symptomatic of the attitude to Whit Lane, summed up by Dr Andrew Wallace, a senior lecturer at the University of Lincoln, who has written a book and subsequent academic papers on the total failure of the NDC in Whit Lane, observing how residents of Charlestown and Lower Kersal face 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".

There are now more plans afoot for Keepmoat to develop the Whit Lane area but no-one has yet seen the plans. In the meantime, kids are kicking canisters of cannabis growing chemicals around the estate and playing with the new foil snakes that have appeared. It would make a nice `What did you do during the summer holidays?' essay when they get back to school...

The Salford Star has asked Salix Homes and Salford City Council for a comment - but neither organisation has responded to the Star for a very long time.

* Peter Kay's series Cradle To Grave starts on BBC next Thursday 3rd September. See also the Salford Star article on the filming in Whit Lane - click here

** Update: 1:30pm

The area was cleared by noon today following the Salford Star story