Yesterday, balloons festooned the front of Shalimar convenience store on Chapel Street to celebrate 32 years of serving the community. Inside, samosas and sweets were being handed out to customers, as the shop remains the front line in the massive £650million English Cities fund (ECf) redevelopment of the area.
On the next block up, the Co-op opened recently in one of the units below Vimto Gardens that Shalimar owner, Mo, had hoped to get before being constantly turned down as he was not "the right sort of tenant", the agent told the Salford Star at the time.*
To celebrate its opening, the `ethical' Co-op - which has been busy employing former Salford MP Hazel Blears at £60,000 a year for `one or two days a month' (see here) and violently evicting homeless people from its property (see here) handed out free goodies and graffitied the pavements to entice locals away from Shalimar.
This really is the front line of Salford's redevelopment. On one hand, there's the old convenience store, and almost next door is the new store on the block which is aiming to put it out of business, attempting to sweep up the old community and those moving into houses and flats that are totally unaffordable to that community.
"First they wanted to get rid of me and they couldn't; then they bring in the Co-op thinking I'll go" Mo explains "But I think that once they get rid of me they'll get rid of all the community, which I don't think is fair to those who have lived all their lives on this estate.
"Most of my customers are staying loyal but the new people are going to the Co-op" he adds "But it doesn't matter. I'm here for the community. As long as they keep coming in, I'm here for them. They should not just be pushed out of the way to get these expensive houses built and make loads of money."
Mo rents his shop from Salford City Council, a partner in the huge ECf redevelopment, which takes in Chapel Street, the re-branded `New Bailey' and everything in between. ECf itself is a triumvirate of Legal and General, Muse Developments and the Government's Homes and Communities Agency.
While the ECf and the Council has thrown bucket loads of public money at the Vimto development of unaffordable properties and units - £10.6million of cheap loans, plus £514,000 to `re-align' Islington Way including new parking for the Co-op Mo has basically been left to rot.
Rubbing salt into the community wounds, even the side of his shop has a giant advert for Timekeepers Square, where a two bedroom house costs £245,000. On the Timekeepers Square plan for the area, there's a great big blue hole where Mo's shop currently stands and a big arrow pointing to it stating `Future Developments'.
As big money comes into the area for what the Council calls `transformational regeneration', the crumbs were supposed to be distributed to the community through a thing called the Development Trust Account (DTA), controlled by Salford City Council and ECf.
Normally when developers throw up unaffordable housing and commercial buildings they have to pay a Section 106 fee for things like public space and affordable housing. This was wiped by Salford Council for the whole area, in favour of this Development Trust Account. And for over a year the Salford Star has been fighting, through the Freedom of Information Act for details of the Account to be released.
Finally, last month the Information Commissioner ordered Salford Council to comply, which it has now done, and the Star can reveal that not a penny from all the developments has come anywhere near the community...
"The Council is now able to confirm that there have been no payments in or out of the account and that the current balance is zero" stated the Council "By way of explanation, the DTA operates to capture any monies generated once costs have been accounted for. These costs include project specific costs and costs generally attributable to the wider scheme although not specific to one individual phase.
"Any surpluses generated are then deposited in the DTA for use on items such as affordable housing and public realm" it added "At the present time the scheme has not recovered the costs referred to above although the scheme is still forecast to generate surpluses in the near future.
"An assessment of the future envisaged movement in the Development Trust Account is currently being carried out and a written summary produced which the Council hopes to make available to you (and accessible to the public more widely) in the near future" it concluded.**
If anyone stands on the top floor of one of the towerblocks on the Islington estate, in Canon Hussey or Arthur Millwood Court, it really is like Custer's last stand, as huge developments at Middlewood Locks, on Oldfield Road and on Chapel Street itself close in.
Mo's shop is almost the last vestige of old values, giving tick to customers, ordering special things in for them and being there as local families grow up. The ECf, he says, have explained that he can have a unit in two years time, in another new block it is building but, so far, nothing has been put in writing, and people around here are sceptical about ECf promises...
The new block it wants to build is on the site of the pub, Ye Olde Nelson, which the ECf and Council said they would save before demolishing it in the summer (see here).
"I've been serving the community for 32 years and will continue for another 32 years, hopefully, because I'm not going anywhere" Mo insists "It's my life, so I just can't get out of it..."
*For a full background on Mo's battle and on the whole ECf scheme, see Salford Star print issue 10 (click here for electronic version)
** For a full background on the Freedom of Information case see previous Salford Star article click here.
The Star also had a meeting with Salford Council's Monitoring Officer yesterday concerning the second part of the FOI request which was trying to get hold of all correspondence relating to the DTA. The Star is now awaiting a further response from the Council.
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