Civic Pride - The Conclusion.
Two of my previous blogs were (unimaginatively) titled 'Civic Pride' - parts 1 and 2. The reasons for this are immediately apparent when you read the blogs concerned. Suffice to say, there were significant issues on the Holway estate which were
identified by the residents themselves during one of my first meetings with them. Example comments I received were as follows:-
"Tidy it up. Sort out anti-social neighbours. Drinkers causing trouble and getting away with it". Moorfields
"It needs cleaning up. Plus anti-social behaviour is rife"
"As youth workers we feel safety for young people is an issue; road safety (lack of awareness), dark play areas at night".
"Would be good to see a cleaner environment, less glass and rubbish. Aware a lot of this comes from the young people".
"The environment is in a poor way". Bryn Dyffryn
"needs to be cleaner"
"Tidy it up! Have more community projects and try to get more people involved. Have something for 5 - 11 year olds".
The message was pretty clear. The question was 'how do we achieve this?’
The answer lay in the hands of the residents themselves, although I'm not sure they knew it at the time. Practically speaking, we (I and the residents) adopted a determined approach in addressing the issues that were raised and, as I write this, I
am delighted to say that reported Anti-Social Behaviour is low, organised 'litter-picks' are a regular occurrence, and the estate's main eye-sore, the Community Centre, has been given a new lease of life having been completely re-painted.
How did we achieve this? By burying our heads in the sand? By hoping for the best? By waiting for someone else to do it?
Absolutely not.
It was achieved with the will, dedication, co-operation and hard work of the residents themselves, with the assistance of various partner agencies. The litter-picks are co-ordinated by adults but most of the work is done by the kids (bless 'em) armed only with their pick-up sticks and an array of bags. The clean-up days, for larger items, have also been a resounding success.
The Community Centre was a different type of issue. It, and the adjacent powerhouse, were covered top-to-bottom in unsightly graffiti and this was something that was, quite rightly, highlighted in our Environmental Audit. The amount of graffiti would have been impossible to clean and the only other option, therefore, was to completely re-paint the entire exterior of the building. Consider this equation - paint + brushes + rollers + paint trays + protective clothing + ladders etc. etc. = MONEY, and we had none of it. To solve the conundrum, the Holway Tenants and Residents Committee organised a series of fund-raising events, and with the money raised, they purchased the necessary materials. The rest was done with sheer hard graft. The local youth leader, and secretary of the Tenants Association, Jackie Jones, deserves particular credit for how she co-ordinated this, but significant contributions, in terms of their time and effort, were also made by the kids from the Youth Club, Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinator Alan Ellis, and our very own PCSO Phill Rushby, who ended up the day covered in paint courtesy of some wayward paintbrushes. Furthermore, one of the walls has been painted white and designated as a 'graffiti wall', which is an innovative way of allowing the kids to daub their 'tags' in an entirely legal way, and which should divert them from defacing the Centre as a whole.
A true partnership effort in every sense.
Now refer back to the resident's comments at the top of this article. How many have we achieved, or have made significant inroads into? The answer - virtually all of them. The trick now is to keep it this way. I, for one, will be working hard towards this aim. I know I will be ably supported.
For this the community deserves to give itself a huge pat on the back. Well done.