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   Eccles neighbourhood wins top award
City West Housing Trust is the first housing association in the country to achieve a top accolade for keeping a neighbourhood in Eccles cleaner, greener and safer. Keep Britain Tidy has awarded City West exemplar status for the New Lane Estate in its Cleaner Greener Safer Neighbourhood Quality Mark - the highest level of accreditation that can be awarded. City West is the only housing association to receive the exemplar award, which has previously been awarded to neighbourhoods managed by two arm’s length management organisations in Gateshead and Brent. Working in partnership with local residents and partner agencies, City West has been striving to achieve the award over last 12 months. Historically the New Lane Estate has been a challenging area with problems associated with anti-social behaviour, a lack of investment, litter, poor lighting and a lack of kerb-side appeal. However, a multi million pound investment to improve homes and the environment by City West, a programme of community engagement with residents and partner agencies, an active tenants’ and residents’ association and a robust approach to dealing with anti-social behaviour has seen the neighbourhood improve dramatically. Assessors from the environmental and anti-litter charity, which works closely with the Department of Communities and Local Government, took a very close look at New Lane - going on estate walkabouts, talking to residents, interviewing partner agencies, including the Police, Salford City Council and Beech Street School, and meeting City West’s neighbourhood team. Keep Britain Tidy found the estate to be well managed, the level of resident engagement impressive, involved residents were well trained and enthusiastic, improvement works to homes has provided a real boost to the area and created a sense of pride, City West has significantly reduced problems of anti-social behaviour and partnership working is going from strength to strength. Caroline Berkley, from Keep Britain Tidy, said: “The achievements of City West Housing Trust in the New Lane neighbourhood are testament to the fantastic work that City West, the New Lane residents and all of the partners have put into the Cleaner Safer Greener Quality Mark. “The New Lane neighbourhood has achieved a lot in the past year and the residents and partners showed real commitment and enthusiasm to making improvements in their local area. To get an Exemplar Quality Mark Award is a fantastic achievement and one that is well deserved.” More than 50 neighbourhoods across the country have registered for accreditation, with more signing up each day. The Quality Mark, which has recently received the seal off approval from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA), is seen as complementary to the anti-social behaviour accreditation run by HouseMark. Matt Jones, Head of Housing and Neighbourhood Services for City West Housing Trust, said: “We are incredibly proud that New Lane has received the exemplar standard in the Keep Britain Tidy Neighbourhood Quality Mark. “We put New Lane forward as the neighbourhood that would be scrutinised as part of the assessment process because it is an area where there have been significant improvements over the last two years but where there have been a number of challenges. “Local residents have embraced the changes with real enthusiasm and passion, and alongside our partner agencies, City West has been able to make a real difference to people’s homes, the environment where they live and create a sense of community. “This award is for the large part, down to our customers who have embraced new ways of working, are realistic in their outlook and are now driving the improvements to their neighbourhood - which are making a real difference.” Source: City West Housing. Due to problems with spam only SalfordOnline members can now leave comments. Becoming a member of SalfordOnline only takes a minute, just hit the red Join Us button at the top right hand side of the page to create your Personal account. Got a news story? Need help with publicity for an event in Salford? Send it to newsdesk@salfordonline.com or call the SalfordOnline newsdesk on 0161 789 5377. |
