'Still much to do' in left behind areas
Council boss says awareness of the ‘left behind’ areas has drastically improved, but it will take a generation to make change and councillor who kicked things off says there lots more to do
By Sarah Ward
The summer of 2021 saw the kilings of two Northants teenagers. Rayon Pennycook,15, lost his life after being stabbed on the Hazel Leys estate in Corby in May and three months later Dylan Holliday was murdered by another teenager on Wellingborough’s Queensway where he lived.
The housing estates where they died were among five Northants communities that had been recently recognised by the government as ‘left behind. Among the most deprived in the country, Kingwood and Hazel Leys in Corby, Kettering’s Avondale Grange, the Queensway estate in Wellingborough and the Kings Health and Talavera parts of Northampton were found to be lacking community facilities, had higher crime rates, steeper levels of child poverty and their residents were at risk of dying much younger than their neighbours in nearby places.
The deaths of the two boys led to public marches and an impassioned call by Labour councillor Zoe McGhee, who represented the Kingswood estate, for the newly created North unitary council to take action before more young lives were lost. The authority reacted and in response set up a scrutiny commission that involved holding meetings with the local communities and finding out just what the issues were.
Yesterday, a report of the activity that has taken place since the summer of 2021, was discussed in the North Northamptonshire council chamber. A roll call of projects and initiatives was listed and director of communities, council officer David Watts, said the activities in these areas would now become ‘business as usual’ and become a core concern for the council.
But he told the meeting that there is still much work to be done and that the most significant impact of the work so far has been the raising of the awareness of the issues in the areas.
He said:
“I think we recognised when the scrutiny review was undertaken that the challenges that were seen in those communities had been seen for decades and we had to be realistic and pragmatic about ‘would you see demonstrable change immediately as a result of the levelling up scrutiny review?
“We did not think we would. Generational changes take a generation to start seeing them.
“The benefits we have seen are certainly the awareness within the council and with our partners - because we do talk about our left behind areas with our partners - has drastically improved. When I have conversations with George [Candler, director of regeneration] about economic development and making sure that as we bring investment into North Northamptonshire, that the benefits are felt across North Northamptonshire not just in those affluent areas.”
The projects
The report lists a large number of activities that have taken place featuring the left behind areas, however many of those listed such as the Local Area Partnerships and the warm spaces initiative are countywide.
In 2022 and 2023 there was a public health programme called Well Northants, with neighhourhood action groups and plans. The report says more than 600 people were involved and one outcome listed has been the creation of a new tots group. A clean up of the Avondale Grange shopping precinct also took place and local social enterprise Brightways developed a bike project in the area linked to Wellingborough’s Five Wells prison and employability skills. The authority’s staff have also hosted community safety programmes.
As part of Well Northants a social action project with businesses and residents was delivered to clean up the Grange Shopping Area. Project delivered with Brightways and Groundwork to develop a bicycle project in Avondale and the Grange which has been linked to HMP 5 Wells, focusing on employability skills.
Small amounts have gone into isolated youth work projects focused on drugs and vaping education and the authority is currently mapping youth provision to find out what is currently available.
What community leaders say
Councillor Zoe McGhee kickstarted the efforts to make a difference in the left behind communities and chaired the initial scrutiny review, but she feels that there has not been the political will to follow through with bold action.
She said:
“I think above all, it [the scrutiny review] brought attention to the area and put the areas on everyone’s plan. They were not in the plan before that. Because we [the Labour group] are not in power we were never going to get massive changes. But we accomplished getting it on the agenda and I know that it has ebbed and flowed.
“I know some community groups have had some funding, but some have been turned down. I know the Kingswood Community centre was turned down for a levelling up bid which is mental really.
“What it has accomplished is not really for me to judge, it is for the communities and the residents to judge. I personally feel proud that we put those communities on the top of the agenda, but I don’t think that the job is anywhere near done. I don’t think the key members of the council had the drive or the ambition that perhaps they could have had.”
Father Ben Lewis, who runs St Mark’s Church on the Queensway estate, led the funeral for Dylan Holliday and runs a Friday night youth club on the estate.
Asked what he feels about how the Queensway estate has changed in the past three years, he said: “It’s very damp praise from me I’m afraid.”
He said he had not been successful in securing any grants and felt that some of the outside organisations that had been awarded funds to deliver projects were not well attended and have not made an impact.
What he says has changed in the past three years is that there has been significant improvement at the secondary school Weavers Academy, which has a new head teacher. Before that the school had a high number of exclusions, but these have been reduced and more children are being helped to stay in mainstream education.
CCTV installed in the area by the police and crime commissioner has also made a difference, he said, although he’s not sure whether this has just displaced the issue elsewhere.
But he says much more needs to be done:
“Stakeholders need to raise their game and keep the pressure up. I engage with everyone, but I am not in anyone’s pocket. I will always be vocal and will speak up for this community whenever I can.”
Our series
During 2022 we focused our reporting on the left behind areas, speaking to members of the community about their issues.
You can read some of them again here (and all are available in our archive, which can be accessed by members.)
Hazel Leys and Kingswood: ‘We can't keep being self sufficient'
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Heartening to see that NNJ is playing a welcome part in keeping these issues in the minds of the community, however much [or little] is being achieved on the ground. Support for local journalism ought to be considered as part of the solution to the many problems facing the areas.
No areas should be left behind, the danger is whilst focusing on "left behind areas" we create other left behind areas. We need to look at why areas become "left behind" and others are more favoured.