Welcome to the latest news concerning RENEW North Staffordshire in the Knutton, Lower Milehouse and Cross Heath Area of Major Intervention (AMI)

ENHANCED ENVIRONMENTAL IMPROVEMENTS FOR KNUTTON LANE ANNOUNCED (APRIL 2009)

Above: Knutton Lane, Knutton, Newcastle under Lyme (April 2009)

Like othe Registered Social Landlords, Aspire Housing is working towards bringing all its 8300 homes up to the Government’s decent homes standard by 2010.
In addition, plans for bringing enhanced environmental improvements to parts of Knutton and Cross Heath Area of Major Intervention, not affected by the clearance programme, are being drawn up. Projects will be jointly funded by Aspire and RENEW.
67 households in the Knutton area are to benefit from further environmental improvements with a £442,000 ‘gateway’ improvement scheme leading towards Newcastle town centre.

The scheme was launched with a well-attended community information day on 11th March 2009. Proposals include parking improvements, work to property boundaries and installation of low maintenance gardens. It is anticipated that work will start after April 2009 with completion in December 2009.

PM Training recently joined the Aspire Group, creating one of the largest housing association managed social enterprises in the country. Training opportunities will become available through PM Training for these improvements.

If you would like to see the plans as they are being drawn up, please contact the Regeneration Team at Aspire on 01782 635200.

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GOVERNMENT POURS MILLIONS INTO HOUSING REGENERATION PROJECTS ACROSS NORTH STAFFORDSHIRE (MARCH 2009)

One of the biggest single grant awarded to the city of Stoke-on-Trent and the sub region has been warmly welcomed by RENEW North Staffordshire.

Housing Minister Ian Wright confirmed in March 2009 that RENEW has been awarded an extra £34 million, which with leverage will make £100 million to help regenerate local housing markets and restore confidence in communities across North Staffordshire.

RENEW was one of 12 areas of England - nine housing market renewal pathfinders and three other regeneration areas - to receive a share of almost £350 million through the Homes and Communities Agency.

The money will be used to rephase and accelerate RENEW’s regeneration programme across the city and the sub region.

Cllr Adrian Knapper, Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s portfolio holder for regeneration, said: “This is absolutely fabulous news. It is brand new money for the next financial year and will allow us to continue the great work that is going on across the city and in the sub region, including Newcastle-under-Lyme.

“The fact that this is one of the single largest grants given to the city and the sub region from any source underlines the fact that our already considerable achievements in transforming our region are delivering maximum benefits for our local communities and creating neighbourhoods where people want to live, work and invest.”

RENEW North Staffordshire is the housing market renewal pathfinder for Stoke-on-Trent, Newcastle-under-Lyme and Biddulph East. Our aim is to help make North Staffordshire a thriving, diverse conurbation where people want to live, work, invest and study. We do this by working with communities and partners to:
• balance housing supply and demand
• retain and attract population
• provide quality housing that meets the aspirations of existing and new residents
• transform the environment and make the best of our heritage and green space
• support economic regeneration.”

Chair of RENEW North Staffordshire, Peter Bounds, said: “This is wonderful news to help regenerate North Staffordshire.”

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HOUSING REFURBISHMENT SCHEME COMPLETED IN KNUTTON VILLAGE (DECEMBER 2008)

Above: Work in Progress, Chapel Street, Knutton (February 2008)

Above: Job Done, Chapel Street, Knutton (November 2008)

An event to celebrate the completion of the Knutton heritage facelift scheme took place on 16th December. Newcastle borough Mayor, Cllr John Cooper opened the event with a speech followed by a performance by the Knutton St Mary’s Primary School choir.

Seventy three houses that were once used to showcase the decorative work of a local brick maker, John Nash Peake have undergone a £1.7 million scheme to breathe new life into the area. The project was funded by RENEW North Staffordshire, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, with input from English Heritage.

Works carried out include repairs to damaged decorative brickwork and tiles using materials that complement and enhance the original features. Chimney pots, doors and windows were also replaced and where appropriate, other architectural features, such as boot scrapers, have been renovated. Many of the houses have also benefitted from new rear alleyway boundary walls and gates.

Residents, contractors, funding and local service providers gathered in Chapel Street to hear the speech followed by special replica terraced house shaped cake cutting ceremony in the residents’ lounge at Gordon Court.

As the Knutton Terraces Heritage work was coming to an end, local residents were still determined to continue the process of making a difference to prove the Village is a vibrant place to be.

One of the Alleygate Associations, which has now received the gates to the alleys running to the rear of properties in Gordon Street and Cemetery Road, successfully applied to the Knutton and Cross Heath Neighbourhood Management Pathfinder (NMP) and Beth Johnson Housing Association for funding to acquire Victorian-style Window Boxes. These have now been placed under the new upstairs window at the front of their houses.

Aspire Housing has agreed to install the boxes and sponsor the pots, compost and plants to be placed in the boxes (supplied by Iron and Stone Garden Products Ltd), in time for the celebration of the heritage work.

Julie Shea, the Chair of the Gordon Street and Cemetery Road Alleygate Association, said: "We are hoping to add a splash of colour all year round." She adds that when Aspire Housing's Marketing Team heard that the project was overstretched, it agreed to "sponsor the flowers for the window boxes so that none of residents wanting the window boxes in the two streets would be disappointed."

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