Welcome to Winning Back Morecambe's West End

Name: Dot Sidlo    -    Location: West End

Date: 08/10/2007

I wrote in last year about re-locating to Morecambe from Manchester...well I made it! I bought a large house for a 3rd of the price of a similar one in Manchester. So far I'm really happy with my choice. The West End reminds me of New York, It has such a mix of characters from all walks of life, colourful and interesting shops, a sea front view to die for, cosmopolitan cafes and hopefully soon... visitors from around the world. Have we got room at Heysham for the QE2 to dock? I have neighbours from South Africa, Italy and Yorkshire! In the two years that I have been planning my move I have seen Morecambe change in many different areas and can really see the positive differences. I only have two negatives and they are the Polo tower (stick the phone mast on top of Morrisons) and the traffic into and out of Lancaster, as it makes working in Lancaster a nightmare. Keep up the good work and I am sure you 'will' win back the West End.

Name: Matt Fletcher    -    Location: Yorkshire Street

Date: 02/10/2007

I've just had the guy from Volker Stevin come into my office to show me the plans for the "Yorkshire St. Retail Quarter". Very exciting indeed! Once the street is a nicer place to wander through, wouldn't it be great to have a street market occasionally, like happens in Lancaster city centre? This would really give the street a focus I reckon.

Name: Gena Harrison    -    Location: lake Road

Date: 03/08/2007

It is so great to walk with my dog in Regent Park and see my grandchildren and lots of other kids having such a marvelous time in the new playground. The new flower beds and the roses are looking good too. Thanks to all concerned. Gena

Name: Nat and Laura Griffiths    -    Location: Scotland

Date: 01/08/2007

You and your team should be very proud and happy on such a successful event, we had a fantastic time. All the people we spoke to thoroughly enjoyed the day and the evening event was the icing on the cake. It was great to see so many people living the 50's dream. We look forward to coming to Morecambe next year and hope you get the go ahead to have the two day event. You know if you need any help in promoting in Scotland we would only be to happy to pass the word around.Thank you again and good luck with future projects.

Name: Morecambe & District Junior Anglers     -    Location: Morecambe

Date: 30/07/2007

Thank you on behalf of all the young people at Morecambe & District Junior Anglers for inviting us to the tutti fruitti festival. It was well organised and we were made to feel very welcome. We all enjoyed the music and enjoyed dressing up as well. It brought back a few memories for our chairman and we all had a good laugh at him trying to dance!! We raised just under £100 on the day. If you ever organise another event we would be very grateful for an invitation.

Name: PAUL    -    Location: West End

Date: 16/07/2007

I LIVE IN THE WESTEND AND OWN TWO PROPERTIES, ONE I LIVE IN AND ONE THAT I AM RENOVATING. THE PROPERTY THAT I AM RENOVATING USED TO BE THREE FLATS AND I HAVE NOW CONVERTED IT TO A FAMILY HOME. THERE ARE TOO MANY LOW QUALILY FLATS, HMOS AND FAMILY HOMES. THESE NEED TO BE REDUCED AND HELP FOR PEOPLE TO RENOVATE THEM. PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF ARE ONLY COMING TO MORECAMBE AT THE MOMENT IN THE PROMISE THAT MORECAMBE WILL GET BETTER EITHER WITH THE MOTORWAY LINK AND THEN THROUGH THAT DEVELOPMENT IN BUSINESS AND THEN JOBS. MORECAMBE AS A WHOLE CAN ONLY SUCCEED AS PEOPLE WANTING TO EITHER LIVE AND WORK HERE OR COMMUTE OR TO COME AND VISIT MORECAMBE EITHER TO SHOP OR TO COME ON A DAY OUT. AT THE MOMENT IT IS EXTREMELY DIFFICULT AND QUITE OFF PUTTING TO COME TO MORECAMBE AS TRAFFIC IS PRETTY BAD BOTH IN AND OUT OF MORECAMBE. YOU CAN ONLY SUCCEED SHORT TERM IN REGENERATING MORECAMBE BY GRANTS AND PUBLIC/PRIVATE MONEY. LONG TERM WITHOUT JOBS AND BETTER TRANSPORT LINKS TO THE MOTORWAY THAN MORECAMBE WILL EVENTUALLY GO BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS. BETTER QUALITY FAMILY HOMES, JOBS, BETTER ROAD LINKS AND SERVICES THEN PEOPLE WILL COME AND WANT TO LIVE HERE. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN NOW FOR DECENT HARD WORKING PEOPLE WILL NOT WAIT FOREVER AND IT COULD COME TO LATE.

Name: Steve Matthews, Project Director for Winning Back Morecambe's West End    -    Location: Albert Road

Date: 18/04/2007

I agree with the sentiments behind your comments entirely but think that we are actually doing what you are suggesting. We learnt from the previous renewal programme that simply repairing the properties was not enough; we need to radically change the nature of the housing supply and recreate the West End into an area where people will genuinely want to live. We agree that there are simply too many flats and HMO’s in the West End; we are now targeting funds at several strategic sites. Properties are being acquired in these areas and either being radically remodelled by removing the rear annexes to create 3 or 4 bed family homes or being cleared to allow modern quality family homes to be provided. We have already acquired many properties at the top of Clarendon Road including the Greenhurst Hotel and the Castlemain which no doubt you would have been familiar with and the rest of this street will be remodelled over the next 18 months. The top of West End is also being remodelled en block to create some really high quality lateral apartments where the rear annexes are removed and the apartments span across two houses. You may also have seen in the press that we are acquiring the blocks of property bounded by Regent, Westminster, Albert and Balmoral Roads, including Chatsworth. The plans are that all these will be demolished to create new family homes with community gardens. Once this is up and running we will be looking at Bold Street, Marlborough Road and Winterdyne Terrace. This is just the start but these scheme will make a significant contribution to removing excess privately rented flats and providing the type of homes that are attractive in the current housing market. They are all designed to act as catalyst to attract further supportive private and public sector investment. Just fixing the housing however will not in itself fix the West End. We are therefore undertaking significant public realm improvement works to make the area look and feel more attractive and have put in place comprehensive plans through Neighbourhood Management to address the wider socio-economic issues as well as dealing with crime, street cleanliness, health, education and community cohesion. We are now working with the police, schools, health and social services and a wide range of public, private sector and voluntary bodies to make sure that all the services are joined up to challenge unacceptable behaviour but then support the existing community from welfare dependency into employment….and we are getting results! I don’t see the previous work carried out as a waste of money, but we couldn’t do enough to secure the necessary change and we didn’t have the support of all the other stakeholders and agencies that have a shared responsibility to bring about the step change. The previous works has laid a valuable foundation for us to work on now.

Name: Former LCC employee    -    Location: not given

Date: 18/04/2007

I'm really sorry to be negative about the west end, however. I worked for the LCC at the time when the area was declared a renewal area. By the various types of grant available at that time a colleague and I spent hundreds of thousands of pounds on poor quality, unsuitable housing, now 10 -15 years later it all seems to have been a waste of tax payers money. Without wide scale demolition and a reduction in the dense population the west end has an uncertain future. The economic climate in this country is reasonably bright at the moment if the West end cannot improve now it will never happen. Demolish, rebuild, create long term reasonably paid jobs and it stands a chance, just pumping more money into the existing environment is not the answer. regards Lcc Former Employee