Home and Gardens? ....No... This IS Hull.

Barrie McKenna and his partner Julie Seymour bought their home in Edinburgh Street twenty years ago. They and their neighbours are campaigning to regenerate their own corner of Hull. They have gained the support of Hull MP Alan Johnson and Councillor Kath Lavery has given a commitment to visit residents. "We want to be a part of the regeneration of Hull, not casualties of it." Barrie and Julie.

Former Trawlerman and race-winning Pigeon Fancier Kenny Lawrence was born in Edinburgh Street and has lived there ever since. While he was growing up he and his friends played in the street and were always in and out of each others houses. He has seen the neighbourhood go 'drastically downhill'. "You won't beat them Bleeders at the Council," he said. "They'll 'ave our houses off us if they want to, but we'll keep fighting for our homes."

Avenues'eard enough about the gardens in some of Hull's more salubrious wards? continued below..

Home and Gardens? ....No... This IS Hull. continued

The vegetable plot in Edinburgh Street certainly thrives better than the one they call the Guildhall. Greg Author. Email : Greg@thisisull.com

Petition to Hull City Council - 17.7.03 This is a petition from the residents of Edinburgh Street protesting against the proposed demolition of their homes. Our petition represents a comparatively small number of people - a block of about a dozen houses in one street. But we believe that the way in which the council responds to our petition will test the extent to which the new administration and the Urban Regeneration Companies consult with, and take into account the views of, the residents of West Hull. Some of us received letters at the weekend informing us that our homes were to be demolished because they were in an area of empty, vandalised and unwanted older private housing. The map of the proposed clearance area which accompanied the letter does include some of this derelict and abandoned housing, but it also includes streets such as our own, Edinburgh Street, which are mostly occupied and of good housing stock. Those of you who have access to the map will see that the houses on Edinburgh Street are larger than the court-type housing in the proposed clearance area and have big gardens. This, Councillors, is our point. Our houses are not abandoned, derelict or unwanted. People in Edinburgh Street want to stay in their homes. They have invested money, time and a considerable degree of effort to maintain the houses in reasonable quality. In the past eight months, two new families have moved into the street and completely renovated their houses. To be told that these houses are now to be demolished has been a severe blow. Yes, as Andy Snowden has pointed out, these houses are old, but age per se. does not mean bad housing. If it did, the previous report by council officers on housing Making Hull Better would not have described the Avenues as an asset - an area well known for older terraced housing. In order to prove our point, we would like to formally invite the new Cabinet Member for Housing, Steven Bayes to visit Edinburgh Street and take a look inside at least one of the houses. We would also like to extend this invitation to Andy Snowden, the City Council Corporate Director. He has said (in the Hull Daily Mail 8.7.03) 'clearing areas of surplus housing should be carried out in conjunction with improving the quality of remaining housing and protecting popular housing and neighbourhoods'. We would argue that where people are still moving into a street and paying the full market value for houses, it should be considered a popular neighbourhood. Taking as an example, the 19 houses on Woodcock Street, the City Council itself has estimated that it costs £26,000 per property to carry out compensation, demolition and landscaping. It would take much less than that amount to renovate those few existing properties in Edinburgh Street that still need it. To conclude, we do not deny that some parts of the Woodcock Street area are beyond renovation. Our question relating to Edinburgh Street is this. How can demolishing perfectly sound houses (which the Council's own survey reported were of reasonable quality), dispersing a community which has built up over more than twenty years, and causing people with limited resources considerable financial difficulty, only to grass the area over, maybe for years, be considered regeneration? We have to ask, who is this regeneration for? Is it for private property developers, Housing Associations or Urban Regeneration Companies' employees? It does not feel like regeneration for the existing residents of Edinburgh Street. As we say in our petition, we want to be part of the regeneration process not just casualties of it. Thank you.

Barrie and Julie's letter to Councillor Albert Penna To: Councillor Albert Penna Barrie Mckenna & Julie Seymour 207 Edinburgh Street Hull East Yorkshire HU3 5AN Dear Albert, this letter sets out why we think there is a good case for keeping and improving (where necessary) the terrace of houses 191 to 213 Edinburgh Street as part of the regeneration of the Woodcock Street area. Despite the claims of Chief Executive Jim Brooks (Hull Daily Mail 07/02/2003) "I think housing standards in the Woodcock Street area are utterly unacceptable for the 21st century" there are many fine, comfortable pre-WW1 homes in the area. We and many others have put our time and money into renovating our homes and bringing them up to modern standards. It's clear that there has to be demolition in the area but it must be selective. 1   Cost.   The demolition of the 19 houses in Woodcock Street was estimated by the City Council at close to £500,000, or about £26,000 per house, including the cost of purchase, demolition, waste disposal and basic landscaping. When three of these houses were demolished (at the owner's expense) a price of £7,000 for the demolition and clearance of each house was quoted by Council officers at public meetings. This implies that an average of £19,000 was paid to the owners of each house - a fair sum considering that similar houses in the area (eg. Edinburgh Street, Somerset Street) are still selling in the £20 - £30,000 price range. The sums involved here are not small, even half the amount per house would pay for a lot of renovation work on a terrace, especially where some of the owners have already done the necessary work. 2   Present condition.   The dreadful state of some of the empty and vandalised houses is well known and few would argue over the demolition of the Woodcock Street 19 or the Springburn Street closes - these houses are almost all empty and many are badly vandalised. In other streets however, most properties are still occupied (eg: Naburn Street, Otterburn Street, Somerset Street and Edinburgh Street) and in good condition. A recent survey by the City Council Housing Department concluded that those houses not vandalised are largely only in need of minor and/or cosmetic improvements. After the last demolitions at the start of the 1980's residents were assured by the City Council that the remaining properties had a secure future. Consequently many people spent money on their homes (some even managed to get Home improvement Grants before these were withdrawn) to bring them up to modern standards. This isn't a wealthy area and these houses are not just people's homes - for many of us they represent all our savings as well. Given all this it seems quite wrong to judge all these houses by the standard of the worst and to demolish the good along with the bad. We've been promised a flexible and imaginative approach all along by representatives of the bodies involved (eg: City Council, Citybuild etc.) with an emphasis on the wishes of the residents. So far there has been little evidence of this happening. The regeneration of this area will set the standard for the rest of Hull; who will want to buy or improve older property in the City generally if wholesale demolition is carried out in this area? A program of creeping demolition could blight many areas across the City. 3   Community.   Communities are made by people, not bricks and mortar. To aim at the demolition of all the old property in the area, regardless of condition or potential would only serve to break up long established communities and scatter residents across the city. This neighbourhood has suffered nearly five years of uncertainty about its' future after being designated a regeneration area - especially since there has been much talking and very little action or any commitment to the area being shown. This uncertainty has been a major factor in the area's decline along with the rise in crime and anti-social behaviour. This used to be a very nice neighbourhood to live less than five years ago and the residents have tried hard to keep it that way by looking after their own houses, being good neighbours and campaigning for help for the area. The Council and Housing Association tenants have had at least some help directed at them, the private housing has just been ignored. We're relative newcomers to the area at 20+ years but many people have spent their entire lives here and we all deserve much better treatment than we have had so far. After almost five years of empty promises about regeneration while we've struggled along on our own if the final answer is to be wholesale demolition that really would add insult to injury. We want to be a part of the regeneration of this area, not just casualties of it. Yours sincerely,

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