School for regeneration
Latest from Tom Bloxham, founder and face of regeneration-focused architects/developers Urban Splash - he's attempting to set up a good school in one of the group's current big projects:
He's noticed that once the people who buy his properties have children of school age, they sell up and move out to the suburbs in search of better quality education. So in Bloxham's latest project, a brand new district of Manchester, to be called 'New Islington', which he is building in partnership with high profile architect Will Allsop and the local authority, he thinks a good school would come in handy.
...
He has researchers gathering evidence about whether local people would be less likely to flee the city centre if there were better schools available and plans to send the resulting dossier to anyone who might be able to help.
But so far he's had little help from the powers-that-be, with local education officials simply saying, 'but there are no children in the area'.
More from the Observer story.
The basic issue, that too many urban residential developments attract a very lopsided demographic, isn't new - it was being talked about when I was covering the Manchester regen scene for Insider six years ago (see, for example, this). So it's good to see attention finally being paid by the private sector, even if the public sector's response is seriously disappointing. It does seem an obvious choice for one of Blair's City Academy schemes.
Is something similar planned for the group's big projects this side of the Pennines - Lister Mills in Bradford and the infamous Park Hill flats in Sheffield? Be interesting to see the council responses if so.
He's noticed that once the people who buy his properties have children of school age, they sell up and move out to the suburbs in search of better quality education. So in Bloxham's latest project, a brand new district of Manchester, to be called 'New Islington', which he is building in partnership with high profile architect Will Allsop and the local authority, he thinks a good school would come in handy.
...
He has researchers gathering evidence about whether local people would be less likely to flee the city centre if there were better schools available and plans to send the resulting dossier to anyone who might be able to help.
But so far he's had little help from the powers-that-be, with local education officials simply saying, 'but there are no children in the area'.
More from the Observer story.
The basic issue, that too many urban residential developments attract a very lopsided demographic, isn't new - it was being talked about when I was covering the Manchester regen scene for Insider six years ago (see, for example, this). So it's good to see attention finally being paid by the private sector, even if the public sector's response is seriously disappointing. It does seem an obvious choice for one of Blair's City Academy schemes.
Is something similar planned for the group's big projects this side of the Pennines - Lister Mills in Bradford and the infamous Park Hill flats in Sheffield? Be interesting to see the council responses if so.
Labels: regional
posted by Tim Chapman at 9:46 am
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