I paid a visit to Derker the other day…an area of Oldham that is undergoing a controversial regeneration process funded by central government.
I last visited the community over two years ago, not long after a public inquiry that was triggered by objections to the council’s plans to bulldoze almost 500 homes. Inevitably, the locals lost and the compulsory purchase order (CPO) was granted – clearing the way for demolition. [Actually, I can’t actually think of any community that has won at public inquiry under this particular regeneration scheme, which will see the clearance of anything between 100,000 and 400,000 mainly Victorian terraces across the North of England. Hardly surprising considering the authorities have access to the finest solicitors and barristers, whereas homeowners are left to represent themselves, unless someone happens to qualify for Legal Aid].
ANYWAY…some Derker residents challenged the CPO in the high court on various grounds where they believed mistakes had been made. To cut a long story short, they reached the end of the road on Thursday when their case was rejected. They must now start looking for places to move to, but many – especially those who have paid off their mortgages and are now retired and on a fixed income – complain that low compensation payments will put them back in debt, or into social housing. This is a common complaint: why can’t we get a house for a house.

Over the past few weeks I’ve visited eight different communities affected by this kind of regeneration/demolition scheme for a portrait project I aim to have finished by the end of the year. So far they’ve all been in Liverpool, Manchester/Salford and Oldham but I’m now going to start branching out.
Over the next weeks I’ll be travelling to Yorkshire, the east coast and up to the North East to try and move this forward. The intention is to put human faces on some of these stories and to record their own words, as an alternative way of telling the impact of regeneration on people’s lives.
There is a problem here though and it’s one I’m well aware of. There are winners and losers in every regeneration process, and even within one community there are a variety of viewpoints and experiences. Inevitably, it’s the people who aren’t happy with the process who I am most aware of – they are the people whose campaigns I’ve covered or been told about over the past few years. The question of how to go about this in a balanced way and without focusing only on the negative is something that is bothering me…because there are indeed many people who are pleased with how it’s worked out for them.
Going to regeneration company press offices for something that is at this moment a personal project – although I’m sure I’ll manage to get spin-off stories published – is potentially a problem. I’m not at all sure how to get around this one.