Culture of dependency that could be so tough to change

Something strange happens to areas which gain a reputation for social deprivation.

The prospect of change and the consequent loss of that reputation creates resentment - especially among those dedicated to tackling deprivation.

Tackling deprivation becomes a way of life, providing employment for the lucky few as well as status and what may be called establishment opportunities - to meet politicians, to be consulted by public bodies, and requested for opinions by the media.

Uproar greeted Bradford Council proposals earlier this year to stop the funding of several Manningham-based voluntary groups; streams of statistics were produced to demonstrate the necessity of such groups.

A kind of mutual dependency exists where the provider of services relies on a sustained level of deprivation to justify future public funding.

The prospect of radical change which nearly £10m-worth of Single Regeneration Bid cash represents, welcomed by some, is likely to provoke more ambiguous responses in others with a vested interest in the dependency which deprivation creates.

For in reality we are not talking only about that SRB money, but total public investment of nearly £24m which includes £10.6m Capital Challenge funding and £3.2m National Lottery cash towards the renovation of Lister Park.

A discordant note has already been sounded by dissenting Bradford Riot Commissioner Mohammed Taj who referred disparagingly to the latter as "tarting up the park", adding that few people used the place after a certain time of day.

"I hope they will put this money to good use. I have spoken to many residents and they have told me there are no improvements or concrete action," he told the T&A.

Well, in the case of Lister Park that is not true. Chestnut fencing has gone up all over the lower end of the park designating areas of improvement work which has already started. The park's amenities, such as they are, are very well used by an increasing number of Asian families. Only the vigilante activities of a handful of youths after dark has made the place a no-go area - one reason why the park urgently needs serious attention.

Khadim Hussain, general secretary of the Council for Mosques, spoke anxiously of anger and frustration in Manningham. "Drugs have become a major problem and because of this there are many burglaries," he said.

Drugs are a major problem in Manningham, particularly heroin which is largely controlled by young Asian men. Burglary, as I discovered during a visit to Lawcroft House, the police HQ in Lilycroft Road a year or so ago, is mainly committed by whites, usually with previous records, who tend to live on estates beyond Manningham.

What Manningham has always needed, entrepreneurial activity, should be encouraged by the SRB schemes about which we know - the plan to train residents to repair their own property, the family literacy project and the extra training initiative to link in with the Government's New Deal programme for the unemployed. To paraphrase Mohammed Taj's separate riot report, Manningham people have got to prove that they are a 'can do' community.

What Manningham has had a surfeit of is welfare activity which sustains but does not change the status quo. The area probably has more self-proclaimed community workers per square inch than any other part of the Metropolitan District. Yet Manningham, we are told, remains deprived.

Deprived of what, exactly? Certainly not public investment. Manningham has been the lucky recipient of a big sports centre, the Pakistan Community Centre, several community and youth centres for Bangladeshis, all-weather floodlit sports pitches in nearby Scotchman Road, scores of new homes along and just off Lumb Lane, as well as a new health centre.

In addition, General Improvement Area cash and home improvement grants have made a visible difference to roads off Oak Lane in the past 15 years. Most recently, the building of the Carlisle Road Business Centre has provided workshop premises for small firms and new technology training facilities. And nursery school provision is among the best in the entire Metro District.

If Manningham had nothing, people would long ago have started moving out; but as the new housing on Lumb Lane testifies, the area, with its cosmopolitan tradition, remains popular. Service sector enterprises, especially restaurants, are evidently doing well because in recent years many of them have undergone a facelift.

However, in the past six or seven years, Manningham has become caught between the cross-fire of its own conflicting ideologies. Islamic Fundamentalism caught on with the young at about the same time as disillusion with the existing social and political infrastructure turned to exasperation.

We saw the results of this in the demonstrations against Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses, the move to drive prostitutes out of Lumb Lane, internal upheavals in some Labour Party wards, and the rioting in June 1995. The latter, which began as a protest against police arrests, rapidly became something else as other elements joined in.

The subsequent Riot Commission inquiry, which took evidence from more than 200 people, discovered great discontent with the system of political patronage which had been allowed, even encouraged, to develop in Manningham, and the absence of a visionary cohesive regeneration strategy.

Chief symbol of the latter was Lister's Mill. So much had been promised in the late 1980s when the £70m Lister City project was proclaimed - housing, jobs, tourism - but nothing was delivered. Recently, of course, the community has taken a renewed interest in this former textile complex, thanks to the initiatives of the Manningham Mills Community Association.

It would be nice to think that, at long last, the public money now earmarked for Manningham could help set in motion the evolving process of regeneration at Lister's which, in turn over the next decade, could be a catalyst for significant change elsewhere; precisely what has happened in Saltaire, of course.

Any strategy for Manningham, as well as including the new swimming pool and replacement building for Manningham Middle School to be funded by Capital Challenge, has to take into account the ramifications of the Council's Schools Review with its proposal to close up to 70 schools. Buildings vacated by the education department could be adapted, perhaps, for other community uses.

There is, however, a price to be paid for all this public investment. The people of Bradford as a whole will expect a significant change of attitude and outlook to result from new investment, new building, and the various improvement programmes coming Manningham's way which, if the Government decides to make Manningham an Education Action Zone, will include another £1.5m of public and private matched funding over three years.

Manningham will lose its reputation for deprivation, and with it will go the dependency culture and system of political patronage which has flourished for years. Is this what Manningham people really want?

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.