What was the problem?
In 1976, Liverpool City Council had identified 57 slum clearance areas across the city including most of the 1930s tenements from the south end to the city centre and through to the docklands area in the north. Areas marked for demolition included the tenements around the Burlington and Eldon Streets in the Vauxhall area, affecting some 1,500 people. These plans were not based on any consultation with those who lived in these communities.
This would mean breaking up the existing community, with the residents being offered re-housing across the city, usually in high-rise blocks on the outskirts. Most of the people living in the Vauxhall area of Liverpool had already survived bombing during the war, the loss of industry from the docks and the building of the Mersey Tunnel. They were now witnessing the loss of most of the nearby neighbourhoods where the people went along with the Council’s plans.
What action was taken?
With help from their local Catholic
priest, the residents called a meeting and demanded an explanation from their
local Councillors. The key question was ‘Who gave you authority to say that
these tenements should come down?’ The participants organised a
survey asking the wider community how they felt about the redevelopment plans, and what they themselves wanted. The vast majority
said they wished to remain in their community, but in new houses that
they would control. In response to this, residents formed the Eldonian Community Association,
invited professionals to work with them to plan new housing and quickly
decided to ‘take over the whole neighbourhood. ’ This meant planning for
new housing, facilities, a new environment and training and jobs for
local people; all under the control of the Eldonian organisation.
The Eldonians
took over the
planning and
build of the new
housing
To enable these plans, the Eldonians formed a housing co-operative to build over 100 new houses for
families in the Portland Gardens tenements. Plans were scuppered when the Labour Party won control of the Council in 1983. At
that time, the Council was dominated by the Militant tendency, which supported municipal control of all aspects of public
housing, and thus took over the co-op’s houses.
There
were still other tenements in the neighbourhood, namely at Eldon and
Burlington Streets, and the Eldonians were determined to have their
way. They established another housing co-op, the Eldonian
Housing Co-op, to re-house those families that still wished to remain in
the neighbourhood. They identified a nearby site large enough to
accommodate the 145 families, being the site of the Tate & Lyle
sugar refinery that shut down in 1981.
Topics associated with this project
Change management, Community-led, Housing, Neighbourhood, North West, Process Management