What can we learn from other groups who have resisted regeneration? What does it mean to campaign?
Nina Edge, artist and Spokesperson for Welsh Streets Home
Tell us a little about yourself and your role in the Welsh Streets campaign?
I live in one of the Welsh Street homes in South Liverpool that is condemned to demolition and I also work as an artist. When we heard there was a threat of demolition lots of people got together and formed a residents groups called the Welsh Streets Home Group. I am the secretary of that group and as time went on I also became the spokesperson doing interview and talking to the press. The campaign has been a big part of my life in the past eight years. During that time the general theme has definitely been uncertainty. At the moment what is being proposed is that 16 houses in Madryn Street are saved and 17 houses on Kelvin Grove are saved and the rest are pulled down. And although that’s a real development for us because we’ve always been told nothing will be saved and now we’ve managed to save 33 houses, it’s still poor in terms of design and it doesn’t really make the place better.
So we’re really interested in designing a place people will want to live in and move to or even return to. We have commissioned two sets of architects to start design work so by the end of the summer we will have alternatives to table. And that seemed like a really important thing to do because at the beginning of this process we were only shown one option which was to demolish. In the Welsh Streets situation, we’ve repeatedly said to the councils and authorities “you need to have more ideas, you need to consider other ideas”. And they were really reluctant to do that and so we’re now producing the ideas and designs ourselves.
Do you think that 2Up 2Down and the Community Land Trust could be another important models in terms of doing things in housing?
2Up 2Down is already an important model without a doubt. It is creative and unusual and has developed a level of support which is perhaps more difficult to achieve when you are in ‘protest mode’. When we planted the 700 daffodils for Liverpool’s 700th birthday, we weren’t saying “please don’t pull our houses down”, we were saying “look at these streets, let’s come together”. And I guess in the same way this project is saying “look at this community, look at it’s homes, it’s bakery”. So just by doing something creative and bringing in people to do something creative makes 2Up 2Down important as a project. And throughout the HMR spend (which has been massive) very little has been spent on community development projects, skills development or working out what a sense of place is beyond the bricks and mortar.
What does living well mean to you?
Living without worry and having peace of mind beyond money and status. In that sense, lately we haven’t been living well as we’ve been constantly worried. So if anyone wants those remaining at the Welsh Streets to live well all they need to do is take the threat of demolition away and then we wouldn’t have to worry whether painting the kitchen was a waste of money because somebody was going to pull it down.