Milton Keynes Council has admitted that its performance on regeneration of estates has 'not been good enough' or 'sufficiently resident focused' over the past few years.
It comes following the resignation of the chairman of the Fullers Slade Residents Committee earlier this month, after he said residents had been let down by the Council's work so far.
Seven areas of Milton Keynes were set to be refurbished over a fifteen-year period affecting 20,000 people including Beanhill, Coffee Hall, Fullers Slade, Netherfield, North Bradville, the Lakes Estate and Tinkers Bridge.
Now a motion is set to be put forward at Milton Keynes Council's cabinet next month which will call for the Council:
- To restart the community engagement process on Fullers Slade.
- To restart the community engagement on North Bradville.
- To move to a ballot on Serpentine Court where more progress has been made.
- Transfer the community engagement responsibility back to the Council. A new Head of Resident engagement is in place.
- To bring the Neighbourhood Employment Team back in house.
- To have Council clearly badge repairs work as being undertaken by Mears Group PLC and bring the management of this contract back in house.
- Establish a in-house Asset Management team to oversee capital investment and the repairs and maintenance service.
Cabinet member for Housing Cllr Nigel Long said: “I want to apologise for the problems in delivering regeneration. We did not achieve our prime objective of the regeneration being community driven by the residents of the estates affected. Part of the problem was the YourMK approach and that is being transformed by bringing engagement back in house. We are also bringing control of the repairs service back in house.”
Cllr Pete Marland added: “We remain committed to regeneration of key estates, but it must be community led and that has not happened. We inherited a regeneration timetable that was, in hindsight, over ambitious."
"We should have restructured regeneration to ensure it was community led. Our revised approach will allow residents to determine the future of their community and also allow better financial planning. We will also establish an investment programme for areas that will not see regeneration for 5 or more years.”
Cllr Long concluded: “We remain committed to modernising homes and building new truly affordable homes, whilst also improving the quality of open space and community facilities. We have had a false start. We will now put residents firmly in the driving seat of regeneration.”
