Neighbourhood clean up 'quick wins', Bournemouth

In this featured project case study: (click on a link to jump directly to that section)

• The last resort - area decline
• neighbourhood management priorities
• quick wins - fewer eyesores
• boosting local commerce
• working with private landlords
• reviving Churchill Gardens
• a landlord's view
• representing homeless people
• the Safe and Clean team
• evidence - why the project was needed
• results - what it has achieved so far
• do's and don'ts - participants' insight
• find out more - contacts

NEIGHBOURHOOD management is not a substitute for mainstream local services, whether they be run by government departments or the local authority. They still matter enormously. But neighbourhood management projects do have a broad remit - housing, health, the environment, education, employment and crime reduction.

Improving the appearance of public spaces like this park on Boscombe West's main thoroughfare has been a neighbourhood management priority

Springbourne and Boscombe West sees its role as finding out what works locally then persuading the relevant statutory agencies to adopt these measures as part and parcel of services that will continue once the seven-year scheme ends. This is the essence of 'mainstreaming', a core requirement of all neighbourhood renewal projects.

'What is central to our work is that the entire community has to be involved,' says community involvement officer Sue Warr. 'It's about making the connections , pulling the right people together and lobbying . 'It's changing the way agencies work together,' says neighbourhood manager Sue Bickler. 'A whole group of people are willing this to work. There's a genuine respect for what we do and how we do it.'