Communities working together to provide smart solutions in tough times

Editor
19 August 2010 - 3:19pm
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• Smart Solutions

Seacourt is a mixed housing estate in Larne town. It has had a very troubled profile with both interface and intra-community tensions.  Between 1996/2002, it experienced several violent attacks including many sectarian attacks, there there was a waiting list to be transferred out of the estate and many derelict houses were  boarded up. Graffitti was everywhere and flags and emblems were a major issue. Agencies did not deliver services as they argued that they had no access points and the council community centre sat locked up seven days per week. The police found it a very difficult area to police and responded with the DMSU’s rather than any attempt at community policing. The one shop in the area struggled to survive.

The Community Foundation for NI has invested £210,000 in the area to develop new community structures, to build community cohesion and invest in community leadership.  As a result of the establishment of Seacourt Community Council the estate has won the Best Kept large housing estate competition three times through local people undertaking environmental projects and working with agencies to refurbish and re-let empty properties. There is now a long waiting list to get into the estate and house values have quadrupled.

There is a successful youth club with 108 members and a detached young adults project (16-25’s) with 40 members, all run on a voluntary basis.  Work has been done on removing graffiti and the flags and emblems issues have been resolved through participation and the local group representative showing leadership in the local Flags Forum. Policing is in conjunction with the local community with the PSNI now represented on the Community Council and other agencies, the NIHE, the Council, Youth Services and Health and Social Services regularly attending Seacourt Council meetings and delivering services into the area through local structures. The council community centre is now being run by the local group and is open seven days a week.

The work of the Community Council has attracted inward investment into the area of an additional £1,454,821 for a wide range of projects and initiatives, including a play-park, community centre refurbishment, the detached youth project and the new sports facility. Approx 50% of this money came from the public purse but was matched by other investors.

Bertie Shaw, Seacourt Community Council says:

At the outset, nobody wanted to live in Seacourt . Now we have no void properties. At the start, everybody was looking to transfer to another area to live. Houses in the area could not sell. I can remember one house that remained on the market for 3 years without an offer and at that time it was being offered for sale at £24,000. Within three years of Seacourt Community Council coming about, that particular house has now been sold 3 times over and the last it was it sold was for £145,000. The most expensive property to be sold in Seacourt, which was 18 months ago, was £170,000.