This statement has been jointly prepared by various residents' groups and individual citizens of Levenshulme in response to the consultation on the Strategic Regeneration Framework (SRF) for South Manchester, which Levenshulme partly belongs to.

We firstly would like to welcome the Council's intention to tackle the tough issues prevalent in some of the areas within the South Manchester SRF, and thoroughly agree with the identified vision for neighbourhood centres as "places of choice". We are delighted to see plans for improving public transport in the area, including a rail link to the airport and the proposed improvements to East-West connectivity.

We also welcome the consultation on the plan which allows us to express our concerns about the future of the Levenshulme. We argue that the issues facing Levenshulme have been overlooked in this framework for reasons that we outline below:

1) It is important that the consultation document recognises the disparate nature of the South Manchester area characterised by the polarity between the most affluent districts in the borough and those areas with considerable social and environmental problems. With only seven Super Output Areas (SOA) in the South Manchester SRF falling within the worst 5% in the country (according to the Indices of Multiple Deprivation IMD 2004 data), such detail can easily be lost focusing on Ward level data. We fear this is the case with Levenshulme where you can find an SOA that is among the most deprived 5% in the country ranking 1442 in IMD 2004. We argue that the proposed South Manchester SRF does not offer any solution to address these problems in Levenshulme.

2) We are extremely concerned that the very core or the neighbourhood centre has been split between two different SRFs which creates confusion and may have resulted in the area “slipping through the net”. Some of our landmark amenities (library and Levenshulme Baths) are not included in the remit of the South Manchester SFR.

3) Levenshulme is a special case representing a pocket of deprivation within affluence, therefore special measures are required to ensure that it no longer escapes the regeneration it urgently needs. With the commitment of the local residents we feel that it is not too late to change its fortunes. The recent closures of local amenities (including the local supermarket and the last remaining community centre) leave this area very vulnerable to further deterioration which it can ill afford. Uncertainty about the future of Levenshulme Baths and the library add to the frustration in the community.

We invite you take forward our concerns as our elected representative and would be more than happy to discuss any suitable way forward to regenerate our neighbourhood in order to create a sustainable future for Levenshulme.