WCHG helps support the Birch Tree & Edwards Court Community
Residents at two Wythenshawe tower blocks are thankful to Wythenshawe Community Housing Group (WCHG) for restoring them back to their former glory and making them proud to live there again.
Over the past few years, WCHG have been working to tackle problems relating to anti-social behaviour at Edwards & Birch Tree Court alongside local partner agencies as part of the Wythenshawe Integrated Neighbourhood Service (WINS) approach known as ‘Operation Cracker’.
This has included evicting one tenant and obtaining 6 named person injunctions and a person’s unknown injunction, which was the first of its kind in Greater Manchester, to stop people coming into the blocks who weren’t tenants.
This helped to regain the confidence of our residents who lived there and other key measures introduced included;
- Holding monthly meetings with residents.
- Planting trees and maintain benches around the blocks.
- Cosmetic work to the building and moss treatment.
- Putting up photographs inside the blocks.
- Installing new flooring and painting the communal room.
- Installing a Tenants’ Noticeboard.
- Signs to advise tenants what was expected of them.
- Improving the concierge service.
Two residents of the block who were very happy with the improvements made are Sandy Hulme and Sandra Norton who have lived there for a number of years and now feel a sense of pride has been restored.
Sandra said, “It’s back to how it was when I first came here 15 years ago. It’s like going back in time” while Sandy said, “ Thank you to WCHG for putting things back to how it was and giving us pride in our homes again”.
Residents have since held their first social event and will be forming a new tenants group in 2020, which plans to hold various activities, including Bingo nights, Cinema Screenings, Arts & Crafts and other social events in the shared communal area of the block.
