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Work begins to pull down 1960s housing estate

Ellie Brown
Local Democracy Reporting Service
Gavin Kermack
BBC News, West Midlands
LDRS A shot looking down onto a building site. Some rather dilapidated blocks of flats run along the edges. There appears to be a large hole in the middle of the site and a blue-green crane and what appears to be a large red skip are nearby.LDRS
The homes will be replaced with 261 new flats

Work has begun on the demolition of three buildings on a 1960s housing estate which was once home to hundreds of people.

Teams have started removing fixtures and fittings from the 158 empty homes in Kerry, Milestone and Trafalgar Houses in Spon End, Coventry.

They are due to be replaced by more than 250 new flats as part of a £120m regeneration of the area, announced in 2019 by social housing provider Citizen.

Demolition had been due to begin in spring 2023, but Coventry City Council only gave the go-ahead last June.

LDRS A typical 1960s two-storey block of flats. It looks rather dirty and dilapidated. A balcony runs along the first floor.LDRS
The 158 homes are spread across three buildings

Kevin Roach, Citizen's director of regeneration, said the delay was mainly due to the group getting its planning application through and securing funding for the work.

"There's been a lot of challenges that we have with the scheme in terms of the flood mitigation and ensuring that we're meeting council policy for all of that," he said.

LDRS A middle-aged man wearing a dark blue hard hat with a logo and the word "Hill" on the front. He is wearing a navy blue open-necked shirt under an orange hi-viz tabard.LDRS
Kevin Roach, from the social housing provider Citizen, said he hoped to "transform" the Spon End estate

The buildings will be replaced with 261 affordable flats.

Earlier this year, Citizen submitted plans for a wider redevelopment of Spon End, which would eventually see 750 new homes built.

LDRS A children's playground on a patch of grass with large trees either side. A path with benches runs alongside and behind it is a dilapidated block of flats.LDRS
Mr Roach said the green spaces on the estate were "poor quality"

Mr Roach said the plan for the whole Spon End estate was to "transform it and create a place where people are proud to live and where their homes are safe, they've got a good environment".

He added that the small areas of green space on the estate were "poor quality," but said there were plans for a new "green heart" through the site, including opening up the "hidden" River Sherbourne that runs through it.

Citizen A computer-generated image of a number of buildings, viewed from above. They are connected by pathways and surrounded by patches of grass and trees.Citizen
The project is the first stage of a £120m redevelopment of Spon End

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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