Last updated 15:57, Wednesday, 07 May 2008

IT has been over three years since the regeneration body West Lakes Renaissance first promoted the idea of making improvements to the Woodhouse estate. This week residents of the estate have seen the long-awaited masterplan for their estate – Woodhouse Evolution – unveiled.

The estate is made up of a mix of tenanted homes and those owned by residents who were persuaded by Maggie Thatcher’s Right to Buy deals. And the reaction to the masterplan has been just as mixed.

Many have welcomed the chance of a major uplift for the estate. But some have had the jolt of being told their homes will be pulled down, in many cases to make way for green open spaces. As one resident told our reporter: “It seems a waste of time to knock houses down just for a bit of grass.”

There will now be a period of consultation and the plans will still need planning approval.

Let us hope the tough lessons learned by Labour at the polls last week will be heeded by Copeland Homes and Copeland Council. That message is this: listen carefully to what the public are saying and make the right decisions accordingly. Don’t simply rubber-stamp a masterplan purely because it is described as “new”.

Whatever the decisions on the Woodhouse plan, it does come as a shock to learn that Copeland Homes intends to demolish 210 homes and replace them with just 50. One would have thought this sort of business plan has a very short shelf life if it is reflected across the rest of the housing association’s estates. And this drop in the number of homes comes as the waiting lists still stand at 1,100.

One of the saddest cases our reporters uncovered was a Windermere Road resident who had bought the family home and tended its beautiful garden. She now learns the housing association’s plans are to bulldoze her home and leave it as open space.

Meanwhile just down the hill at Greenbank we have an estate that has been left in limbo awaiting news of how undermined the area may or may not be. Patience may be running thin on the Greenbank estate, where today they plan to be out with banners trying to prevent the loss of estate wardens. When will the Copeland councillors who sit on the housing association board demand answers for Greenbank?