Pumping more money into Sherwood

Over the years a lot of money has been pumped into Sherwood, Tunbridge Wells, both capital and revenue.  Capital expenditure on the Little Forest Children's Centre and the TN2 Community Centre are two of the major projects.  Now Town & County Housing Association, the major social housing landlord in the area, is pumping money in as part of the Sherwood Regeneration Project (SRP).

One does wonder what the social return on this investment will be. The SRP did not get off to an auspicious start, with accusations of secrecy and failure to consult with the local populace. When two borough councillors spilt the beans they were hauled over the coals by the chief executive of the council  (as I commented on last year in this blog).

I have become more cynical about the value of regeneration projects, community development initiatives and community engagement schemes as they are 'top-down' usually and do not engage with the causes of problems.  Instead, they provide sticking plasters to put over the symptoms.

The past sixteen years had seen me working in areas of deprivation in Kent and East London and my cynicism is borne of experience of seeing projects, initiatives and schemes fail as they do not engage with the real issues and certainly do not provide solutions.

One only has to look at the indices of deprivation in Thanet to realise that years of investment have failed to produce significant improvements. The same can be said of others parts of Kent and indeed nationwide.  Why is this?  Will the Big Society and Localism produce a step change in improving well-being in areas of deprivation?  I have my doubts