Jason Rust: We can build on the first 40 years

Published on Tuesday 3 February 2009 08:54

LAST week as I was meeting with residents in Murrayburn, the Fife town of Glenrothes won the dubious accolade of "carbuncle of the year". Established as a solution to the post-war housing crisis, just as Wester Hailes was an answer to the expansion of Edinburgh, it would seem that for some the dreams of early planners have not been fulfilled. That said, such awards are derogative and unhelpful.

Forty years since the first properties were completed in Wester Hailes in 1969; is this time for a celebratory ruby anniversary?

At the time of building Wester Hailes, residents were allocated three car parking spaces per property, despite only one-tenth having cars, something which seems unimaginable in 2009. Then again, the whole planning and facilities of the area was a somewhat strange outcome. As in other parts of the city, the housing stock is without doubt in much better condition now than then, but what of the community?

New developments, changing boundaries and wards leaves open the question of what constitutes Wester Hailes now- adays. True, the nature of "community" evolves; no longer is it simply geographically based. Work, school, shopping, even Facebook all represent communities, but arguably the closure of post offices or schools and the absence of community centres threaten our neighbourhoods. The first Tesco supermarket in Scotland was opened in Wester Hailes. Now Wester Hailes must be the only place in the country where Tesco has moved out. The potential of Westside Plaza, which unlike rows of shops elsewhere could be a real social hub, has also not been recognised.

I have met voluntary workers and groups such as the Community Help Advice Initiative (CHAI) offering housing support, substance misuse support and general advice services. Recognition of their work is no better demonstrated than by the extension of their outreach service to the whole of the city later in the year.

Wester Hailes Arts Leisure and Education (WHALE) has an exemplary arts programme ensuring that there is a "cultural entitlement" for all, importantly linked in with physical and mental health and working in partnership with establishments such as Stevenson College. The continuation, inclusion and support of the voluntary sector, working in tandem with both private and public sectors and the development of social enterprise, has to be fostered to fully engage communities.

Effective communication in any community is often the key. The closure of a community newspaper after 31 years such as the West Edinburgh Times is a blow to these groups communicating with their participants. For the young woman in the Calders high-rise this removes one key form of connection with community and is a further alienation from what is going on around her. New funding can be sought, but for the present an excellent archive does not equate with current identity.

Community Councils, Neighbourhood Watch and stair committees have a key role to play in any community. The cessation of the Wester Hailes Representative Council represents a discontinuity in that voice and the formation of new community councils discussed with me by residents is a way to regain the community initiative and provide an enhanced voice at neighbourhood partnership and council level.

Full use requires to be made of physical areas offered as a community resource. The protection of green space and the provision of meeting places are vital to ensure that life is not drained from a community. Despite the visible improvement to the Wester Hailes canal it has remained largely unused and only recently through the work of Re-Union are the opportunities for local residents being realised, allowing people to engage with their local environment.

Linkage with schools and colleges is important. Meeting with staff and parents last week from Westburn Primary, months after the school closure vote, the emotion and rawness are still palpable. The school community, the meeting of parents at the gates, the coming together of pupils is a vital form of this shared sense of belonging. The constant cloud of potential closure which, though fact or not, hangs over certain schools for years such as Wester Hailes Education College is an omnipresent guillotine over a community.

In our more vulnerable communities the concept of community engagement can take strange forms. I have heard from families in Clovenstone with no access to mainstream credit resources that debt advice and budgetary control are important not simply per se but because of the relationship with the adviser who spends time with them and provides a release from their day-to-day concerns. Credit unions in particular, currently absent in Wester Hailes, can also exist to further community development.

Undoubtedly the energy of activism goes out when the physical gets better and relative passivity or resignation sets in. However, as argued previously, it would not seem appropriate to reach a stage anywhere in Edinburgh that the only thing that binds people universally in an area is that having a certain address may sell your house. Integration and social cohesion cannot be the preserve of sociologists, but ought to be at the forefront of all our neighbourhoods.

As to whether the dream of Wester Hailes has been fulfilled 40 years on, only residents both past and present can decide. Individual responsibility is important and perhaps we all have to ask of ourselves not what our community can do for us but what we can do for our community.

Councillor Jason Rust is convener of the Pentlands Neighbourhood Partnership