Mrs. Nelly Ternent lives in Scotswood, in a council house. She remembers: "In the 1990s, it was awful. Council tenants moved out by the hundreds. Lots of houses were boarded up. The City Council had a policy of just filling up empty houses, it didn’t seem to matter what kind of people came in. There was a lot of unemployment, many single-parent families, a lot of anti-social behaviour. Private houses were bought cheaply by ‘entrepreneur landlords’, who let them to all-comers. New-comers got out as soon as they could. But still, it was our home. The people who were born here remembered a different Scotswood. Most of them stayed, convinced that things would improve sometime."

Uproar
Mrs. Wheeler continues: "So when we read in the local newspaper that almost all of Scotswood was to be razed to the ground, there was an uproar. Of course, everybody knew something had to be done, but we insisted on a sensible plan." The home Mrs. Wheeler was born in, where she lived with her daughter, was threatened. As a home-owner, she was to receive £17,000 for it. "There was no chance of finding a house elsewhere for that amount of money." Besides, Mrs. Ternent and Mrs. Wheeler weren’t the only ones who were born in Scotswood, had raised a family there and were now living near their children and grandchildren.

Save our Scotswood
So in 2001, the ‘Save Our Scotswood’ campaign began: a few residents organised a meeting in the Church Hall and seven hundred residents turned up. The council house tenants were already organised in local tenants’ groups; home-owners quickly started to get organised. More meetings followed. The residents organised a survey asking everyone what they wanted to do: leave Scotswood or try to stay, even if this meant relocation. Mrs. Wheeler: "The fact that the demolition plans came out of the blue actually helped us a bit. We were forced to cooperate. Still, we literally had to knock on everybody’s door." Residents’ representatives got together, with survey results in hand, to determine which areas were to be demolished, and which might be spared. The residents then tried to interest the Council in their alternative. Mrs. Wheeler: "The Council realised that we were not just going to go away. So we started working together in the Scotswood Joint Working Group."

Success
The Joint Working Group has been meeting monthly for three years now. And the cooperation between residents, the local councillor and council officers is considered a success. Mrs. Wheeler: "Although we didn’t get all we wanted, the Council made some concessions: we managed to save 800 houses and the Library building. A relocation team was also set up. Arrangements were made for home-owners to swap houses. By using ‘tenant agreements’, the Council increased control over behaviour among council house residents. We have a real influence on the planning process, even if we still sometimes have the feeling that the Council is trying to go behind our backs. So we’ve achieved a lot." The Working Group is not just discussing plans; it also functions as an intermediary between residents’ and tenants’ groups (working together in the Scotswood Housing and Environmental Forum) and the Council for current problems like street lightning, public transport, vandalism and fly-tippers (builders who dump their rubbish in abandoned houses).

Confidence in the future
The residents participated in the plan for an ‘urban village’ in Scotswood envisaging three thousand new houses. The Council has now adopted a new approach, planning a ‘housing expo’ for Scotswood, with some three hundred new houses. Don’t the residents feel cheated? Mrs. Wheeler: "No, we’re really exited about the Expo. We see it as a launching pad, giving builders and developers more confidence to make further investments in Scotswood. We need to build houses that are unique, that make people say ‘wow!, we don’t have that kind of thing in Jesmond’, or any other posh part of Newcastle. In combination with a new Academy (for young people between the ages of 11 and 18), we think the Expo gives Scotswood a chance. Still, the going is very slow. I would very much like to see a brick laid."

Getting involved, keeping involved
The women sound a bit like ambassadors for the Council’s plans. How do they avoid being branded an extension of the local government? Mrs. Wheeler: "Everybody knows how hard I’ve fought to get a better deal for owner-occupiers. I was totally fed up sometimes, and would have walked away, but for the thought: ‘if I give up, nobody else is going to give it a try’. And they can see I’m still fighting, sometimes even putting myself in some danger. People see vandalism going on, they call me, and I call the police. The perpetrators know that. Sometimes I’m the one shouting at them on the streets. People respect what I’m doing."
Mrs. Ternent: "Of course, Council tenants are a different group from owner-occupiers. There was this man: I had known him since he was a baby. He lived on Armstrong Road, one of the streets the Council refused to spare, despite everything we said. He blamed me: ‘You made sure your own house was spared’, and refused to speak to me again. I was very upset, not least because my house was never going to be demolished anyway. My family often asked me: ‘Why are you so much involved? Your house has been safe all along’. Well, I’ve been involved in community work since 1973, and my aim is to improve things for everybody. But you have to be a bit thick-skinned."
Trust and respect are fine, but they have a downside, too. Mrs. Wheeler: "It is hard to involve other people, especially younger people. They are either too busy, or not interested. At the outset, there were twelve residents in the Joint Working Group. But a lot of people have moved and now there are only six or seven residents playing a major role. And people just say: ‘You’re doing well, you don’t need me’. Even my own daughter doesn’t come to meetings, she says: ‘You can tell me all about it’."
Mrs. Ternent has the same experience, but a different reaction: "I tell my husband: ‘If you want to know, you’ll have to attend the meetings. I’m not telling you anything’."

Lessons learned
What advice do the two ladies have for other residents’ groups? Mrs. Wheeler: "Everybody you have to deal with knows more about the issue than you do. So never be afraid to ask. Never be overawed: those people are doing a job, just like you are trying to do." Mrs. Ternent starts grinning: "I can remember you vividly, at loggerheads with the Council Leader Tony Flynn. Yes, you shouldn’t be afraid to say anything. When we met Sir Jeremy Beecham, he presented himself very much as SIR Jeremy Beecham. Well, we gave him a steep learning curve".
A second piece of advice from the ladies: learn to give and take. You’ll never be able to get all you want, so it’s better to be pragmatic. Honesty is very important too, they think. And to conclude: you need a common goal. Mrs. Wheeler: "For example, owner-occupiers and Council tenants have different interests and different aims. Besides, the people who come forward are the strong-willed ones. So it’s crucial to get commitment in one direction, to get individual interests channelled into a community perspective. You have to aim at making things better for everybody."