Badlands...

Wythenshawe is a sprawling, predominantly council owned housing estate, around eight miles to the south of Manchester city centre. Yesterday it was named the "violence capital of Manchester" with 1,200 violent offences recorded in 10 months. This is where I grew up, in a council house, in a district called Benchill. I moved away when I got married back in the late seventies but my Mum lived there until she passed away a few years ago. I still live close to the estate but not close enough to have an informed opinion on just how safe, or more to the point unsafe, these streets actually are. Wythenshawe is not on its own however, 21st century Britain can be a troubled, threatening and impoverished place than the one I grew up in. Don't get me wrong, the area has always had its problems synonymous with an economically challenged environment. I went back today to Civic Centre, a large shopping precinct constructed in the 1960s and cited as a hot-spot for crime. It's currently undergoing a major revamp ahead of a new Metrolink and much has changed over the years since I last visited the area but enough remains to bring back memories. The city council have ambitious plans for Wythenshawe that stretch well into the next decade, their aim is to restore the area's "Garden City" tag, a vision that was central to the estate's origins in the 1920s. It is hoped that the area will greatly benefit from the nearby airport's expansion and creation of 'Airpot City'. I'm sure that my old stomping ground has much more going for it than these latest crime figures suggest or at least I hope so.