Transformation of the Brunswick neighbourhood in Manchester, is now ten years into its 25-year masterplan and on Wednesday, 15th May, an event was held to mark this major milestone in the £106m regeneration programme.
The event took place at Brunswick Village Extra Care development and was aimed at colleagues and partners who have worked on, supported and played a part in the project. The event is all part of the year-long activities and celebrations for 2024.
Jo Fyffe from funders Equitix, kickstarted things with a very eloquent summary of the past decade in just five minutes or so! She was closely followed by Ben Tabiner from Buttress, the Architects who redesigned the whole neighbourhood, roads, buildings and parks, but reminded us that their mindset and plan from the outset was to be about the people and the community and not just bricks and mortar.
Executive Director of Operations at Onward Homes and S4B Board member Matt Saye then took the floor to continue the theme of the customer journey, with home being at the heart of everything. Executive Director of Property, also from Onward Homes, Sandy Livingstone also visited and there were senior members from Vistry plus Garry Jameson and Gareth Burns from Mears who came along to complete the group.
Martin Oldfield, Strategic Housing Director for Manchester City Council rounded things off with a few words, sharing some of his knowledge and background of how it all began. The presentation section was rounded off with the cutting of the cake by Martin Oldfield and and Ashraf Choudhury from S4B.
Two films were shown during the event which were both powerful and quite moving and knitted together the hour long session together perfectly. A selection of members of the community were also invited along. Cllr. Hewitson who has served the people of the area for the past ten years, Mike Edwards from local sports group, Manchester Young Community Champions, the Local Wai Yin Centre, resident Dymo Leung who plays a key role in many local events and the chair of the local Tenants and Residents Association, Nazmina Begum and Age UK Manchester art group were all on hand to meet and greet over a buffet lunch, adding even more context and value to what Brunswick is all about.
Here are a few photographs from the event
A purely customer focused event is now being planned for the summer, along with the current 2024 monthly photography competition with the winning entries being made into a 2025 calendar, a community fund available to support local groups, artwork installations and much more. It’s a rolling programme of activity for 2024, so watch this space for more actions as they happen!
In case you missed it, S4B started the year of celebration by producing a video showcasing the work of the S4B partnership over the past decade. Take a look at the results here to see the transformation and how far things have developed in just ten years.
S4B – Brunswick 10-Year Video from S4B Manchester on Vimeo.
A huge thank you to everyone involved in helping achieve so much and a super special thank you to the residents of Brunswick for their patience, understanding and loyalty throughout the process. We hope you’ll agree, the results prove it was all worth it.
For more information, please contact S4B Manchester on 0300 555 0128 , visit the website www.s4bmanchester.co.uk or the Facebook page.