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#Beeston2020Vision

 

Beeston – A place for All – People have to live somewhere

 

Now, as we move further into the 2020’s all of the fuss created about where and how people live has faded away!

Class divisions and distinctions are as they have ever been. The ‘nice people’ – well off and privileged – live in their puka houses up on the hill. We can look up to them. The middle classes, nuevo-rich and socially mobile, are in their gentrified areas on the West-side. Whilst the workers no longer need to live close to their places of employment they remain in rows of terraces and now ‘pre-fabricated’ units on the lower ground.  The latter can be more mobile now as we have privatised buses and the tram to ship them to and from work [if they have jobs]. Otherwise they can be ‘sustainable’ - walk or bike.

Oh, and the students – they can group together in the ‘roll-out-of-bed-zones’ near to their seats of learning. With no real connection to the community they have ghettoised entire areas just for themselves as dormitories.

Almost forgot – the old folk – the generations who once-were. They can be plugged in where ever there’s space – in their own old-age ghettos.

So why was there all the fuss. People have to live somewhere – don’t they? Multi-let houses make maximum use of property availability. Such is the ‘social balance’ – but has there ever been social cohesion or meaningful integration?

What of that, now completed, big block next to the cinema? The coloured textured panels, green walls and roofs have greatly improved the appearance. Making homes for butterflies and bees – it is the iconic building in Beeston after all. Then there’s the art-work, it does ‘lift the soul’ of those who care to notice. People live there too, incomers mainly, who enjoy the vibrant night-time economy they were promised - making good use of their pots of disposable income.

 

People, of all types, shapes and sizes, have to live somewhere – so why not Beeston? It’s for ever been an inclusive and welcoming place hasn’t it  – particularly if you don’t upset the status-quo. There had to be a ‘Biggest building in Beeston’. There always has been the biggest, tallest, most massive building. Perhaps there was a fuss about Anglo-Scotia mills dwarfing the Commercial Inn at one time, or Humber Works, Beeston Boiler or Boots – all big and over-powering. But powerhouses of commerce and industry. The Phase 2 apartments provided a place to live and to play – economic and social times have changed. Let’s face it people used to pay to hang on ropes to sleep – we have moved on from there, have we not?

 

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