Final piece of £850k jigsaw now in place
A FINAL piece of the jigsaw in a major project to regenerate an east Hull estate has slotted into place.
Hull East MP John Prescott was on hand to officially open the £850,000 extension to the Freedom Centre on the Preston Road estate.
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John Prescott officially opens the new extension to the Freedom Centre.
Community charity the Preston Road Neighbourhood Development Company (PRNDC) was awarded £55m in 2000 under the Government's New Deal for Communities programme.
The money has been used to tackle issues including unemployment, health and education.
The expansion of the Freedom Centre, constructed by the Sewell Group, has trebled the facility's floor space and includes the new 60-seater Humber suite and enlarged gym.
The centre also includes a library, NHS minor treatment centre, adult education complex and cafe.
But PRNDC chairman Don Smallwood insists this isn't the end of improvements but merely the start.
He said: "There is a misconception among some people that this is the end but really, it's just the start.
"We have the new (Sentamu) academy being built and about 2,000 homes are planned by Gateway.
"It's been quite a journey and we are rightly proud of our achievements since we started work on planning the regeneration back in 1998.
"Our challenge now is to make sure the facilities we have built have a long-lasting impact on the east Hull community.
"There still some problems in the area but it is nothing like it used to be."
3 Comments
by Dave, Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 9:59AM
“"The money has been used to tackle issues including unemployment, health and education."
Anyone noticed an improvement in any of those areas?”
by Billy, Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 9:03AM
“By the way why extend this Freedom centre when there is nobody to use it as all the houses have gone.
The place is mostly used for meetings for organisations form all over Hull and does not really benefit the non existent people who live in the area!”
by Billy, Hull
Monday, March 22 2010, 8:06AM
“I see they ahve not doen much to improve the probelm we have outside the Freedom cnetre and that is cars double parked all the way down the street when they have meetings there, which no doubt are just a waste of tiem anyways.
Maybe they need to look into building soem more car parks and also making one side of the street double yellows.”