|
Product summary
 East
Manchester is a large working class
inner-city area close to the city
centre. It consists of three local
areas; Beswick, Clayton and Openshaw.
The area has a population of 11,231
and contains 4,500 households. 80%
of residents live in houses and the
majority of the remainder low-rise
flats. Almost 40% of the housing stock
is council owned. The area suffers
from a complex and inter-related range
of issues including high crime levels,
low educational attainment, poor health
and a lack of local facilities and
is ranked in the lower quartile in
the National Index of Deprivation.
The area is benefiting from major
regeneration activity, as one of 38
New Deal for Communities (NDC) areas.
As well as the New Deal for Communities
programme, there are several area
based initiatives, including an Education
Action Zone and a Sports Action Zone.
These different initiatives have different
boundaries and varying life-spans.
The NDC partnership developed the
bid for WuC funding in November 2000
and the East Manchester WuC project
was established with the support of
staff from the Education Action Zone.
There was already considerable investment
in community facilities for information
technology in the area through, for
example, the development of 10 UK
Online centres.
A pilot project (Eastserve1) was
at implementation stage as the WuC
bid was being developed as part of
the City Council's e-government development.
Eastserve1 aimed to provide 10 community
based access points and 450 homes
with Internet access in the East Manchester
area. With DfES funding the new WuC
project was co-located within the
East Manchester NDC office and the
expanded project became known locally
as 'EastServe2'.
The Eastserve WuC project has a
number of partners including the East
Manchester Residents' Forum, Manchester
City Council, New East Manchester
Ltd, East Manchester Education Action
Zone (EAZ).
A steering group for EastServe 2 was
established including partners with
particular interests in ICT, education
and local area regeneration. The steering
group for the WuC met approximately
every six weeks. It operates as both
the project board for EastServe and
as the organisation which runs Network
East Manchester and is concerned with
connectivity in the area. It received
updates on progress and guides the
development of the project.
New East Manchester played a key
role in bringing partners together.
All the major organisations operating
in the area, including the area-based
bodies, are represented on the Steering
Group. A range of organisations not
identified as partners in the bid
have also been involved in the development
and implementation of the project.
These include the Regional Development
Agency (GONW), MANCAT (the local technology
college), Manchester Community and
Information Network (MCIN) and English
Partnerships. An intermediate labour
market organisation Information Technology
East Manchester ITEM was also represented.
The project employs 11 staff, including
management, content management and
technical support staff.
About 3,500 households have had cost
subsidised personal computers installed
and assistance with the cost of the
equipment was provided by the services
of the local credit union. Over 1,500
residents have received training through
a 3 hour introductory course delivered
in a variety of venues in the local
community.
In terms of future sustainability,
Manchester City Council will remain
a major partner organisation of any
successor body to WuC. A new Director
for Eastserve was appointed to oversee
further development of the project
and funds are in place to sustain
the project until 2004. The project
is working to the ICT strategy developed
by Network East Manchester, which
has the principle aim of providing
free, high speed access to local services.
Building on the wireless system for
Broadband access to the internet put
in place by Eastserve, it is anticipated
that the project will extend the capability
of the existing wireless network facilities
to support up to 10,000 residents
across Manchester.
|
