School is key to ending poverty on the estates (From Swindon Advertiser)

School is key to ending poverty on the estates

2:50pm Thursday 2nd October 2008 in

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AS LITTLE boys kick a football around Cavendish Square in the Parks, councillor Fay Howard promises education will lift them out of poverty.

As reported in the Advertiser on Tuesday, figures from charity Barnardos revealed 65 per cent of children in the Parks are living on the breadline.

But Coun Howard (Lab, Parks) vowed that the area’s children would grow up with more opportunities than their parents had, as she showed the Adver around yesterday.

Already the Parks’ hub – Cavendish Square – is shaking off its dead skin of ramshackle buildings.

A spanking new Co-op has emerged with signs advertising a ‘free’ car park. A new and bigger health centre has also opened and the square’s advice point attracts flocks of people from around the town. Newly built flats are inviting potential buyers to move in after putting down a £99 deposit.

But echoes of the grip of a rundown past still abound with a boarded up Cock Robin pub, and Reuben George Hall surrounded by fencing.

Coun Howard says the credit crunch means Cavendish Square’s complete transformation may take longer than hoped but it will emerge. And children’s achievements will be part of that.

“I don’t doubt that there is child poverty here and as a councillor that greatly concerns me,” she said. “But education will give children a better future. We can see the difference already thanks to the children’s centre in Goddard Primary School. Goddard and Oaktree Primary are good schools.”

Councillor Howard defended her territory heartily, saying bad press deflated residents.

“People living here don’t feel it has a bad reputation,” she said. “The buzz comes from the community itself – not what it has. A street may have a bad reputation but I often hear residents saying: ‘it is not like that.’ Residents have a great community support with Swindon Walcot and Parks group and the Parks and Walcot Forum.”

“The reputation creates a cycle, but people living here see a different side to the Parks.”