Camp Hill is a former mining area that developed in the late 1950s to serve the Warwickshire coalfields. It thrived – most people worked in the mines five miles away. When the mines closed in the early 1980s the vast majority became jobless and those who could get work moved on. Those who then moved in had serious housing needs – there was unemployment and many single-parent families. Poverty built up and Camp Hill became the most deprived ward in Warwickshire.

A third of children lived in households where no parent worked. There were serious issues around education. Many people had no qualifications and were depressed with poor health. Being a mining area, most of those who stayed were elderly and many had heart and lung disease. The crime figures were serious: about 20 burglaries a month, and burnt-out cars were everywhere.

But everything changed with the introduction of Pride in Camp Hill – a partnership that started in 2001 between the local regional development agency, Advantage West Midlands, Warwickshire County Council and Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council, along with help from the Prince’s Foundation. There were three objectives: to make physical changes, social and economic change and to improve services. The area is masked by the relative prosperity of Warwickshire so there isn’t the access to funding that other deprived urban areas may get.

These days, Pride has started to demolish old houses that aren’t habitable, build new ones and bring in retailers to help to improve community facilities. We started a programme to encourage life chances through education and employment. Children had been entering secondary school without being able to read or write, so we funded a home tutor scheme. Our Opportunities Centre teaches young people to be plumbers, bricklayers, electricians, then we help them to find work placements with local developers. Now these youngsters are building the homes that they and their families will live in in the future. We’ve helped 21 people into self-employment. We’re improving bus services. The unemployed can’t afford to run a car. Now the bus service has improved and this means people can get to work.

It’s been very successful. We’ve rehoused many residents locally and also brought in people from outside. Burglary has dropped by 65 per cent a year. Children are staying on at school longer, and the schools have improved. When I joined most schools were on special measures – now none is. We’re working with the Primary Care Trust to bring in a new GP service that will run from 8am to 8pm, seven days a week. The area was underdoctored – previously GPs offered seven or eight hours a week for a population of 8,000 people.

Community involvement is what holds it together. When we started, people were sceptical because promises had been made in the past. We spent a lot of time with the community and put up fencing and street lights.

People now come into Camp Hill and see it as a place with a good future. It’s taken more than two decades for the area to become so run down, so it won’t change overnight. But we are beginning to turn a corner. Colin Ball is project director of Pride in Camp Hill

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