JESSIE JAMES was killed in a community park that had become a symbol of Moss Side’s regeneration.

The inner city suburb became notorious in the early 1990s as Britain’s Bronx, a place of lawlessness and gun violence. Its reputation was responsible for Manchester’s “Gunchester” image, where largely black, teenage gangs defended their turf in the search for power and money.

But the death of 14-year-old Benji Stanley 13 years ago, as he stood in a queue outside a fast-food takeway, galvanised central and local government, community leaders and residents. It brought about the most dramatic change to Moss Side and Hulme since the slum clearances of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The Alexandra Park estate, where Jessie’s family live, was remodelled a decade ago. The redevelopment of the site of Manchester City’s old Maine Road stadium, now in its final planning stages, promises 500 new homes for sale.

The clubs and shebeens (illegal drinking dens) have disappeared and industry and major retail stores, such as Asda, have been encouraged to move in.

The Moss Side and Hulme Partnership was set up by Manchester Council in 1997 to compete the project. It spent £400 million of largely European money to bring in a new road infrastructure, a business park, 2,000 homes, new parks and the regeneration of Princess Road, which runs through the suburb.

Jessie had spent Friday night with friends at the club run by the partnership’s flagship youth centre, the Moss Side Millennium Powerhouse.

Police believed that gun crime was on the decrease but the upsurge of violence has begun to concentrate the minds of senior officers at Longsight police station.

Pastor Michael Simpson, of Moss Side’s Seventh Day Adventist Church, where Jessie’s family worshipped, said: “Things have improved dramatically over the past five to ten years in Moss Side. I do not believe it is any worse than any other place to live in the UK.

“Things have improved in the community but what we have noticed in the last five weeks is some kind of blip.”

He added: “The community is genuinely bewildered.”

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