Community-led estate regeneration

Matrix Partnership was appointed to develop a range of options for the regeneration of the Blackbird Leys and Greater Leys Estates. Concepts were presented at Neighbourhood Management Meetings to the respective local communities and used to inform the preparation of a brief for a Leys Area Regeneration Plan. A multi-agency Leys Neighbourhood Management Partnership (NMP) has been established to steer the development and implementation of the Plan.

 

The Leys Area is a residential suburb of Oxford that was built in two phases. Development of Blackbird Leys commenced in 1957 and continued till the early 1970s.  It is laid out round a central area which consists of open space, school and community buildings and a local shopping parade. Greater Leys, built in the 1980s, is a predominantly two storey residential development laid out in cul-de-sacs that are connected by circuitous streets.  It is of a very different conception to Blackbird Leys - much more dense, the plots are smaller and the roads narrow and winding.

 

Ideas were therefore developed specific to each estate’s condition while overarching strategies were prepared for to better integrate the two communities.