Bentilee

infobox UK place
country = England
official_name= Bentilee
latitude= 53.0129
longitude= -2.1263
population =
unitary_england= Stoke-on-Trent
lieutenancy_england= Staffordshire
region = West Midlands
constituency_westminster= Stoke-on-Trent Central
post_town= STOKE-ON-TRENT
postcode_district = ST2
postcode_area= ST
dial_code= 01782
os_grid_reference= SJ916461

Bentilee is a suburb and housing estate in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire situated between Hanley and Longton, and parallel with Fenton, Staffordshire.

Built in the 1950s, Bentilee was at that time one of the largest estates in Europe, with around 4,500 properties. The streets in the area are named after various places in the UK e.g. "Winchester" Ave, "Chelmsford" Dr, and "Devonshire" Sq.

Originally, it consisted almost wholly of social housing, managed by the City Council. The Right to Buy Act brought in by the Conservative government of the 1980s led to many of the semi-detached houses that make up most of the housing stock in the area being bought by their tenants, so that now approximately 25% of local houses are privately owned.

In the 1990s, the estate's 925 'cottage flats' were transferred to the management of Bentilee Community Housing Limited, under the Estates Action scheme that provided government funding to bring the properties up to a modern standard with many receiving new kitchens, new bathrooms, central heating, double-glazing, and rewiring.

In recent history, the estate has also been the subject of a 7-year-long 'Villages Initiative' Single Regeneration Budget (Round 2) urban renewal scheme that aimed to do for the remaining council housing what the Estates Action scheme had done for the 'cottage flats' (but without transferring ownership away from the Council), as well as tackling local social issues and full- or part-funding a wide range of local projects such as Berryhill Retirement Village, the Millennium Project on the Berryhill Fields that separate Bentilee from Fenton, Staffordshire, and building the Moss Green housing estate (managed by Riverside Housing).

Seven years was not long enough to complete the ambitious plans for the redevelopment of the estate's main shopping and services area so the Bentilee District Centre Project was set up to carry on this work. The final result is a single building comprising shopping facilities, local library, IT Centre, walk-in health centre, CAB, Council housing dept, and a jobshop -- unique in the UK.

External links

* [http://www.forumnews.org.uk/ Forum News newsletter]
* [http://www.brookhouseandubberleyforum.org/ Brookhouse & Ubberley Forum Web site]
* [http://www.berryhillvillage.freeserve.co.uk/ Berryhill Retirement Village]
* [http://www.changingplaces.org.uk/ Changing Places Web site]
* [http://www.bentileehousing.com/ Bentilee Community Housing Limited]
* [http://www.stoke.gov.uk/ Stoke-on-Trent City Council Web site]
* [http://www.riverside.org.uk/ Riverside Housing Company]