Their town has never been more trendy – but around here people feel forgotten
High-rise apartment blocks are becoming a common feature in the skyline of Stockport town centre.
The new buildings are part of a plan to modernise and upgrade areas which were marked by dereliction, sometimes for years.
Around £140 million alone was spent on the new transport interchange, which gave the town a better bus station, new public park, and 200 homes.
Stockport's regeneration has become a national story, with it repeatedly being named one of the country's best places to live for its amenities, spaces, culture and transport links.
But a short journey down to Adswood, between Bramhall and Stockport town centre, reveals the scale of social division in the borough.
The area has pockets of high deprivation, similar to places such as Bridgehall, Brinnington, and Lancashire Hill.
Some parts of Stockport such as Reddish have seen new shops and bars opening, in a sign that more people are wanting to live and spend their money there. And the council says it is providing new facilities and helping create new jobs for people in poorer areas of the town.
But locals in Adswood told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) they felt their neighbourhood was moving in the opposite direction.
Frank Hoyland has lived in Adswood for more than 30 years, and feels it is plagued with problems.
The 68-year-old said the area has changed for the worse in his time living there.
He said: "I've watched this area go down the pan. All the work I see is going on at the moment is in Stockport town centre, the new bus station, new roads, new hotels.
"We're forgotten about around here, it's always been the case."
He feels that public transport options are too limited, and that residents in Adswood are being asked to pay more council tax without getting better services.
Other residents have concerns about crime. A 28-year-old woman, who didn't want to give her name, said the sight of people riding around on bikes wearing balaclavas is common, as is anti-social behaviour on some Adswood estates.
She said there's nothing for young people to do in the area, so they get bored and some end up causing trouble.
"I grew up around here but on the posh side where the older people live. There was nothing for us to do, we used to go hanging around the park but there was always broken glass everywhere.
"We've seen crime happening, even people getting kneecapped in one estate. It's not good."
Brinnington is another part of Stockport with pockets of deprivation.
Residents told the LDRS that they're worried about a rise in anti-social behaviour, which they see happening regularly.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) has put a lot of focus on Brinnington to try to tackle some of these issues.
Public forums have been created to encourage residents to engage with and share their concerns to the Police, and to ensure officers can solve problems alongside other partners.
A GMP spokesperson said: "We remain committed to supporting and keeping Stockport a safe place to live, work, educate and socialise."
They added that police in Stockport have had great results in terms of successful arrests and charges for burglary, which has reduced the number of reports being made in recent months.
But one resident in Brinnington said problems with crime are persisting. Robert Marshall, 63, has lived in Brinnington since he was five-years-old.
He got married in a church on the corner of Northumberland Road and Brinnington Road, which was knocked down to make way for a supermarket.
Changes like this, he argued, were eroding the local community.
He told the LDRS: "Nothing has changed for the better around here. We used to have loads of shops but they knocked them down to build new houses.
"There were around 60 shops but now there's nothing. We get kids on their bikes causing havoc, they don't care what they destroy. They have nowhere to go so they just cause trouble.
"They destroyed the community when they built these houses, it was about 20 years ago. This area needs more shops and life.
"We're definitely forgotten about, and we just have to put up with it."
Stockport council maintains that it is improving the lives of all residents across the borough.
A spokesperson said that around £1 billion is being invested into the borough as a whole, giving people a chance to achieve things no matter which part of it they grow up in.
They said: "Our regeneration has not been exclusive to the town centre. The leisure facility in Brinnington is the newest one we have, and the development of the light industrial scheme at Aurora in Cheadle Heath and the proposed Eco Park on Bird Hall Lane again provides new jobs in these areas.
"A couple of our most recent successes where we have engaged with residents across the borough are our year as Town of Culture, where we put on over 200 events, the vast majority of which were free, delivered across the whole borough.
"We have also awarded £1.3m of UK Shared Prosperity Fund Communities and Places money to a range of organisations across the borough, helping to make their communities even better places to live."
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