A COMMUNITY regeneration project on Heathcote Vale Estate (Westmacott Estate) in Feltham, is being developed by CIP, Hounslow Council and the Thames Valley Groundwork Trust.

Over the next five years this programme will deliver environmental improvements, including play and sports facilities, to the area as well as a number of community projects.

As part of the overall project Kids and Youth First! events are being planned. Although the programme will be formally launched this summer, Kids and Youth First! is a short series of events for children and young people funded through a grant received from the Department for Education and Skills. These events will enable them to tell us about their interests, needs and hopes for the area.

The Kids First! events in March are aimed at children under the age of twelve years. Children from the estate will be involved in an art project focused on the area, as well as activities at school to find out what they think about it and how they spend their time.

Teenagers and young adults from the estate will be given the opportunity to get involved in the Youth First! event on the afternoon of Saturday April 3 at the Southville Youth Centre in a partnership between CIP and Hounslow Youth Service. Attendees on the day will be able to take part in sports, play on decks, MC-ing and web-design as well as having a chance to express their views about their area through questionnaires, discussion groups and a 'video diary'. Students from Longford School will be supplementing the event and consultation process with photo and video surveys of the estate.

Feedback from these events will be fed back to the young people during April and will contribute to the consultation with the wider Heathcote Vale community starting in the summer.

The local community and residents will be consulted throughout and will have opportunities to become directly involved in the process of change.

Project partners believe in the importance of local people being actively involved in deciding how the estate should be improved and encourage their participation in the whole process.

Although the environmental improvements will be an important focus, there will also reportedly be opportunities for educational, sports, and also cultural projects to develop as a result.