Castle Vale (Birmingham) | suburb

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Castle Vale is a neighbourhood in the north of the city of Birmingham. Prior to the 1960s, the site existed as Castle Bromwich Aerodrome, used especially in World War II for the testing of Spitfire planes manufactured at the factory on the opposite side of the Chester Road, now the Jaguar car manufacturing plant.

Following the end of the war, the site was no longer required for air travel and was identified as land for the construction of a new housing estate to help deal with the growing population of Birmingham and demand for housing. The estate was completed in the late 1960s, during the peak of house-building for the era. The three runways of the aerodrome became the 3 main roads running from east to west on the estate, which boasted 34 tower blocks, the tallest of which, Concorde Tower, reached some 20 storeys in height. There was a shopping centre and five schools to serving the community. It was hailed as a 'utopia' for new residents and given the name 'Castle Vale'.

Problems soon began to occur when issues with the construction of the estate became clear. The quality of construction was poor, owing to the quality of materials, workmanship and design. Residents became unhappy in their new properties, partly as a result of being forced out of earlier slum communities within the inner city area. Neighbours struggled to socialise and social problems began to take hold on the estate with crime, drug use and unemployment all being markedly noticeable.

By the end of the 1980s, the area had developed a reputation as a no-go area and the police struggled to deal with crime. In the early 1990s, it was proposed that an organisation be set up with a 12 year life span to deal with the housing issues on the estate. The Castle Vale Housing Action Trust was set up in 1993, demolishing 32 of the 34 tower blocks, redeveloping the shopping area and constructing a new central High Street, constructing a new community library, refurbishing hundreds of homes, evicting problem families, remasterplanning the road layout, encouraging the construction of hundreds of new homes, improving the parkland and setting up community organisations that brought the residents together. The organisation was folded in 2005 as per the Act of Parliament that created it, and has been largely hailed as a great success due to the way it has turned the community around.

Property prices increased, crime fell dramatically, employment rates improved, truancy rates at the local schools fell and private investment in the area has been massive. The Castle Vale Community Housing Association now deals with most of the CVHAT former responsibilities.