EASEL is not a stand alone initiative. It will be linked to other important development opportunities and regeneration programmes in East and South East Leeds.
There are major public sector developments already planned or underway within the EASEL regeneration area. These include a new Oncology Wing and Medical Research Facility at St James’s Hospital, a new City Academy and Learning Campus on the site of the East Leeds Family Learning Centre and a programme to improve four of the area‘s secondary schools.
In 2005, the former Office of the Deputy Prime Minister designated Gipton as a “Mixed Community” pilot area. Mixed Communities is about incorporating high quality and inclusive design for all residents and tenants in order to create places that are enjoyable to live in. It is also about addressing significant and persistent inequalities between neighbourhoods e.g. patterns of anti-social behaviour, crime, employment and income levels. Work has already begun in Gipton to address some of these inequalities.
The area has been designated as an Intensive Neighbourhood Management (INM) area. INM is about looking closely at specific neighbourhoods and how they run in order to make them better places to live. Among other things, this will include securing additional money to spend in the area and encouraging residents to get more involved in decision making.
The Gipton Access Point (former South Gipton Housing Office) was recently refurbished and opened in Summer 2007 offering information, advice and guidance on job search, interview techniques and CV preparation. Both the Learning Zone and Building Family Wealth Project also deliver training from the Gipton Access Point.