ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines an overview of the Westside neighbourhood and discusses the local authority's regeneration agenda. It outlines the conception and evolution of the Westside Community Regeneration Project (WCRP) scheme. The organizational structure of the WCRP was comparatively simplistic and leaner than in Northside and Southside. The chapter discusses the primary decision-making structures of the WCR programme and highlights the community consultation and participation strategy adopted. It examines the nature of community consultation and power within a small-scale pilot project concerned with empowering tenants, developing a stronger community-led approach to regeneration and addressing the issue of racism. The paternalistic actions of the Westside Community Forum (WCF) in relation to generating community participation should not be perceived as being deliberately exclusionary or discriminatory. In overall terms, the WCF made relatively few executive decisions that translated into policies or programmes, it owned or controlled, on the ground that benefited the local community.
