A formerly dilapidated street in Hull has been redeveloped after residents said they felt abandoned.
Three years ago those living on Pretoria Street, as well as others off Hawthorn Avenue, recall feeling forgotten, and left to live in an area besieged by drug abuse, crime and antisocial behaviour.
They resided in a terrace of eight homes closeby to Anlaby Road, which Hull City Council decided to leave standing, whilst others which were empty and plagued with graffiti were demolished.
Approximately 30 homes there and in Seymour Street were destructed in October 2019, with the remaining to be torn down to make way for hundreds of new build properties, Hull Live reports.
More than three years later, and its been approximately five years since plans to reshape the Hawthorn Avenue area were drawn up - but one Pretoria Street resident said they would not change it.
Raemonda has lived in Pretoria Street with her husband for around two years, moving in soon after the demolition.
The 28-year-old lives in one of the eight surviving houses in the street opposite land which is the last set for development.
Three years ago, she would have looked out onto abandoned homes which were broken into and became the targets of arson and vandalism.
Now she said the street is peaceful and her and her husband are happy there and have no plans to leave.
Raemonda said: "Things are okay here, it's quite quiet. Sometimes we have kids who come running into the street but otherwise it's very peaceful.
"We don't get any trouble or any antisocial behaviour. It's quite neighbourly here too, I speak with my next door neighbours, we see each other when we smoke outside and we take each other's parcels in when the other's not there.
"We don't drink so I don't go out to the pubs around here but the location's very handy for shopping.
"There's Anlaby Road just round the corner and then there's Hessle Road about 10 or 15 minutes away.
"I like this place the way it is now, I can't think of a bad thing about it.
"No one troubles us, everyone seems friendly, it's a nice place to live."
The redevelopment of the Hawthorn Avenue area was first planned in the 2000s, when it was part of the then the Gateway scheme to regenerate a swathe of west Hull.
Those plans were shelved after the Conservative and Liberal Democrat Coalition Government took power in 2010 and launched its austerity programme.
The council later managed to get £8million from the Government's Regional Development Fund, reviving the plans.
Keepmoat Homes got planning permission for its Amy Johnson development in 2018 and has since built more than 600 homes with features designed to keep energy use down.
A further 139 homes are still being built and a council spokesperson said the development is very close to being on the course originally set out for it in 2017.
The spokesperson said: "This key piece of regeneration for Hull City Council has weathered numerous macro-economic factors, including Brexit and the coronavirus pandemic.
"Aside from housing, there has been significant public open space created for residents and visitors. Keepmoat is in the process of handing over the allotments and community building behind Edensand Road.
"This multi-award-winning programme has not only developed confidence in the local housing market. It has also exceeded the target number of jobs and training set out at the beginning of the scheme, with over 80 per cent local labour achieved on the west Hull regeneration."
