Wolverhampton

Introduction

Wolverhampton is located on the western edge of the West Midlands. It is a diverse city in terms of demography, wealth and facilities and serves the Black Country Heartlands as well as more rural Shropshire and Staffordshire. The population has fallen over the last 10 years by nearly 5%.This is the highest decrease in the West Midlands County and is in contrast to an overall national increase of 2.5%.

Recent Visits

None of note 

Demographics for Wolverhampton

Mid-2006 Population Estimates

Children and Learners
• Over £33.5m was spent on school renovation projects between 1998/99 and 2002/03 with a further £8.6m during 2003/04. Examples include around £125,000 for replacement of dining hall at Warstones Primary, and nearly £270,000 to build new classrooms at Coppice Community High School.
• £5m of funding was allocated to St Jude’s Primary School, replacing two existing schools, St Jude’s CE Infant and Junior School. The new purpose built facility will establish the new school on a single site with modern teaching and learning facilities.
• Funding of £2m was allocated to Wednesfield College for the City Learning Centre project and the Teaching Environment of the Future (TEF) Project. Both schemes have created high quality teaching and learning facilities to optimise the use of redundant space. (Completed in September 2005).

Health and well-being
• The £57m Heart and Lung Centre, the UK's first purpose built specialist centre, opened its doors to patients in October 2004. Based at Wolverhampton's New Cross Hospital it will include three specialist theatres and plans to treat more than 1,350 heart and lung surgery cases.
• New Cross Hospital has a newly modernised, £850,000 A&E department, a rapid-access chest pain clinic and has received cutting-edge equipment to better diagnose and treat cancer.
• The £57m Heart and Lung Centre at Wolverhampton’s New Cross Hospital, the UK’s first purpose-built specialist centre, opened in October 2004.
• The Wolverhampton Walk-in Centre, opened in January 2007, providing treatment for minor illnesses or injuries and advice about health concerns. It has proved so successful that its opening hours are to be extended later this year.
• The £5.8m Gem Centre opened in April 2006,  bringing together services provided by Wolverhampton City Primary Care Trust and Wolverhampton City Council for children and young people up to the age of 19, including some who may have special needs and/or disabilities. This development was funded through the Wolverhampton and Walsall LIFTCo Public Private Partnership.

Crime
• For 2005/06 over £436,000 was awarded to Wolverhampton’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership from the Stronger Safer Communities Fund of the Local Area Agreement to tackle crime, drug issues and anti-social behaviour.
•  £360,500 was allocated from the Basic Command Unit Fund in 2005/06 to provide resources to front line officers who tackle crime and disorder every day in the community.
• £225,000 was allocated for 2005/06 as part of the Local Area Agreement (LAA) for the operation of a Street Crime Warden scheme in Wolverhampton City Centre, Bilston Town Centre, Whitmore Reans and All Saints/ Blakenhall neighbourhoods.
• More than £600,000 of Single Community Programme funding has been awarded in Wolverhampton as part of the LAA for 2005/06 to ensure that local voluntary and community groups are able to engage and have a view on their sector perspective to neighbourhood renewal.

Transport
• Almost £68 has been allocated to the West Midlands Metropolitan Authorities (of which £4m is specifically for Wolverhampton) for smaller transport measures and road maintenance under the West Midlands Local Transport Plan settlement for 2007/08.
• £15m of Local Transport plan (LTP) funding has been allocated to Wolverhampton Town Centre Access scheme, to provide better connections between the rail and bus stations, and the city centre. Work has started but Wolverhampton City Council is now developing a major project with private sector partners to redevelop the rail station as part of a regeneration scheme.
• The £28m Red Routes Scheme (package 1) is a conurbation wide project aimed at reducing congestion on main roads throughout the West Midlands Metropolitan area. Completion is due in 2010. 

Regeneration
• £53.5m was awarded to the All Saints and Blakenhall New Deal for Communities Partnership to regenerate the area over ten years, to the end of March 2011. 
• An extra £17.8m has been allocated over three years through the Neighbourhood Renewal Fund from 2003-06 to improve key services for local people, and help tackle the deep-rooted problems faced by the most disadvantaged communities.
• Seven Neighbourhood Management pilot areas have been established, covering many of the worst neighbourhood clusters, providing a key delivery vehicle for tackling deprivation. The City Council is currently considering wider roll out of neighbourhood management following a recent evaluation.

European Funding
• Just over £1m was allocated to Wolverhampton Learning Quarter, a £6.4m development to provide a city centre college for Post-16 training and adult education by early 2005. The College campus was officially opened by Gordon Brown in 2005 and is now fully operational.
• Over £3m was allocated to Wolverhampton Cityscape, a £9.45m project running from 2001-05 to regenerate three distinct quarters of Wolverhampton city centre including business space for Small to Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs)
• Over £7m was allocated to the £18.54m Wolverhampton Network Consortium Action Plan that aims to deliver regeneration activities for disadvantaged communities. The plan runs from 2002-06.