Young residents have been making their mark on the future of north Coventry after naming the first new streets of the £360m redevelopment scheme for Wood End, Henley Green, Deedmore and Manor Farm.

Local residents, including a group of 20 Junior Street Champions, were invited by Whitefriars Housing Group and the residents’ Regeneration Action Team to choose names and themes for the first five streets that will be built in the Deedmore area around the former Deedmore School and Monkswood Crescent.

Four of the street names will reflect a wildlife theme, including Dragonfly Drive and Butterfly Walk, as the Junior Street Champions, aged between 9 and 12, aim to lead the way in helping the environment.

The fifth name, Tipton Way, was chosen by the Regeneration Action Team as a tribute to former community champion and Chair of the NDC Partnership Board, Roger Tipton who sadly died last year after serving 10 years as Chair. The group also rubber stamped the final selection proposed by the Junior Street Champions.

The first of the 154 homes of the new housing development, are expected to be completed in October. They will include a mix of mainly two and three storey properties, 39 of which will be Whitefriars homes for affordable rent with the rest for outright sale by partners Bovis Homes, Keepmoat Homes and Westbury Partnerships. 

The Junior Street Champions got involved in the street naming after carrying out a number of projects to help improve their community such as working with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust on a project to clean up the Sowe Valley river and planting 100 trees in Bell Green Park. They also helped to organise a community awareness day on recycling held at Moat House Leisure and Neighbourhood Centre which included litter picking and plant watering. The group are currently producing a mural on recycling with other residents for the centre.

Carol Speed, Coventry City Council Neighbourhood Development Officer, who works with the Junior Street Champions, said: “All the children in the group take a lot of pride in their environment, so helping to shape the future of the area in which they live was a natural progression.”

Junior Street Champion Lorraine Sietambi, age nine, said: “It is really exciting that we got the chance to name the streets. We had been doing some creative exercises with Warwickshire Wildlife Trust which gave us the ideas for the names of the streets.

“We liked the activities we did at the river and looking at nature so that helped us to think of the names.”

Lynn Wassell, Project Director at Whitefriars Housing Group, who is leading the housing redevelopment work on behalf of Whitefriars, Coventry City Council and Coventry New Deal for Communities (NDC), said: “Working closely with residents has been the key to the success of the regeneration of this area – right from the planning stage. Now we’re seeing the plans come to life it made perfect sense to get residents involved in the naming, as it’s their area and we want them to feel proud of it.”

Vicky Scott, Chair of the Deedmore Residents’ Association and member of the Regeneration Action Team, added: “We’re especially pleased to have young people involved as it reflects our hope that the regeneration will result in a community that people are happy to live in for many years to come.”

In total, the regeneration of the Coventry New Deal for Communities (NDC) area will see more than 3,000 new homes built over 15 years.