Westway Development Trust

NAME Westway Development Trust
LOCATION 1Thorpe Close, London W10 5XL (North Kensington)
MANAGING ORGANISATION Westway Development Trust
WEBSITE www.westway.org

USED TO BE…
Unused derelict land underneath an elevated six-lane motorway

STORY
The construction of the Westway, an elevated six-lane motorway, began forty years ago when 600 houses in North Kensington were cleared to make way for it. The development of the motorway met a huge amount of protest from residents, prompting a period of social activitism and the setting up of almost 100 community groups.

It was feared that the land beneath the motorway would be left derelict; the community groups rallied to pressurise the council into preventing this.

The council eventually agreed to underwrite the project until it could become self-financing. They funded the post of a key member of staff who began to transform the space, starting with a children’s adventure playground. Within eleven years the Trust could support itself completely.

NOW A…
The space is now home to a skate park, fully equipped sports centre, a children’s nursery school and playpark, office and workshop space for local people, a fashion arcade, a riding stables and subsidised space for local charities and voluntary groups. Today over 800 people are employed by organisations under the Westway, and the Trust has a turnover of more than £3million. The Trust also distributes over £200,000 a year in grants to local individuals and organisations.

WHY IS IT SPECIAL?
Westway Development Trust is a financially viable, community-led enterprise. It operates in an unusual way in that any profit generated from the rent charged is pumped back into the community.

"Community groups like us have learned that regeneration and commercial development are not mutually exclusive, it's about what you do with the profit. Whereas your average property developer takes the profit with them, we say, "Take that profit and recycle it back into the community."