One interviewee stated that Rhyl has had some “great schemes [and] spent millions of pounds”, but it’s “it’s never on something that has been a real community need. It’s been more about what the [local council] think the community need”.
Celebrating heritage, Stainforth, Doncaster
There’s a general feeling of loss around the mining culture and the sense of community it used to bring.
Campaign group Save Our Greenbelt – Conisbrough Parks
Campaign group Save Our Greenbelt – Conisbrough Parks
On the streets of Conisbrough and Denaby Main collecting signatures to campaign against the NSIP largescale solar farm proposed on the greenbelt.
Shaping Stainforth Exhibition, Doncaster
Photographs taken at an exhibition in October 2025 at Frenchgate Shopping Centre. Apologies for some blurry imagery.
I want everyone to be kind. I want us to feel safe on the streets and in our homes.
Can I see my future here? The future is bright.
The future doesn’t have to end here. I trained everyone here, now we need ne premises to train more.
We need places for kids to chill. There needs to be less focus on the past and more on the future.
We make a difference creating this club right here in Stainforth. I want to make a difference.
Shaping Stainforth helped us run free gym sessions for young people this Summer. I want a gym for girls.
We want a free gym for teenagers. This is where I come to chill.
We need better parks, an indoor sports centre, AstroTurf pitches and places to chill out. We need protected areas for the youth.
I just want a better skate park. This park could be designed better – we can help!
I wouldn’t be thriving in my career if it wasn’t for Shaping Stainforth. Kerry saw the potential in me and gave me the confidence to apply for the apprentice role. Now I have so many new opportunities.
It’s very quiet and calm here. I want to stay, it makes me feel better. I have friends here, it will always be home.
Stainforth could be a safe place where everyone knows they will be safe. There’s no light at the end of the tunnel… this is worse than the strike.
We need new sports areas for everyone. I’m so embarrassed, it’s so disheartening. Everything is going up. You can’t tell your kids…
We should have a community growing garden. Bring the community together, train people in being sustainable, teach kids about the soil and nature. We can make the community everything we want.
We could build something that would keep us here.
Quote: West Armagh
“I genuinely think if we continue doing what we’re doing we’re going to promote continued failure and we’re going to continue to have high statistics of addiction, mental health, unemployment and poverty, and we need a new way of going forward to empower local community to have hope for themselves, if we continue doing what we’re doing we’re continuing that cycle of generational unemployment, mental health, disability and addiction”
West Armagh resident and community leader
Video: Conisbrough & Denaby Main
“I’d like decision makers to come out first of all… to the land… to what they are going to decide on… Listen to us. We’ve lived here all our lives. It does affect us greatly.
Just do not decide from afar without coming and seeing what you are deciding on.”
Billy Collins, Local resident and campaigner
Conisbrough and Denaby Main, Doncaster
Hear more from Billy here:
Video: North Ormesby (2)
“More people on the streets giving more confidence in people in charge would deal with a lot of the root causes”
Chris Bloomfield, TYCP Youth Development Worker
North Ormesby, Middlesbrough
Hear more from Chris here:
Video: Newport, Middlesbrough
“When we plan projects and want to achieve success in whatever we do it is very important that we use coproduction, communities need to take part from inception… it is very important that leaders of local authorities they come down to where the communities are. It is so frustrating when leaders are over there dictating what to do without coming down to get involved and talk to people. It is very important to have that relationship with the local residents”
Cllr John Kabuye, community leader
Newport, Middlesbrough
Hear what else John has to say here:
Video: Benarty, Fife, Scotland
“If one’s [energy project] being forced upon us, we want to make sure there’s proper community benefits coming back from that project… There’s no guarantee if we’re going to get community benefits and how much they’ll be and who will administer them, the whole thing… We need to agree what the figure is and it needs to be set in stone… It needs to come to the local community because we’re the ones that are putting up with the loss of the land, the eyesore, all of that”
Charlotte Copeland, Secretary of Benarty Community Council
Benarty, Fife, Scotland
Hear more from Charlotte here:
Video: North Ormesby
“Key points that could solve problems straight away and improve quality of life was a new model of tackling low-level crime. Designated addiction services and health villages in our communities, investment in community hubs, having services running through them. Partnership working with volunteers. Compulsory community events in each community. Enabling the community to come up with their own solutions and investment in green spaces and nature…. We need to do something. We are the second most deprived in the country. If we get the smaller things right, we can help the community to engage and activate them to find the solutions themselves to address the issues they face.”
Cheryl Dixon, local resident and community leader
North Ormesby, Middlesbrough
Hear more from Cheryl here:
