A DEPRIVED Malvern estate is to receive a £10,000 grant to kick start a ground-breaking regeneration programme.

Langland is one of only two areas in the Midlands selected by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation to take part in a three-year experiment to improve the quality of life.

If successful, it will become a blueprint for helping other similar areas throughout Britain.

The estate was chosen because it has many of the social, unemployment and economic problems associated with inner cities, despite being in a generally affluent town in a rural area.

"Pockets of deprivation like this tend to get overlooked because people don't realise they are there," said Pauline Striplin, the community development worker heading the project on behalf of Malvern Hills District Council.

"We can use the money for whatever we decide to do and we are thinking of spending it on training residents how to deal with and speak to local service agencies in a way which produces the best results for them.

"The idea is to help neighbourhoods find a way round decision making and power blockages and to give them access to knowledge of what works in regeneration."

She is based at the Langland Centre, soon to be renamed the Pickersleigh Centre in line with a name change for the ward.

Regeneration

Centre manager Jennette Davy said the new money would boost a regeneration scheme started a few years ago.

"I hope the Rowntree money will make a big difference to Langland by providing an incentive for people to start helping themselves.

"It's all about improving the morale of people who have not had the best start in life and don't have the money to make something of their own lives.

"It boosts their self confidence and once you have done that for someone, they help themselves."

She said a striking example had been the success of Learn Direct, a scheme to teach people basic computer skills, which is run at the Langland Centre.

"They have worked a minor miracle among some people who felt they couldn't do anything and have gone on to get employment," she said.

The district council is hoping to use the information it gains from the experiment in Langland to improve life for people in other parts of the district.

Experts from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation will also watch it with interest and evaluate the results at the end of the three-year programme.