Crumpsall - on the up ?

Long-standing Crumpsall and Blackley Village residents like myself ( 29 years now ) will have seen many changes over that period of time with a fair few ups and downs for the area. We will all have our own opinions but it is useful to get an objective, external measure of what is happening to where we live. Just before Christmas, the government published its Index of Multiple Deprivation. This divides every Council Ward in England into smaller units called super output areas ( SOAs ) and then compares them all to each other looking at income, employment, health, education, housing, crime and the living environment. The previous time when this was done in 2004, half the SOAs in Crumpsall and Blackley were assessed as being in the 5% most deprived in the country. Now, 3 years later, none of our SOAs are in the worst 5%, all of them have improved, and one has risen 2750 places up the national table. So on the things that really count for quality of life, compared to the rest of England, Crumpsall and Blackley Village really are on the up !