“IT’S a Mean Old Scene.” Five words painted onto a wall in All Saints Road which became an iconic image of Bradford.

Thought to have been written by a university student in the 1960s, the slogan became the title of a book called A History of Bradford from 1974 by former Telegraph & Argus journalist Jim Greenhalf, and inspired a folk song by musician Pete Coe.

On August 25, 1970 a T&A report by David Edgar examined the plight of Listerhills, a rundown area scheduled for redevelopment by the University of Bradford. A Students’ Social Action Group was coming to the end of its Summer Project in the area, and was facing a crisis.

David wrote: “Jeremy Gass, group leader, said: ‘Initially we chose an area to work in which was in a state directly as a result of university development. The aim was to generate some sort of community action. We wanted to defy all the views that people have in authority that the people of Listerhills aren’t worth spending money on.’

But the first idea, for a residents’ association, has gone by the board. Said Jeremy: ‘In a way the people here accept their position so readily, it’s so hard to develop people’s consciousness of their own situation. It would be really good to see them angry’.”

David continued: “The Social Action Group is only filling in some of the cracks of Listerhills. The real responsibility lies with the authorities, who have let it run down. Empty houses waiting to be swept away, to make way for the gleaming spires of the extended university campus, are left unboarded by the Corporation. Even over the provision of a zebra crossing on a stretch of road on which several kids have been injured the authorities are willing to ignore the demands of the people of Listerhills.

So where does the Social Action Group’s future lie? In providing things for Listerhills that the authorities won’t? By making life for the kids a little livelier in Summer Projects? Or by forming a powerful pressure group backed by militant action to make the people in charge remember that Listerhills is there?

Katrina Ackroyd, leader of the Summer Project, and a politics and history student going into her final year, says the Social Action Group has gone some way to making people in the area fell like a community: ‘”We’ve made them aware that they can do things for themselves. Six months ago they wouldn’t have organised a jumble sale.’

It’s difficult, looking at a gang of rowdy kids having the time of their lives in the drab streets of Listerhills, seeing the bustle of action on the People’s Park site as a massive jumble sale gets underway, organised by a group of mums, to take a sober view of Social Action’s achievements.

But there is a sign written on a wall in Listerhills that sums up perhaps the limits of what Jeremy Gass can do to ameliorate the situation of the area. It reads simply: ‘It’s a Mean Old Scene’. How long it remains so shouldn’t be, and can’t be, solely the responsibility of Jeremy Gass, Katrina Ackroyd and the students who take over their labour next year.”

Emma Clayton