Residents from three deprived estates in Coventry are being given a chance to look at £50 million plans to improve the area before they are submitted to the government.

More than 500 people living and working in Wood End, Henley Green and Manor Farm have been deciding how to change their community.

The bid for the money from the New Deal for Communities fund will be sent to the government next week.

To be successful the organisers will have to show that attention has been paid to every detail and the community has been leading the decision-making process.

Businesses, residents groups, the city council, area co-ordination and other organisations in the city have spent six weeks throwing ideas into the ring ready for the final application.

A special group called the WEHM Coalition has been set up to co-ordinate the effort.

Ideas have been put together covering health, education, crime, employment, transport, leisure, young people and environment and housing.

Rev Nerissa Jones, who chairs WEHM, said many of the issues in the area connected with one another.

She said:

“We’ve got a pile of suggestions about a yard high. It’s very exciting.

“A lot of the ideas are about things that will help young people to have a more fulfilled childhood. There are 3,500 children here with nothing to do.

“If we get the money we have to spend a year costing everything exactly. It isn’t enough to say we want a leisure centre, we have to show how every penny will be spent.

“People haven’t been able to have a say before. Now they are being given the chance to lead the way.”

The estates including Wood End were the only ones in the city allowed to bid for the cash after it met several criteria showing the deprivation in the area.

If the cash bid is successful, the money will be made available in stages over a ten-year period.

People who want to have a look at the bid and find out more about the proposals for change can go to the Watcombe Day Centre in Watcombe Road from 10am to 12.30pm on Saturday.