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Fenham

Fenham is an area of the west end of Newcastle upon Tyne, England. It lies to the west of the city centre, and is bounded on the north and east by a large area of open land known as the Town Moor. To the south lies Benwell, whilst West Denton lies to the west, Blakelaw and Cowgate to the north, and Arthur's Hill and Spital Tongues to the east. The area has an ethnically mixed population, and is also home to a large number of students.

The area covers two wards of Newcastle: Wingrove Ward, and (confusingly) Fenham Ward. At the 2001 Census the overall population was found to be 22,376 of whom 14.4% belonged to an ethnic minority, more than twice the average for Newcastle as a whole. Of persons age 16-74, 52.3% were defined as economically active, compared with 58.5 for the city as a whole.

History

Fenham grew up as a separate township from Newcastle, lying on the western outskirts of the city. Much of the land originally belonged to religious charitable institutions, and there were covenant restriction on the building of any licensed premises. In 1904 the area was incorporated and brought within the boundaries of Newcastle. The BBC Broadcasting Centre on Barrack Road houses Radio Newcastle and Look North.

Local Amenities

Fenham possesses a public library on Fenham Hall Drive. Fenham has an active residents group called Fenham Association of Residents FAR that launched the FAR Community Centre in 2001. The FAR Community Centre offers activities for all age groups offering activities aimed at helping residents improve their self esteem and skills. There is also a public swimming pool, since August 2005 run as a community organisation. The pool was shut in 2003, but in 2004 the Liberal Democrats took control of Newcastle City Council from Labour; one of their pledges was to re-open Fenham pool, which was achieved with substantial financial backing from residents of the local community.

The main local schools include Westgate Community College on West Road, Saint Cuthberts RC High School on Gretna Road and Sacred Heart RC High School . There are also some private schools situated in Fenham, one is Dame Allan's on Fowberry Crescent.

Popularity in Local Region

The town is also becoming increasingly popular with students and young professionals however unlike other parts of the city experiencing a growth of student numbers relations between locals and the seasonal influx of students are kept civil in large part thanks to the local council.

Ethnic minority

Today Fenham is most well known in the local area for its large Asian community with many of the businesses in the area being Asian-owned and including many speciality stores such as a halal butchers and Asian jewellery and clothing stores. There are many ethnic minority group living side by side in Fenham area most of them are from Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Councillors

There are three councillors for the Fenham electoral ward. These are PJ Morrissey, Colin Daglish. Terence Cooney, who was the third councillor sadly passed away on the 19th of September 2008. Cooney was the longest serving councillor, having been elected in 1971. Morrisey and Daglish are representitives of the Liberal Democrat party and Cooney was a member of the Labour party.