Soho Finger and Gib Heath – about the neighbourhood

Soho Finger and Gib Heath

Soho Finger and Gib Heath neighbourhood

Our neighbourhood

If you look at the map you can get a pretty good idea why one bit of this neighbourhood is called Soho Finger. The neighbourhood profile, which is the official document describing the neighbourhoods, says that Soho Finger and Gib Heath runs from the West Bromwich border of Sandwell, marked by the West Bromwich Albion (WBA) Football Stadium and the Hockley Flyover, bounded to the north by the Soho Road/Hollyhead Road and to the south by the railway/Metro line.

As part of the work carried out for the neighbourhood profile, we asked residents what the main priorities for the area should be:

  • Environment
  • Crime and community safety
  • Lack of activities for young people
  • Drug and alcohol abuse.

They also said there was a need for better joining‐up of services and improved access for local people, housing improvements and environmental conditions between properties. Neighbourhood managers work with all the different people and agencies that are involved in the area to try to make sure that everyone works together to make the improvements that people would like to see. So that’s quite a lot for us to be getting on with, then!

Tracey Thorne, who is the neighbourhood manager for Handsworth, has included her own really good explanation of how that works on her own website.