Priority on keeping young people in Wolverhampton

Tim Johnson says he wants future developments, such as a new railway station and leisure complex in Westside, to fill people with pride.

But he also hopes it will create a community which young people will stay in beyond school and university.

Mr Johnson took over from Keith Ireland last week having served as director of place on the city council for five years.

His vision is to create a city equipped with adequate housing, leisure and jobs.

And he says the work is already bringing on board private investors who are spending money on schemes across Wolverhampton.

They include a multi-million pound project for a cinema-led leisure complex at Westside, a new railway station and Metro extension and flat schemes at Telecom House and Crown House.

"I want to promote a greater sense of aspiration in our city," said Mr Johnson.

"I think, for different reasons, people haven't always bought into the ambition for Wolverhampton and I understand why because there has been occasions over the years where there has been a false dawns and there's been things which have not always happened.

"I get there are sceptics out there but when people start to see changes in the city I want that to provoke a sense of ambition and aspiration particularly in our young people.

"Im really excited about the future of our city."

Mr Johnson said he also wanted to engage more with the city's communities, including young people, on how to shape its future.

"If you don't try and create the opportunities to stay, young ambitious people will move on, and that is my ambition that we can satisfy that ambition within our own city.

"It won't always be possible, it might not be in our city, it might be in Birmingham, but people can live in the city, have a great life, have access to employment, a good home and live a healthy successful life. That's what I want to happen.

"So I'm ambitious for our city, I want to drive that delivery better and I want to have an honest discussions about our communities about things which might need to change and how do we get more of a dialogue about what that means.

"We need a grown up conversation about changing things when we need to."