Land Regeneration

From physical buildings and development sites to the reclamation of brownfield land, regeneration activity is taking place across the region, creating new areas which will naturally attract inward investment, create jobs and provide enhanced facilities for communities. Over the past six years, the NWDA has leveraged in to the region additional private sector investment of around £2 billion.

REMADE in Lancashire

REMADE, which stands for REclamation and MAnagement of DErelict land, has been set up by Lancashire County Council in partnership with the Northwest Regional Development Agency as part of the Agency’s commitment to tackling the region’s derelict land problem. A quarter of all derelict land in England is located in the North West and it is a blight on people’s lives, harms the image of the area and deters investment.

Lancashire has over 2,400 hectares of derelict, under-used or neglected brownfield land. This dereliction, made up of former industrial sites, quarries, old railways, disused reservoirs and tips, can be very harmful to our environment. It can be a source of pollution, a hazard to people living nearby and makes an area look run down and neglected. It also has an adverse economic impact, reducing property prices and making the area less attractive to visit and invest in.

REMADE is a multi million pound programme with a target to reclaim 300 hectares of this derelict land by 2011.

Newlands-land regeneration for the 21st Century

Launched in the summer of 2003, Newlands is a unique £59 million scheme that is reclaiming large areas of derelict, underused and neglected (DUN) land acrossEngland’s Northwest, and transforming it into thriving, durable, community woodlands.

A partnership of the Forestry Commission and the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Newlands is the 21st Century face of land regeneration: carefully planned; intelligence-led; delivering widespread public benefits; enhancing the environment; and delivered through partnerships.

Newlands builds on a legacy of work carried out in the sector by the Northwest’s two Community Forests, Groundwork and the Forestry Commission's Land Regeneration Unit. It is an ambitious project, and one that applies cutting edge planning techniques, such as the Public Benefits Recording System and Additional Value Assessments to ensure that investment is allocated, and community woodlands created, according to the greatest economic, social and environmental need.

For the first five years of the programme, Newlands worked exclusively within the Mersey Belt area of the region delivering impressive results across six sites.

One of these sites, Moston Vale in Harpurhey, Manchester (an area in the top 5% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation), received £1.7million in August 2005. Its development, including the remediation and re-landscaping of the former landfill site, the creation of extensive solar powered floodlit pathways, woodland areas, and sports facilities is intended to drive significant added investment to the area; enhancing the adjacent Central Park Business Park and adding value to the local Housing Marketing Renewal area.

Bidston Moss has also been transformed as part of the Newlands scheme. More than £2.7m has been committed to the revamp of the Wirral site by the NWDA and partners including Biffaward; an environment fund that is paying for new sporting and recreational facilities at the site. Groundwork Wirral is also running a three-year programme of community events (assisted by the Landfill Communities Fund) to help maintain and improve the site while encouraging local use. The Wirral site’s reinvention as a community woodland is being helped by a pioneering commitment to recycling – pathways, fishing lodge boardwalks and even the soil which covers the site have all come from recycled materials.

The impact of Newlands at a local, as well as regional level is significant and wide reaching. Land values are increasing, Housing Market Renewal areas and deprived wards are being improved and business is being attracted to some of the key economic hubs of the Northwest region.

The announcement in June 06, of an additional £36 million of NWDA-funding has seen Newlands begin work across the other sub-regions; Cheshire, Cumbria andLancashire. This unprecidented level of funding has secured Newlands place as the largest environmental regeneration scheme in the UK.

Also see the Newlands section on the Forestry Commission website

National Coalfields Programme

The NWDA is working with English Partnerships to bring back into viable economic, environmental and community use a number of former colliery sites across the region as part of the National Coalfields Programme. Coalfield communities continue to be characterised by poor health, low employment levels, low educational achievement and poor housing. The development of these sites will assist former coalfield communities by creating new employment, homes, leisure facilities and green public space. There are eight former colliery sites in the Programme in the Northwest, these are:

• Agecroft, Salford
• Ashton Fields, Walkden
• Bickershaw, Leigh
• Bickershaw North, Leigh
• Cronton, Knowsley
• Haig, Whitehaven
• Lea Green, St Helens
• Old Boston, St Helens

Speke and Garston Coastal Reserve
Part of Mersey Waterfront, a pan-waterfront strategic partnership established by the NWDA with funding of £8.5 million, the Speke Garston Coastal Reserve is a key project within Mersey Waterfront. It is delivered by a multi-agency steering group led by the Mersey Basin Campaign. Mersey Waterfront is investing millions of pounds into many projects that will transform the area and energise local communities.

The Speke Garston Coastal Reserve will open up what was until recently an abused, neglected and dangerous wasteland. It will include new footpaths, secure access, new habitats and landmark landscaping. These improvements will enhance an area which is already designated as a Special Protection Area for birds and borders the National Trust's Speke Hall – one of the finest timber framed buildings in Britain.

Land Regeneration in East Manchester
The NWDA-funded development partnership between Urban Splash, English Partnerships and New East Manchester, is applying an innovative solution to the disposal of contaminated land excavated during the development of new homes at New Islington in the Manchester district of Ancoats.  The New Islington Partnership has established an on-site land treatment works that is allowing earth otherwise destined for landfill to be cleaned and reused in the development. 

By using recycled materials from the on-site ‘land cleaning’ process, rather than paying charges for landfill, the Partnership has saved in excess of £550,000 and diverted more than 60,000 cubic metres of earth from landfill.