lessons from the coalface

English Partnerships’ National Coalfields Programme (NCP) is in its 10th year. It has funded and enabled a complete cycle of regeneration in coalfield communities badly damaged by pit closure (see box, page 52) and produced many valuable lessons for regeneration.

1. Community consultation

The lessons are:

• Proper consultation can reduce conflict later. It’s good to develop “circular” consultation – a “conversation”
• Develop an approach to fit with community needs, use the grassroots network and consider local politics/local partners
• Local authorities are a good starting point for contacts
• Consider stakeholder credibility and select known organisations
• Establish key issues for each community; communities may share geographical location but have different visions
• Draft a development plan after initial consultation, then provide feedback and consult throughout development process.

Early consultation between Wigan council, the North West Development Agency, British Waterways, Ashton, Leigh & Wigan Primary Care Trust and the local community is helping English Partnerships to develop specific proposals for the regeneration of the former Bickershaw colliery site.

The site is located within the 20% of most deprived wards in England. Some £37m is being invested and proposals for the redevelopment of the site include: a new neighbourhood with up to 650 homes, a country park and a golf course and activity centre, as part of a package to deliver healthy living benefits to the community.

2. Environmental standards

The lessons are:

• Securing the long-term sustainability of public open spaces is the responsibility of all regenerators
• English Partnerships transfers some of its sites to appropriate long-term managing agents, accompanied by in perpetuity endowments
• The Land Restoration Trust was set up to secure long-term management of public open space schemes
• Managing agents such as the Wildlife Trusts can undertake the day-to-day management of sites
• Wildlife Trusts and other recognised bodies can provide expert land preservation advice and resources
• Engaging the local community on woodland activities/nature trails or educational visits can deliver a range of benefits – for example, a sense of community responsibility to shared land.

Avenue Coking Works in Derbyshire closed in 1992, leaving a heavily contaminated site. NCP funding of £104.5m signalled the start of a massive clean-up, welcomed by the Environment Agency, which was concerned by site residues causing tar seepage into the River Rother. About £29m has been spent to date; the remainder will be invested over the next five years. Derbyshire Wildlife Trust supports the clean-up, ensuring wildlife protection.

3. Sustainable and quality design

The lessons are:

• Creating thriving, sustainable communities where people want to live and work improves quality of life for everyone
• Building a sustainable community as well as an aesthetic one should be high on every regenerator’s priority list
• Sustainability requires a balance of core elements: community, accessible amenities, employment, quality housing and infrastructure
• Partnership working is vital to building a sustainable community. Architects, builders, developers, planners and community leaders need to build a cohesive plan to aim to meet as many of the mixed needs of the community who will live there as possible.

Ollerton Colliery, in Nottinghamshire, which closed in 1994, is now the site of Sherwood Energy Village. An NCP investment of £2.6m enabled site reclamation and infrastructure works that have transformed a 36.8ha former colliery into an environmental enterprise park for industrial, commercial and tourism uses. The inspiration for the project came from a public meeting following the closure of the pit. The local community was instrumental in accessing funding and driving the project forward. The development has been built to high standards of energy efficiency and environmental performance.

Case study: Westoe Crown Village

The project started as part of a developer competition held by One Northeast, South Tyneside council and the Prince’s Foundation in 1999, in which George Wimpey was selected as the preferred developer following a submission of its design strategy for the site. The scheme is designed by Ian Darby Partnership in conjunction with the Prince’s Foundation. Redevelopment of the site comprises almost 750 new homes, a primary school, mixed-use village centre, community resource centre and public parks located throughout the development. The village has been designed around an urban block structure that provides an interconnected network of streets. The roads have been designed to reflect a traditional street pattern, creating a template for living and working sustainably. The village also has a public art strategy.

4. Partnership working

The lessons are:

• Good partnership working is vital at all stages of regeneration: planning, stakeholder consultation, external communications through to financial management
• Connected and co-ordinated partnership working increases efficient delivery; clearly defined roles within partner organisations reduce duplication of effort
• Regional development agencies are landowners and primary deliverers for many coalfield sites
• Increasingly, local authorities and other partners are working towards delivering integrated, multi-agency local and regional regeneration in former coalfield communities
• None of English Partnerships’ success would have been possible without the commitment and dedication of partner regeneration professionals.

5. Attracting private sector funding

The lessons are:

• Private sector investment is about confidence. Creating a ripple effect of investor E E confidence by assuming some of the risk is a powerful way of demonstrating the latent value of a site. For example, covering the cost of land reclamation, liaising with RDAs and local authorities, thus providing the impetus for further commercial or residential development, are some of the actions that EP has assumed during the course of the NCP
• The ripple of investor confidence radiating from coalfield sites has generated profound and positive effects on regional investment that might not otherwise have been realised
• New buildings alone do not constitute a community.

The closure of Dinnington Colliery in Rotherham in 1992 with the loss of 1,000 jobs was a blow to the local community. The resulting 200 acres of dereliction were a huge regeneration challenge, as other colliery sites were competing for limited resources. About £12m has been invested in decontaminating and redeveloping the site, producing a 45-acre commercial scheme. Former collieries do not only attract commercial investors: the Bluebell Wood Trust is building a children’s hospice at the Dinnington site.

Conclusions

• Receipts generated from initial public investment demonstrate the programme’s sustainability. By the programme’s end in 2012, more than £3bn will have been invested – a staggering £2.35bn from private investment to match the £650m from the public purse. Coalfields investment has targeted the most difficult areas, creating a climate of growing certainty and encouraging regional investment.
• Including partners such as the Coalfields Communities Campaign and other organisations has provided private investors with the credibility of being part of a programme that is supported by legitimate and often politically connected community groups.
• Now in 2007, the programme has attracted £670m of private sector money, nearly double the £379m public investment. The original coalfields programme was scheduled to deal with just 57 sites, but because of the programme’s ability to create value and reinvest its receipts, it has been able to expand to 107 sites, using the same initial budget.
• Communities are the ultimate beneficiaries of this investment, through the creation of homes and higher value jobs. However, the additional financial benefit to commercial investors and developers has added to the sense of growth and renewal in these communities that only a decade ago were in an economic spiral of decline.