[CPEO-BIF] UK national scale brownfields open space project

["Robert Hersh" <b_hersh@verizon.net>]

Millennium project gives new life to derelict land

Britain's urban wastelands have been transformed into parks and wildlife
reserves with the help of 500,000 volunteer workers

Paul Brown, environment correspondent
Tuesday April 26, 2005
The Guardian

In less than a decade, some of Britain's worst wastelands, derelict
collieries, former chemical dumps, old quarries and industrial areas have
been transformed into parks, wildlife areas, gardens and sports facilities.

Unlike some millennium projects, most notably the Dome in south-east London,
the project to rescue 21 sites across England and Wales gained little
publicity, despite the involvement of some 500,000 volunteers and an
investment of £57m.

The programme, Changing Places, which is about to end some years after its
intended date, was extended to complete the ambitious schemes. It began
under Michael Heseltine when he was a millennium commissioner.

John Handley, professor of landscape at Manchester University, suggested in
a 1994 report that a kind of National Trust be created for large sites with
acute contamination with a brief to turn liabilities into assets.

His concern was that the amount of derelict land was increasing due to the
sheer number of decaying coal mines and industrial sites. At the then rate
of reclamation it would have taken 200 years to catch up.

The Millennium Commission granted the scheme £22.1m to rehabilitate 21 sites
covering more than 1,000 hectares (2,500 acres) in total, mostly in the
poorest and most deprived urban areas. A series of Groundwork Trusts were
set up to get local authorities, businesses and local residents to
regenerate the sites, mostly with volunteer labour.


To read the rest of the article please see
http://society.guardian.co.uk/regeneration/news/0,8367,1470215,00.html

Bob Hersh
CPEO


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