Ahead of this year’s Brownfield Redevelopment: North conference, we caught up with Trevor Adey, Area Head of Business Development, The Land Trust, who gave us his views on bringing value from brownfield and understanding the societal, environmental and biodiversity benefits.
Q. You’re standing on an old industrial site in the North of England. How do you extract the maximum value from that site?
A. Well, the first question to understand is what we mean by value? If we are thinking about economic value there are many ways in which it can be realised, but if we only focus on that, then we are missing a large part of the maximum value which can be released.
We strongly believe that whilst releasing economic value, we can also extract significant social value from these kind of sites. By designing and managing the green space correctly we can deliver increased health benefits for the local community – both the new community and the wider community around the site.
The site can be used as an educational resource – forest schools for kids, or perhaps encouraging adults back into work. They can help improve people’s physical and mental health while we can also extract significant environmental benefit from sites like this.
Q. Contrary to public preconceptions, brownfield sites can be valuable havens for plant and animal life. Would you mind expanding on the biodiversity of brownfields?
A. Brownfield sites support biodiversity that is crucial to our existence. It is estimated that since World War Two 97% of our wildflower meadows have been lost which is an incredibly worrying statistic.
Our site at Canvey Wick is a perfect example of what can be achieved. A former oil refinery, the 94 hectare site is now designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest by Natural England due to the nationally important quantity of invertebrates.
We worked with partners to secure long term funding and appointed RSPB to manage the site. The site is now protected from future development and has more biodiversity per square foot than any other site in the UK.
There are some who would say that all brownfield sites should be developed and that all greenfield sites should not be. But that is too simplistic. We have numerous brownfield sites which we manage to benefit the environment and biodiversity.
Q. How important is it from a social and community point of view to build out our derelict sites? What are the wider (perhaps less quantifiable) benefits of this?
A. One of the most popular Land Trust sites is Port Sunlight River Park, situated on the banks of the River Mersey. Port Sunlight attracts thousands of visitors a year, has just opened a café and heritage centre, and delivers a range of health and wellbeing activities for the local community and educational opportunities for local schools.
Walking around it now you would have no idea that six years ago it was a landfill site. The transformation of the River Park into what it has now become just highlights what can be achieved with some of the most derelict or uninhabitable pieces of land in the country.
One other notable benefit has been the significant increase in value of the homes situated in close proximity of the park. The Land Trust carried out research in partnership with the Manchester Alliance Business School to understand the economic benefits that a piece of well managed green space can bring. The report found that Port Sunlight had increased the value of homes situated within 500 metres of the park by an average of £8,674 which is an incredible figure and testament to the benefits that the Land Trust’s management can bring.
Q. The Government is under intense pressure to build a lot of homes fast. To what extent do you think this will be bad news for our green spaces?
A. It could be considered good and bad news depending on what perspective you look at it from. As a national land management charity with environment and biodiversity at the very heart of what we do, protecting our green spaces is absolutely vital to what we do.
However there is a desperate need for new homes in this country and the government is going to build them. That much we know. However it is increasingly the case that these major developments need to include significant amounts of public open space in order to get planning permission in the first place.
This green space needs managing and in 2016 the Land Trust recognised that there was a need for an organisation like ourselves to step in and manage this green space on behalf of the residents which is paid for by a service charge. It’s a controversial area for some but we believe that our model delivers not only the required maintenance but significant charitable outcomes. We call this approach placekeeping and believe that our philosophy helps turn houses into homes.
A. You’re Area Head of Business Development at the Land Trust. Would you mind telling us about some of the exciting projects that are either underway or in the pipeline?
Q. We were delighted to bring Avenue Country Park, a site situated just outside Chesterfield, under our management earlier this year. When you visit and see what a beautiful green space it is you would have absolutely no idea that it was once a Coking Works and one of Europe’s most polluted sites.
The site benefited from significant investment by Homes England over the last 20 years and as a result is now a thriving Country Park and valuable community asset.
We have a healthy pipeline of new country parks, with many being delivered as SANGs (Suitable Alternative Natural Greenspace) to enable development to go ahead. This is a type of work stream we expect will continue to grow when the requirement for new developments to deliver biodiversity net gains becomes mandatory.
We are also working with other Government agencies regarding a former wartime munitions storage & research facility, with listed buildings and a country park; and we continue to work with landowners and developers to provide long term solutions and exit strategies for non-developable land on former coalfield (and similar sites with a legacy of extractive industry) or landfills.
Trevor will be going into further detail on these topics in his presentation 'Bringing Value from Brownfield' at the Brownfield Redevelopment: North conference on 13th November 2019 in Leeds. Find out more here.