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WALSALL ‘PUSHES THE BOAT OUT’ TO HOST NATIONAL URBAN REGENERATION SUMMIT - 25 May '05
Walsall ‘pushed the boat out’ when a national summit of regeneration experts met to discuss the latest ideas for rejuvenating some of the most disadvantaged areas of the country’s towns and cities.
The Urban Regeneration Companies 4th Annual Symposium, organised by national regeneration agency English Partnerships and hosted by Walsall Regeneration Company (WRC), saw delegates taking narrowboat tours of the town’s canal network to see some of the multi-million pound development opportunities the town has to offer.
The symposium opened with a day of workshops at Walsall’s Bescot Stadium, with the canal trips the following morning.
Rob Pearson, Head of National Programmes for English Partnerships, said: “The symposium brought together 200 regeneration practitioners to discuss common issues and ideas. It was an excellent forum to share best practice, learn from the experiences of the pilot Urban Regeneration Companies and bring expert opinion into the debate.”
The workshops looked at how Urban Regeneration Companies can best integrate facilities and infrastructure with the needs of the community, ensuring that local people benefit from job opportunities, safer places to live and affordable housing.
WRC Chief Executive Dr Peter Cromar said: “Canalside redevelopment is an important strand in our regeneration strategy and we took the opportunity to showcase the Waterfront project at Town Wharf - which spawned the idea of a tour by narrowboat.”
Waterfront is an ambitious £180 million scheme to transform 17 acres of vacant and derelict canalside brownfield land near the town centre into a thriving, high quality mixed-use development. It is expected to deliver around 600 new jobs, 660 new homes and provide a mix of offices, bars and restaurants, leisure facilities and high quality public space, including new canal bridges and basins.
Waterfront is being developed by regenerators Urban Splash and is jointly promoted by WRC, Walsall Council and Advantage West Midlands.
The narrowboat tour also covered the huge Darlaston site straddling the M6, a massive logistics/ distribution development opportunity of national significance.
Dr Cromar added: “Many of the workshops had a clear resonance with what we are striving to achieve for Walsall, which is to ultimately make a real difference to people’s lives and create a thriving, dynamic, prosperous new Walsall.”
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Notes to Editors
URCs are independent companies, established by the relevant local authority and Regional Development Agency (RDA) working alongside English Partnerships, with the aim of achieving the radical physical, economic and social transformation of towns and cities in declining urban areas.
English Partnerships is the government’s national regeneration agency delivering high quality, sustainable growth in England. It achieves this by developing its portfolio of strategic sites and acting as the government’s advisor on brownfield land. It also ensures that surplus public sector assets are used to support wider government objectives, especially those contained in the Sustainable Communities Plan. English Partnerships helps create communities where people can afford to live and want to live. Information on projects and programmes can be found at www.englishpartnerships.co.uk.
Walsall Regeneration Company’s strategy is targeted at attracting £600 million of investment over the next ten to 15 years, remediating 120 hectares of derelict industrial land and creating 15,000 jobs.
It brings together public and private sector agencies, taking a lead role in co-ordinating and enabling major regeneration projects within its 780 hectare area of operation.
Prime areas of focus include Walsall town centre, Waterfront and Darlaston, a strategic development opportunity for business next to the M6.
Picture caption:
All aboard, from left to right, are: Will Evans, development director, Walsall Regeneration Company, Vicky Harvard, senior regeneration manager, English Partnerships, Akshay Parikh, programme manager, Future Foundations, Bryan Pel, head of physical regeneration, Walsall Council, and Rob Pearson, head of national programmes, English Partnerships.
For further information contact:
Nigel Pipkin
Seal Communications
Tel: 0121 200 0780
Fax: 0121 200 0781
Email: nigelpipkin@sealcommunications.co.uk