Summer is usually a quiet time of year where we recharge our batteries and rest a little from the email torrent. However, a new government in Wales, the UK austerity programme, international economic doom and gloom and the worst summer weather on record have left the batteries pretty flat for almost everyone I speak to at the moment. An air of considerable pessimism has settled over the regeneration community. However, we need to stay focused on the opportunities that do exist, not least the huge regenerative capacity of the wider £15 billion spend of the Welsh Government. Releasing the potential in spending on the three main services of health, education and housing could transform the supply chain in Wales providing employment opportunities in all our communities. It’s a time for innovative and radical procurement practice and a much wider application of the i2i, Can Do Toolkit to maximise the local impact of Welsh Government spending.
The summer has also been busy with the Communities First Consultation and the Business and Enterprise Committee Inquiry into the Regeneration of Town Centres. CREW has responded to both these exercises. Both these areas of regeneration are fundamental to the success of the new government. The future of Communities First will determine much of what happens at community level for the foreseeable future. The consultation provides an opportunity to ensure that community engagement, which lies at the heart of the existing programme, is protected in the forward plans for Communities First.
Any journey around Wales reveals the current struggle faced by our town centres and high streets and getting the regeneration process right can enable small towns to be economic drivers for their wider locality. CREW has argued that we need a new paradigm for town centre regeneration which recognises their retail role, but also looks to an ‘extended menu’ of social, entertainment, health and educational roles, as well as looking to the potential for residential development as retail space becomes under-utilised. To further this debate we are forming a Small Towns: Policy and Delivery Network to explore the key issues for our Welsh towns.
Visit from Canadian Academic
CREW recently hosted a visit from Dr Tanya Brann-Barrett of Cape Breton University, Nova Scotia, who came to Wales to compare arts-based practice with young people and its role in community and civic engagement. Cape Breton suffers similar patterns of economic and industrial decline as Wales and young people there face the same challenges experienced by young people in Wales. Tanya’s interest in working with young people through arts-based interventions brought her to Wales to review some of the internationally recognised practice in this field; CREW hosted study visits to Valleys Kids and Valleys and Vale Community Arts.
Study Visit from New York University Students
Nine students from State University of New York, Centre for Brownfield Studies arrived on 25 August to begin a four month project examining regeneration in the Heads of the Valleys and Swansea Regeneration Areas. Focused on the redundant log and paper-mills of the rural northern areas of New York State, the methods developed at the Centre find environmentally sustainable methods of ‘green’ industrial production which bring new economic purpose to the locality. Centred on a food growing core, the projects work with local farmers to grow willow crops from which the ethanol is extracted for bio-fuels. The remaining wood pellets power bio-mass boilers which heat commercial scale greenhouses producing high value salad crops for the New York food markets. The students will be looking for similar developmental opportunities in Wales.
CREW collaborations
CREW is working with CADW and the Design Commission for Wales to produce a new web-based resource which will assist regeneration practitioners to develop historical characterisation studies of areas scheduled for regeneration. Many regeneration projects involve creating change in the physical environment and landscape of our towns and communities. One of the core objectives is to achieve distinctiveness in what we develop. Understanding the past functions and forms of a community can enable us to identify key features of interest which can inform and influence new developments. Conducting a historical characterisation study contributes to our understanding of the history of a community and its influence on features of its physical character such as street layout, building structures and connections between elements of the community.
CREW is working with Judith Alfrey of CADW and Carole-Anne Davies of the Design Commission for Wales to develop a ‘toolkit’ which will allow regeneration practitioners to acquire the knowledge and methods for developing a characterisation study. We expect the toolkit to be available early in 2012.
Low Carbon Skills research moves forward
CREW and Construction Skills Wales recently published Low carbon skills requirements for the regeneration and built environment professional services sector in Wales. It identifies the skills gaps experienced by practitioners in Wales in their ability to address the ‘low carbon’ agenda in their work which fell into five key areas:
- design skills
- energy related skills
- client skills
- leadership and management skills
- community relations skills
With continued funding support from Construction Skills Wales we are now identifying agencies who can address these skills deficits either by targeting existing training provision or developing new opportunities for professional development in these areas.
More information
If you would like to get in touch about any of these initiatives or to find out more detail of the wider work of CREW please get in touch online at www.regenwales.org or email us enquiries@regenwales.org.