Events

Liverpool Green Infrastructure Strategy - The Mersey Forest

Spatial strategies award commendation 2011

Summary

Mersey Forest prepared the Liverpool Green Infrastructure Strategy using an innovative valuation technique which moves the debate from economy versus ecology to one that identifies the real value of green infrastructure.

Background

The Liverpool Green Infrastructure Strategy was commissioned by the City Council and funded by a grant from Liverpool First to the City Council working in partnership with the Liverpool Primary Care Trust. It aimed to move the debate from economy versus ecology to one that identifies the real value of green infrastructure. The strategy was developed to form part of the evidence base for the City's core strategy and the Primary Care Trusts new public health plan. It has been used to inform the North Liverpool and South Sefton Strategic Regeneration Framework.

Project description

Mersey Forest have estimated that the potential value of using green infrastructure to complement, promote and sustain community and economic development in the city is £8bn. This relates to both new development and retrofitting. Using GIS methodology it identifies the location and function of the green infrastructure and this provides the basis for further work to understand and measure the different types of value the green infrastructure provides to the community.

The strategy includes a detailed action plan set out under 5 themes:

A sustainable city,
A city providing natural choices for health,
A cool city,
A green and biodiverse city,
A city where green infrastructure is well-planned and designed.

In preparing the strategy the parties were keen to ensure that the actions were integrated with all existing strategies to avoid imposing more requirements than necessary. In developing the evidence for the action plan the team looked at the typology and purpose of the green infrastructure and where specific needs are e.g. a heatwave plan identifies vulnerability to climate change. The action plan then defines by colour coding the actions which have a land use implication, those which can be delivered through support in other strategies, and those which are there to guide developers and others in how they can contribute to the delivery of the strategy.

Planning achievement

The strategy is an impressive piece of work which demonstrates good partnership working, strong sustainability credentials, innovation, a good focus on deliverability and effective use of information technology;
It has been used in planning for places in Liverpool such as Rope Walk Everton and Liverpool One; and by various groups within the city such as the `Food Growing Community Project who sought information on which areas to target;
It has achieved national recognition; the method has been analysed and published by RICS and applied elsewhere in England (Carlisle) and Scotland (Argyle);
The community is involved through the Green Infrastructure Forum which meets four times a year and there is access to the Project Dirt Liverpool website which is described as an active community, linking environmental projects;
The strategy demonstrates the economic value of green infrastructure,partnership working and its applicability at the micro as well as the macro scale. It has also been shown to be replicable elsewhere.