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West of Scotland Chapter report: Clyde Gateway – Paving the Way to Recovery

John Walls, Chapter Convener, reports ...

The Chapter were treated to an informative talk on the Clyde Gateway Regeneration Project by Stephen Hope, Project Manager, Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company (CGURC) in January (2010). He started on a sobering note by observing that a 15-year old male in the area stood a 50% chance of reaching 60 years of age.

Stephen covered all the investment challenges – fragmented land ownership, flooding, industrial contamination, poor environment, not to mention a poor public perception. Moreover, in social and economic terms the area has high unemployment, poor health, a low economic base, limited housing choice all of which is aggravated by demographic change. This is before thinking about the impact of the current economic downturn – no pressure then!

Despite all these problems, most of which are the legacy of the former smokestack industries, Stephen spoke about the positives; i.e. one billion pounds of guaranteed capital investment. This includes the M74 Completion (£500m), the East End Regeneration Route(£70m), new sports facilities for the Commonwealth Games (£125m) and the Athletes Village for the Games (£300m). In addition, the CGURC can marshal the £144m resources set aside for the project by the Scottish Government, Scottish Enterprise, South Lanarkshire Council and Glasgow City Council.

This scale of investment, reinforced by the Games deadline, clearly offers the potential to pave the way for the economic recovery in the west of Scotland. The new roads and drainage infrastructure, land decontamination and environmental improvements will release a great deal of development opportunities. Many of the techniques to deliver improvements to the drainage and decontamination are innovative and developed to tackle the area’s unique problems.

The URC are seeking to deliver unparalleled social, economic and physical change in one of the largest regeneration projects in Europe. It aims to achieve this by providing the planning framework, the main infrastructure and enhancing the public realm. Key to success is investing in local people through training and employment initiatives and engagement with the community. Of course, partnership-working is fundamental to effective delivery on the ground. This is demonstrated by the numbers of seconded staff to the URC from organisations such as Scottish Enterprise, the partner local authorities and Strathclyde Partnership for Transport.

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Author:

James Henderson

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

04-Mar-10

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