Newlands
Latest News: Newlands has become one of the largest green regeneration schemes in the country, after an additional NWDA-investment of £36 million was confirmed in Summer 2007. This new tranche of funding, announced by Joe Dwek, Chair of the NWDA Environment Sub Committee, and Lord Clark of the Forestry Commission in June takes the total investment in Newlands to over £59 million pounds. The investment enables the programme, which has been active in the Mersey Belt area for the past five years, to expand across the whole region, regenerating into economically-driven community woodland more than 900 hectares of brownfield land. Nine new sites have also been announced by the Newlands partnership, as the first to be considered for investment through Newlands. These sites, that cover Cumbria, Lancashire and Cheshire, will now undergo site investigations to ascertain their suitability for regeneration. The sites currently being explored are; Brockholes Quarry near Preston, Whitehaven Cluster in West Cumbria, Rowley Tip near Burnley Lancashire, Bromborough Tip in Wirral, Hartshead Power Station in Tameside, Moston Brook and Tips in Oldham and Manchester, Huncoat Colliery near Accrington, Rhodes Farm in Salford and Radcliffe Ees Tip in Bury. Watch VideosWatch the full length Newlands videoNewlands full windows media video (27.6MB)
Newlands full mp4 video (26.6MB) Watch the Bidston Moss videoBidston Moss windows media video (8.67MB)
Bidston Moss mp4 video (8.22MB)  Watch the Moston Vale video
Moston Vale windows media video (11.2MB)
Moston Vale mp4 video (10.1MB) Watch the Lower Irwell valley videoLower Irewell valley windows media video (7.09MB)
Lower Irewell valley mp4 video (7.48MB) Newlands – land regeneration for the 21st CenturyLaunched in the summer of 2003, Newlands is a unique £59 million scheme that is reclaiming large areas of derelict, underused and neglected (DUN) land across England’s Northwest, and transforming it into thriving, durable, community woodlands. A partnership of the Forestry Commission and the Northwest Regional Development Agency, Newlands is the 21st Century face of land regeneration: carefully planned; intelligence-led; delivering widespread public benefits; enhancing the environment; and delivered through partnerships. Newlands builds on a legacy of work carried out in the sector by the Northwest’s two Community Forests, Groundwork and the Forestry Commission's Land Regeneration Unit. It is an ambitious project, and one that applies cutting edge planning techniques, such as the Public Benefits Recording System and Additional Value Assessments to ensure that investment is allocated, and community woodlands created, according to the greatest economic, social and environmental need. For the first five years of the programme, Newlands worked exclusively within the Mersey Belt area of the region delivering impressive results across six sites. One of these sites, Moston Vale in Harpurhey, Manchester (an area in the top 5% of the Index of Multiple Deprivation), received £1.7million in August 2005. Its development, including the remediation and re-landscaping of the former landfill site, the creation of extensive solar powered floodlit pathways, woodland areas, and sports facilities is intended to drive significant added investment to the area; enhancing the adjacent Central Park Business Park and adding value to the local Housing Marketing Renewal area. Bidston Moss has also been transformed as part of the Newlands scheme. More than £2.7m has been committed to the revamp of the Wirral site by the NWDA and partners including Biffaward; an environment fund that is paying for new sporting and recreational facilities at the site. Groundwork Wirral is also running a three-year programme of community events (assisted by the Landfill Communities Fund) to help maintain and improve the site while encouraging local use. The Wirral site’s reinvention as a community woodland is being helped by a pioneering commitment to recycling – pathways, fishing lodge boardwalks and even the soil which covers the site have all come from recycled materials. The impact of Newlands at a local, as well as regional level is significant and wide reaching. Land values are increasing, Housing Market Renewal areas and deprived wards are being improved and business is being attracted to some of the key economic hubs of the Northwest region. The announcement in June 06, of an additional £36 million of NWDA-funding has seen Newlands begin work across the other sub-regions; Cheshire, Cumbria and Lancashire. This unprecidented level of funding has secured Newlands place as the largest environmental regeneration scheme in the UK. LinksFor further information please contact Keith Jones
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