Well Rounded View
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The Synergetic Relationship between Physical Regeneration and Public Benefit
By Steve Dunlop, Director of Regeneration for British Waterways
The third largest heritage estate in Britain, the two hundred year old canal network, delivers a staggering £500m worth of economic, social and environmental public benefit for the nation each year. The 2,200 mile long waterway system acts as a focus for urban renaissance, rural regeneration and diversification and supports the green economy, offering free cultural and ecological education and volunteering opportunities. It also contributes keenly for Government agendas to improve the nation’s physical well-being, through increased outdoor activity. For the canal network across England, Scotland and Wales, waterside regeneration isn’t solely about the physical but rather a broad range of mutually dependent and inextricably linked public benefits.
Once the heartland of the Industrial Revolution, today canals act as a catalyst, helping create and enhance urban and housing provision through placemaking and shaping, particularly in areas of regeneration, renewal and growth undergoing transformational change. Today, British Waterways is involved in a hundred waterway regeneration schemes across the UK, all delivering image changing for an area, improving the quality of life for local communities and supporting sustainable transport and connectivity.
The local economic benefits are significant. Regeneration helps attract private sector investment, supports SMEs and jobs within the marine, manufacturing, tourism and service sectors, rural business development (with fibre optic and BT cables being laid under canal towpaths to provide broadband to remote communities), surrounding land and property values and, overall, improves the economic competitiveness of an area. Current schemes represent around £12bn of investment in local areas, many of which, like declined industrial areas along the Forth & Clyde Canal, are in much need of such support.
The network is also one of the most active and inventive providers of open air learning activities in Britain and forms part of the ‘natural health service’, encouraging and supporting physical and healthy outdoor activity. Waterways and towpaths play an important role in widening travel choices for cycling, walking, freight and public transport, both for leisure and as a safe and sustainable way to commute. A significant hundred tonnes of CO2 is saved per one kilometre of towpath upgraded.
Waterway regeneration also contributes to the visitor, and the green, economies. As well as supporting biodiversity and nurturing ecological corridors, British Waterways is working to become a provider of renewable energy by using the waterway infrastructure and waterside land to generate electricity, developing small scale hydro power schemes and seeking to install wind turbine schemes on waterside land. British Waterways is also actively encouraging waterside developers to utilise canal and dock water to heat and cool buildings such as at GSK International HQ in Brentford, Hepworth Art Gallery in Wakefield and the Boathouse Inn at Auchinstarry near Kilsyth. Waterways also support climate change through the mitigation of flood risk and the disposal of surface water run-off.
In terms of tourism, an estimated 13m people (or 28% of the GB population) visited the waterways in 2009 and research shows that waterway-based recreation and tourism generates some £1.1bn expenditure in local economies and supports 24,000 jobs.
With so much achieved and so much potential remaining, the most fundamental challenge facing British Waterways today is how to fund the ongoing maintenance of the waterway infrastructure which is under immense pressure from additional waterside development by third parties which cumulatively own over 96% of waterside frontage across the UK network.
British Waterways is wholly supportive of waterside regeneration which is key to encouraging greater community and tourist use and enjoyment of the waterways and supporting sustainable water-side businesses and jobs, but it is critical that each scheme integrates land and water and treats the waterway, towpath and their environs as an integral part of the public realm, in both design and maintenance terms.
There can be no doubt that the health and performance of the canal network is directly linked to the quality of the environment through which each waterway passes. The public benefit delivered by the inland waterway network, in turn, is substantially dependent upon its health and performance. If we as a nation want to strive to improve the quality of place and deliver public benefits from our waterway network, then it is crucial that investment in the waterways continues, even during this period of austerity. The long term sustainability of the waterways is dependent upon a shared vision, community involvement and private, public and voluntary sector participation.
Steve Dunlop
View Steve Dunlop’s biography
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