Green Gridlock

By Lepkowska, Dorothy

The Green Grid is an ambitious plan for a network of Thames Gateway green spaces. Then came Parklands: another ambitious plan, this one to improve the Gateway’s sustainability. But, finds Dorothy Lepkowska, there are serious questions over integration and funding Its reputation rests on its contribution to trade and commerce, manufacturing industry, and the migration of peoples to and from these shores. Yet while east London and the Thames Gateway may not typically conjure up images of England’s green and pleasant land, they contain a surprisingly vast array of rivers and tributaries, marshes and wetlands, parks and nature reserves – many of which support populations of rare wildlife.

Historically, this area’s environment was considered inferior to west London’s, thanks both to the fevers that made its marshes hazardous and to the clouds of pollution carried eastwards from the city by the prevailing winds. This pushed investment and money into west London and, now that marsh fever and airborne pollution pose less immediate risks, the less developed natural environment of east London is in many ways better preserved. Even the area’s derelict factories and brownfield sites have, over time, attained ecological value as nature’s outriders have moved in to reclaim them.

It was with this diversity in mind that the “Green Grid” was conceived four years ago, in the Government document Creating Sustainable Communities: Greening the Gateway. The vision was to create “a living network of parks, green spaces, river and other corridors connecting urban areas to the river Thames, the green belt and beyond”. The Gateway’s rapid growth would be built around a lattice of green spaces, providing leisure resources for the new communities and corridors within which wildlife populations could feed, breed and migrate. And this would not only improve the area for new and existing communities and wildlife, but also help to draw in investors and residents attracted by its quality of life.

Green plans with no statutory requirement

Stretching from Havering in the east to the City of London in the west, and Redbridge in the north to Lewisham in the south, the 11 boroughs comprising the East London Green Grid will improve public access along the river and, crucially, the management of water collection, cleansing and flood risk at a time when serious challenges are expected from the effects of climate change. A further two grids, South Essex and Kent Thameside, cover the outer reaches of the Thames Gateway.

But how much progress is being made on preserving the Gateway’s environment? It is difficult to give an accurate picture. There is no statutory requirement on the boroughs to design, develop or maintain their parks and open spaces and while there are many projects in the pipeline – the evidence of need is greater still.

The East London Green Grid Framework, published by the mayor of London’s office in August, found that almost a third of the area’s urban population has no access to a local park bigger than two hectares within 400 metres of their homes – a statistic it describes as “a relatively high level of deficiency”. Almost a quarter have to travel more than a kilometre to find a green space bigger than 20ha. “This shortfall creates a gap in London’s spatial character and wider open space network,” the framework says.

To address this, the mayor’s plan proposes anew park of up to 250ha in the lower Lea Valley, and a metropolitan park stretching from Ilford to the Thames in the Epping Forest/Roding Valley Grid. In the area that includes Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Newham, there are plans for a conservation park: a “sustainable regional park for the 21st century”. And in South Essex, Pounds 5 million provided by the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has attracted additional funding for schemes which include the creation of two new country parks at Canvey Island and Rochford.

Ambitious strategy in need of more funds

Eric Sorensen, chief executive of the Thames Gateway London Partnership, says that the strategy is improving coordination in planning, the use of environmental audits and leadership in the rollout of projects. “There’s a whole series of local organisations working together with the Environment Agency and other interested parties in putting together plans for implementation and securing funding. We are very satisfied with the outcomes so far,” he says.

Ambitious plans require ambitious funding, however. Town halls receive public funding for parks and open spaces under the Environmental, Protective and Cultural Services (EPCS) block grant, but the reality is that the Green Grid itself is a strategy, not a funding stream. While the DCLG has provided some grants for capital expenditure on Green Grid projects, that still leaves councils to find revenue funding for maintenance.

Mary Spence, chief executive of the Thames Gateway South Essex Partnership, says: “If you only have a small amount of money, then you can only make a small impact. We have managed to carry out quite a few projects which have improved the environment on people’s doorsteps,but whether this has an overall impact on the perception of the Thames Gateway as a region is debatable.”

“What is needed is for organisations to work together closely to create something which has a bigger impact and really changes the profile of the Gateway,” she adds. “One of the things we all need to do is to consider new ways of generating funding for these projects. I don’t think we have put as much thought into [funding] as we have into deciding what needs to be done.”

The picture grew more complex at the Thames Gateway Forum last year, when the then-communities secretary Ruth Kelly announced plans for the “Thames Gateway Parklands scheme” (see box, above). Architect Sir Terry Farrell had for some time been lobbying to have the Gateway declared a national park, based around sustainable development and an electricity generation barrier across the estuary, and the Government’s move seemed to go a little way down this road.

Citing as a model Germany’s Emscher Park, in the post-industrial Ruhr valley, officials present the Parklands as a carbon-neutral zone of parks and nature reserves, with a floodwater run-off region to protect the area from rising sea levels. Kelly hailed the plan as a “new identity for the area” and pledged the Government’s “courage and commitment” to deliver. Significantly, however, her speech made no mention of funding.

The Parklands’ launch gave rise to questions over how it and the Green Grid strategy sit alongside one another. The TGLP’s Sorensen suggests there’s no potential conflict, describing the Parklands concept as”the envelope within which Green Grids sit, forming one of the key component parts. In that sense there is no difference between the aims of the two. Green Grids are a key part of the Parklands outcomes.” And Nigel Kersey, London regional director of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England and a member of the Thames Gateway Parklands Practitioners Group, says the activities and objectives of the Green Grid and Parklands projects are “going in the same direction. Parklands is the central coordinating initiative, of which Green Grids are a part”.

Credibility gap

Nonetheless, there are mutterings within the sector over an alleged politicisation of the Green Grid project by a Government keen to announce a new green initiative, and complaints that the Parklands scheme remains unfunded a year after its announcement. “What we need to do over the next few months is get down to agreeing timescales and targets for projects that will deliver a tangible difference for the Thames Gateway,” concedes Kersey. “If we don’t,people are going to lose confidence in what on the face of it was a very good initiative. We need to see plans that will constitute an improvement in the region.”

Despite repeated requests, neither the Greater London Authority nor the DCLG responded to questions on the Green Grid or Parklands projects or funding for environmental schemes. The DCLG said it did not want to pre-empt the findings of its final Thames Gateway strategy, due for publication next week at the 2007 Thames Gateway Forum.

What holds it all together?

Regeneration practitioners and environmental groups within the Thames Gateway will be listening carefully for announcements at the forum; there is general agreement that we urgently need clarity over funding and the relationship between the Green Grid and Parklands. The RSPB has 20 square kilometres of wildlife sites within the Gateway, and is involved in three major green space projects in South Essex,on the North Kent Marshes and at Rainham,Wennington and Aveley Marshes on the Essex-London border. And Paul Outhwaite, RSPB communications manager for the south-east of England, says the Green Grid “is important because while the Thames Gateway offers huge opportunities, it can also pose significant potential threats to the environment”.

However, he says: “We need a funding mechanism in capital and revenue terms that will enable the Green Grids and Parklands to work together. We can set up a nature reserve, but it is finding the funds to maintain it that is the problem. We also need a clear distinction between who is doing what, because there seems to be a lot of overlap. Is Parklands the outer skin that holds everything else together? It’s not really clear.” As in so many areas of the Thames Gateway, the overall vision is at risk of being lost in a welter of smaller projects, competing organisations and variable understandings of the key objectives. As Outhwaite says: “It seems at the moment that the two initiatives are running in parallel, rather than running together for the benefit of the whole Gateway.”

The Thames Gateway Parklands

Plans for the Thames Gateway Parklands were unveiled in November 2006 to help tackle east London’s “degraded environments” and change the region’s image. The very name was intended to reflect the ambition of the transformation being proposed, which would turn the Gateway into a unique environmental area with its own identity, but with its foundations rooted firmly in the natural systems of a tidal river.

The Parklands would encompass some existing schemes and projects, such as the Green Grid, but also some new ideas. Flood risk management, land reclamation and the problem of waste water overflows were high priorities.

A draft plan for managing floods is expected in 2008, and a feasibility study, set up in the summer of 2006, is looking at air quality, with a view to turning the Gateway into a low-carbon – and ultimately zerocarbon – area. The Parklands Plan suggests that higher quality building regulations, underpinned by the new Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change and Code for Sustainable Homes, will help attract a new generation of Londoners with opportunities to live, work and learn in this pioneering new world. As the document put it, Parklands is to be “a test-bed for action on climate change, acting as a national exemplar both for its new developments and the existing building stock”. What that means in reality remains to be seen.

Copyright Haymarket Business Publications Ltd. Nov 23, 2007

(c) 2007 Regeneration & Renewal. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.