Green Strategic Areas - Wakefield

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As part of a targeted Green Infrastructure Strategy, the City of Wakefield in the UK proposed three initiatives to maximize the impact of green infrastructure in the city: Investment Programmes, Strategic Projects, and Opportunity Areas. Together, these aim to create attractive places to live, learn, work and invest in and promote collective actions towards well-being. The green strategic projects initiative refers to site-specific projects with district-scale impact, which substantially benefit people, wildlife, and the environment. The Balne Lane Fields are part of the identified key strategic areas, comprising an area of nine hectares including a former landfill site that has been restored to open green space. The main drivers for the Balne Lane Fields project are climate change, health, and well-being, as parts of the site will be enhanced to integrate measures for flood alleviation and an improved recreational offer. The initiatives featured in the Green Infrastructure Strategy of Wakefield are consistent with the core Local Development Framework 2026 (adopted in 2009) and part of the 41 projects of the Leisure, Recreation & Open Spaces Development Plan (Adopted in 2017).

Overview

Type of instrument:

Legislative, regulatory and strategic instruments›Urban planning mechanisms

Challenges addressed

Green space management (e.g. accessibility)
Flood risk: pluvial and fluvial / soil permeability
Social cohesion

Consideration of nature-based solutions:

The strategy promotes the creation of new green areas and the management of urban nature. The green infrastructure promoted by the strategy includes multi-functional landscapes that act as a visual amenity of the fields and double up as flood storage in peak times and water conservation in dry periods. Specifically, the creation of water attenuation ponds provide an opportunity for increasing biodiversity and enhancing ecological value, alongside the benefits of reduced flood risks. In addition, planting trees along the site will increase the structure of the areas, habitat, and biodiversity. Furthermore, the recreational sites identified by the strategy support social cohesion with increased community interactions; this also includes creating a community unit responsible for taking care of the planted urban fruit trees - as a shared food production approach.

Targeted (peri-)urban areas:

Green areas for water management

Urban green space connected to grey infrastructure

Good practice characteristics:

Support multifunctional NBS

Locally appropriate

Innovative

Inclusivity

Governance

Government body/bodies

Initiating body:

Wakefield Council, Planning Services

Instrument design:

Details about how the instrument was designed:

The Wakefield Council and its environmental partners prepared the overarching Green Infrastructure Strategy - within which the green strategic areas fall - between 2009 and 2010. The key stakeholders involved with Wakefield Council (Spatial Policy Group, Planning Services) are Natural England, Groundwork Wakefield, Environment Agency, White Rose Forest Partnership, Local Community Groups, Wakefield College from academia, and LDA Design, a private sector consultant. Community participation included visioning and planning workshops with a wide range of strategy teams and stakeholders. The policy CS11 in the core strategy sets out the district's leisure, recreation, and open space development principles, in which Balne Lane Fields are categorized. The design of the strategy was aligned with the core Local Development Framework (adopted in April 2009), and the site selections were based on the National Planning Policies (NPP) and local priorities through community-based consultations.

Involvement of non-governmental actors:

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups / NGOs

Type of actor involvement:

Co-planning or co-design of instrument (e.g. boards, advisory role)

Instrument implementation:

Type of involvement:

Engagement with the local community was assigned as a key objective in the design and implementation of the Green Infrastructure Strategy. The site selection was based on local needs, and the function of spaces was assigned based on the community ideas and aspirations. The community participates in the city-scale Green Infrastructure Panel coordinated by Wakefield Council to ensure successful delivery of the strategic objectives and that local expectations are being met and the steering committee of the leisure, recreation, and open space development action plan. In addition, to support the Board, a Wakefield Green Infrastructure Steering Group will be formed of council officers and other key agencies.

Type of non-governmental actors involved:

Citizen oversight (e.g. boards, advisory role)

Targeted actors:

Private: household, real estate developer, business , financial

Researchers, university

Citizens or community groups (CBOs), NGOs

Financing

Sources of funding:

Public local authority’s budget

Crowd-sourcing

Details about instrument financing:

The instrument financing comes from local partnerships and the local budget of Wakefield City. However, there are no overarching figures available on the budget spent on studies and implementation. One financing instrument is the “Trees for Yorkshire” campaign, established by White Rose Forest Partnership. This campaign allows businesses and householders to pay for trees to be planted and promotes corporate tree planting as a collective action. The Partnership’s current estimates suggest that a €12 (£10) donation would suffice to buy, plant, and look after the tree and include all other associated costs.

Monitoring, evaluation and impacts

Achieved outcomes and impacts:

There are no available details on the current progress to implement the foreseen projects overall. As one example, however, the strategic areas initiative in this entry aims to better use Balne Lane Fields as a greenspace resource and a resource for community interaction. The site objectives are to keep the fields open and avoid any loss of accessibility through fencing, integrate an equipped area for play as residential areas close by are suffering from a deficit, integrate community food production, engage with the local community and make their ideas a core objective, and increase flood water storage in the area. The site master plan was adopted in 2017 as part of the 41 Leisure, Recreation & Open Spaces Development Plan projects. The Council of Wakefiled adopted a Green Infrastructure panel comprised of key stakeholders and community organizations to ensure successful delivery of the strategic objectives and that local expectations are being met. In addition, to support the Board, a Wakefield Green Infrastructure Steering Group will be formed of council officers and other key agencies. The group will meet frequently enough to monitor delivery progress.

Success factors and lessons learned:

The key strategic green areas tackled in the Green Infrastructure strategy of Wakefield promote innovation by maximizing local projects spillover to cover district-scale impact (increasing ecological and livability benefits). Furthermore, innovation took part in the strategy's financing mechanisms, e.g., the donation-based planting approach and the promotion of common good partnership with the local community in decision making and engagement through panels and steering committees, leading to co-governance adoption and co-creation mechanisms. The involvement of the local citizens in site selection and assigning usages supported locally appropriate actions and projects that meet the local demands and expectations.

Sources and further information

Further documents

Documents:

green-infrastrcture-plan-october-2010.pdf

Weblinks:

https://una.city/nbs/wakefield/balne-lane-fields-project

https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/environment/balne-lane-fields-in-wakefie…

https://mapcarta.com/W23437963

https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/planning/policy/local-plan/leisure-recreation-open-…

Photos

@https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/environment/balne-lane-fields-in-wakefield-in-line-for-improvements-3146108