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Manor and Castle Green Estate

Sheffield

Manor and Castle green estate

Process

Launching a vision for social and economic change

A green space audit and project feasibility study led to the launch of the Green Estate programme. This included a five-year action plan, based on the vision that environmental improvement could lead to social and economic transformation. Objectives included:

  • finding positive ways to engage the community with the estate’s green infrastructure
  • delivering high quality physical changes that would lead to an improved public perception of public space over time
  • embedding practices that would prove sustainable in the long term, whether they were social, environmental or economic. Examples included an ecological approach to land management and using green space as a setting for new green business, employment and leisure.

Using partnership as a vehicle for change at the local scale

In the early years, a range of place-based and issue-based projects were developed through various partnership steering groups managed by the Green Estate staff team. The founding partners and Sheffield City Council agreed an annual programme to co-ordinate these projects. This programme complemented other strategic themes identified by the Manor and Castle Development Trust in relation with the government’s single regeneration budget funding, such as:

  • health
  • housing
  • youth
  • employment
  • training and education
  • community development

This coordination and partnership ensured that there was a greater synergy between the strategic regeneration themes. It gave a more coherent message that the delivery of green infrastructure improvements was an integral part of achieving regeneration in the area

The joint approach was also instrumental in building trust between Sheffield City Council, agencies and the wider community. It developed a positive approach to shared risk and responsibility, which enabled a more coordinated approach to raising standards across the area when single regeneration budget funding ceased.

Adopting a social enterprise model

The five years of single regeneration budget funding created a solid foundation to build on, and unleashed new opportunities for active stakeholders.

In particular, the level of embryonic business demonstrated that the Green Estate programme could offer something quite new to the area as a social enterprise.

  • Green Estate Ltd is now a £1.8 million turnover business, employing 38 people
  • It is a self-funded and largely self-appointed guardian of the Manor and Castle green infrastructure vision - enabling the theory of ‘working the inner-city estate’ to become a reality
  • The company’s business relies on offering services to other areas of Sheffield and further afield while bringing the benefit back to the area.

Managing the green estate

  • Managers and the board of Green Estate Ltd develop annual action plans, which equate to several hundred SMART actions. These actions are responsive, where possible, to the gaps between public, private and third-sector green infrastructure provision
  • Site-specific masterplans informed by the overall vision are continually being developed and contribute to a revised reputation of the area within Sheffield
  • An emerging Green and Open Space Strategy for the city stresses the importance of working in partnership to achieve better quality, well managed green and open spaces
  • The creation of Sheffield City Council Community Assembly structure is intended to ensure local people have a greater say in defining the services they want, and in agreeing how budgets are spent in their area.

Diversifying the landscape

The current green infrastructure approach at Manor and Castle Estate is strongly influenced by sustainability issues which are intended to deliver multiple social, environmental and economic benefits. Gradual change and a positive association between residents and their local green space have been very important.

  • the first priority was to address basic issues of cleanliness, access and perceptions of safety
  • as confidence grew, new features and facilities such as formal and naturalistic play areas, art, and different planting approaches were provided.

The incremental approach has allowed cultural change to develop at the same pace as landscape change. The green spaces across the estate are now being used to pilot more sustainable design practice such as:

  • sustainable urban drainage
  • use of exotic meadows
  • naturalistic play grounds
  • green waste processing
  • long-term collaboration between landscape designers and managers to create transitional changes.

The expertise in ‘green design’ not only benefits the local estate but has allowed new ideas to be shared more widely and in many cases has contributed to unique services offered by the social enterprise business.

Creating a living legacy

Many of the philosophies and practices behind Manor and Castle Estate’s regeneration have already been embedded into policy and practice in Sheffield. Jan Fitzgerald of Sheffield City Council reports that “the approach has demonstrated the benefits of a partnership approach”.

  • at a local level, site-specific projects as well as new masterplans created through individual project teams and the Housing Market Renewal programme act as good practice examples
  • the developing Green and Open Space Strategy for Sheffield and the new assembly structure for local areas are opportunities to continue to make progress.