Background
The North West has a long legacy of dereliction, and a poor image. However, environmentally led regeneration has been central to this region’s thinking for over 30 years. Green infrastructure has and continues to be used as a regeneration tool to:
- improve the ‘quality of place’
- tackle the dereliction
- enhance the image of the region to assist economic development and attract investment
It is now also being used as a critical tool to help regional urban centres adapt to climate change.
Successive and enlightened public investment decisions to initiate and support a range of partnerships - such as the community forests that involve both local authorities and environmental experts - have built up the capacity to develop and advocate the green infrastructure agenda. This underpins the current policy commitment to green infrastructure.
An articulate community of individuals and organisations promotes the green infrastructure message. A key audience is senior decision-makers not normally associated with environmental issues – this group includes politicians, chief officers and regeneration professionals.
Engagement by a wide range of actors has been crucial. These include:
- North West Regional Development Agency (NWDA)
- Government Office North West
- 4NW - the regional leader’s forum
- Natural England North West regional office
- the two Community Forests
Structures put in place to support regional working and collaboration with the key actors include a Green Infrastructure Forum, a Green Infrastructure Unit and a regional Green Infrastructure Think Tank.
The desired outcome is a range of connected projects that will transform the natural environment for people across the region. Some are landscape scale, such as community forests. Others are more local, and within the urban context. These will be delivered through targeted investment and future planning gains normally involving local authorities.
