Parks & Place Making
Place Making lies at the heart of Green Estate’s mission:
In the beginning
Green Estate Ltd started life in 1998 as the Environment and Heritage programme, one of the 7 strategic programmes in the Manor and Castle Single Regeneration Budget programme. From the start it was a partnership between the Manor and Castle Development Trust (MCDT), Sheffield Wildlife Trust (SWT), Sheffield City Council (SCC) and many other organisations. Subsequently the programme became known as the ‘Green Estate’
The aims of the 5 year SRB Project were to:-
- address the universal poor quality public open space
- use the programme to address exclusion and to build social capital
- ensure a lasting legacy after grant funding
A strategy of interrelated initiatives that could create sustainable change was developed. This included regeneration plans for all local green spaces – from parks woodlands, school grounds, historic monuments and allotments to housing areas, demolition sites, local shopping centers and road side verges. Interconnecting projects were also progressed to start to address some of the root causes of poor quality. Pilot approaches to more coordinated greenspace management tackled local issues about leadership, standards, monitoring and communication. In addition some of the big issues around sustainability and functional greenspace were explored. We established pilot approaches to use urban greenspace for energy, waste, local food, art, training, health and employment.
Transition from a Project to a Social Enterprise
In the early years there was an assumption that land would transfer to the local Development Trust and that we would act as a local land management agency. When it became obvious that this was not going to happen, we had to make substantial changes to our approach. Instead of receiving core funding to support ongoing green space management we had to develop core commercial activities that could support a reasonably sized ‘green’ organisation still capable of addressing the areas environmental issues. This approach has resulted in the mix of commercial sales and services and social / environmental activities that we now deliver.
We remain deeply committed to seeing our neighbourhood improve year on year but we have little direct control over land and none over mainstream budgets. Our approach to Place Making is influenced by our local circumstances. We are really interested in a thoughtful and dynamic approach to neighbourhood design and management.
We are interested in how inner city land can be truly productive, how it can be better managed to help to mitigate some of the impacts of climate change, how it can contribute to our future energy, food and waste needs, how joined up green infrastructure can create living landscapes on a regional level and how great spaces can raise aspirations and quality of life for some of the most marginalised societies.
Above all, how local management and an entrepreneurial approach can change our dependency culture, unlock local potential and resources, build social capital and establish really sustainable places to live, work and play in.
