Green revolution for valleysscarred by industrial history
Oct 4 2008 by Tony Henderson, The Journal
Environment Editor Tony Henderson on restoring vitality to the valleys.
THE success of a five-year environment-led regeneration programme in the North East was marked yesterday.
The Mineral Valleys scheme has seen more than £6m invested in the project area of west County Durham, ranging from Chester-le-Street to Bishop Auckland and bounded by Nenthead, Allenheads and Derwentside.
Chairman of Natural England Sir Martin Doughty led the celebrations for the completion of Mineral Valleys yesterday at the Greenhouse centre in Annfield Plain.
The project was given its name because of the area’s industrial legacy of coal and lead mining, quarrying and sand and gravel extraction.
“We have achieved far more than we had hoped and have made a real difference to the area,” said Tony Devos, Mineral Valleys project manager.
The venture, which has won a Durham County Council environment award, has been project managed by Natural England, whose chief executive Helen Phillips said: “It has been a beacon of achievement.”
The project set out with six aims:
To restore areas of poor environmental quality, especially in former mining areas.
Improve access to the countryside.
Create and improve habitats for national and local biodiversity species.
Provide information on the area’s natural and historic attractions for schools, visitors and communities.
Provide training and boost local economies.
Create links with local communities.
The Heritage Lottery Fund contributed £2.8m, which attracted £5.1m in matching funding and works worth another £1.2m as organisations noted the progress of the scheme.
A total of 350 hectares were restored or created to benefit biodiversity action plan habitats, together with 17km of riverbank habitats.
Projects included building 20 artificial otter holts on the River Wear and its tributaries. This has led to the birth of five cubs and there are now signs of otter activity on the Wear from the coast to headwater streams.
Corridors have been created to link five dispersed populations of small pearl-bordered fritillary butterflies and nine hectares have been allocated to their food plant, the marsh violet.
A total of 65 barn owl nest boxes have been provided.
The scheme’s woodland and wildlife project has worked on 12 former colliery sites.
Habitats created include 120 hectares of native broadleaf woodland, 10 hectares of wetland, and 103 hectares of meadow and grassland.
Three of the sites, at Daisy Hill, Cornsay Colliery and Chapman’s Well have now been designated as local nature reserves.
The project had also delivered 188km of new and improved access routes. The Weardale Way walking route has been upgraded between Sunderland Bridge near Durham City and Killhope in Upper Weardale.
More than 20 walk leaflets have been produced.
A green tourism holidays project brought 1,600 visitors to Weardale to carry out conservation work.
Jubilee Meadows in Willington, where vehicle dumping was a problem, has been turned into almost 10 hectares of community green space, with concrete culverts replaced by meandering streams and drystone walls and living willow fences as barriers.
A history scheme established the Friends of Lanchester Roman fort who produced a booklet on the fort and walk leaflets, while restoration work has been carried out at the 19th Century Bantling lime kilns near Annfield Plain.
The Mineral Valleys project has involved 127 local community groups, 202 school groups, 6,956 volunteer days, 92 training courses with over 800 participants and has organised 457 events, exhibitions and workshops.
Partners included the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, Groundwork, Durham County Council, Natural England, Environment Agency, Great North Forest and Durham Wildlife Trust.
Ideas are now being worked up for a similar project based on the magnesian limestone belt from South Shields to Hartlepool and inland to Newton Aycliffe.
