Halcrow is playing an important role in helping to improve one of the most deprived areas of the UK. The east end of Glasgow contains three of the UK’s most deprived parliamentary wards; it has high levels of long-term unemployment and the lowest life expectancy in Western Europe.
The Clyde Gateway Urban Regeneration Company (URC) aims to turn this around over the next 15 years by building new homes for 20,000 people, creating 20,000 new jobs and improving 350 hectares of brownfield land. Scotland’s economic development agency, Scottish Enterprise, is investing £248 million into the area, and an additional £1.4 billion is expected from the private sector.
Glasgow's successful bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games was based around regeneration, and more than £350 million will be spent constructing new facilities within Clyde Gateway, including the Arena, Velodrome and Games Village, which will involve building 1,400 new homes.
Halcrow has developed a masterplan for two districts within Clyde Gateway, South Dalmarnock and Shawfield. The plan centres around a new rapid transit hub, which will ensure that future transport strategies focus on sustainable modes of travel, promoting connectivity throughout the area and improving residents’ ability to get around.
We adopted an approach to planning which recognises that improving the quality of ‘place’ is critical to attracting and retaining skilled people. This approach considers far more than the physical aspects of regeneration; it taps into stakeholder and community expectations of what regeneration should deliver if the area is to become economically and socially vibrant.
Our ‘smart growth’ approach considers mixed-use development, movement and accessibility, quality of life, urban design, economic development, environmental enhancement and – perhaps most critically – health.
The result is a place-centred plan, oriented around transit and pedestrian access, which promotes a mix of housing, business and commercial uses and integrates open space and environmental amenities.
Throughout the project the development principles were formulated and implemented collaboratively with the client, a process that resulted in the plan gaining the support of two planning authorities, Scottish Enterprise and the Scottish Government.