Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Ownership.
The owners of vacant sites are
sometimes reluctant to sell them, and the
complexities and fragmentation of land
ownership commonly make it difficult to
assemble
Another important aspect of the problem is to
attempt to estimate its scale. In Britain, this is possible
through a series of estimates and surveys, but most of
the figures have various important shortcomings.
Elsewhere, such surveys are non-existent or, as in the
case of France, lacking in precision (Couch 1989,
Dechosal 1992; see Box 22.1).
For contaminated land, the shifting definitions
and lack of systematic surveys make quantitative
estimates particularly difficult. In Wales, where
long-established industries have caused particular
problems, one desk study (Environmental
Advisory Unit 1984) identified over 700 sites
totalling nearly 3800 hectares that were likely to
be contaminated. For England, the Department of
the Environment suggested to the House of
Commons Environmental Select Committee
plots
for
comprehensive
redevelopment.
•
Location.
Sites may be derelict or vacant
because whole industries have collapsed and
whole areas have been abandoned. These
locations are often in the wrong place for
modern investment and fail to convey the
correct prestige and place image.
•
Access.
Many derelict sites were originally served
by canal or railway and are surrounded by dense
housing and other development. They do not
permit easy access by large road vehicles; nor are
they convenient for motorway connections.
Box 22.1
Dereliction and reclamation in northeast France
Compared with Britain, France has had a different timing of
industrial growth and restructuring, a different industrial
composition and less pressure upon development land. For
these reasons, the problems of dereliction in France were not
evident as early, nor were they quite as widespread. However,
from the late 1970s, the issue of
friches industrielles
became
more pressing, notably in the smokestack industrial areas of
the northeast, and a major report in 1986 (Lacaze 1986)
formally drew attention to the issue.
The problem was greatest in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais
region, which, with only 2.3 per cent of the overall area
of France, possessed around 12,000 hectares of
dereliction, over half of the estimated national total
(Dechosel 1992). The causes of this concentrated
dereliction were linked to the decline of older industries,
notably coal and steel in the
bassin minier
around
Bethune, Lens, Douai and Valenciennes, and to a lesser
extent the textile industry around Lille, Roubaix and
Tourcoing. Although concern originally focused upon the
usual economic and community issues, there is now fear
about pollution of the chalk groundwater resources.
Other pockets of dereliction occur, again mainly from
industrial decline, in regions including Lorraine and in the
vicinity of Lyon and St Etienne. Generally, however,
French cities are less affected than their British
counterparts. This is due to the different industrial
histories alluded to above, but also to differences in
housing policies and traditions of urban living, which
mean that French cities have retained a greater
residential and commercial vitality.
In some parts of France, state money and assistance
for land purchase and reclamation has been available for
many years. An inter-ministerial group for redeveloping
coal-mining areas was established in 1972, and much
progress has been made through localised bodies such
as the
Etablissement Public de la Métropole Lorraine,
but it was only from the middle of the last decade that
programmes became more general. Between 1984 and
1988, approximately 2 billion francs of public money was
allocated to land reclamation, over half of which came
from local authorities, mainly in the form of low-cost loans.
Where reclamation projects are too large for local
authorities to handle on their own, there is a mechanism
through the
Contrat de Plan
whereby the government and
region act together. In mining areas, where demand for
development land may be modest, reclamation for leisure
projects and public open space is common, but in the
main cities more elaborate projects are often pursued.
In Paris, there are some direct parallels with British
urban experience as a range of utilities, industries, railway
and dock installations (river and canal) have declined. Over
1000 hectares of 'derelict' land has been identified in the
Île-de-France region (Chaix 1989), although there have
been subsequent reductions. A good example is to be seen
in the area of Paris known as La Villette, where a site of 55
hectares, just inside the
peripherique,
was becoming
derelict in the early 1980s with the closure of a complex of
canal basins, warehouses, abattoirs and associated
facilities. Initially, many of the classic derelict land problems
arose (e.g. multiple and confused ownership, poor access,
difficult ground conditions, etc.), but an imaginative
redevelopment scheme, backed jointly by the city, the state
and private investors, quickly rescued the situation. There
now exists on this site the largest centre in Europe devoted
to popular science and technology. It boasts exhibition halls
devoted to science and industry, a programme of displays
and games, a park, and a centre devoted to music in the
form of teaching, concerts and a museum. A fuller
appreciation can be gained by a real or virtual visit (http.//
www.cite-sciences.fr/).
Not only has this project made imaginative use of a
once derelict site but it is also one example of a type of
urban planning that has been used to re-image cities
across Europe and North America.
