Derelict Land Survey

DERELICT LAND SURVEY

2002

CONTENTS

Page

1. Background3

2. Summary of Findings5

3. Land Reclaimed between 1999 and 20026

4. Derelict Land Remaining10

5. Neglected Land Remaining14

6.Next Steps17

7. Conclusions19

Appendix 1 : Land Reclaimed 1999 - 2002 by use21

Appendix 2 : Ward Profiles23

1.0 BACKGROUND

1.1A survey of derelict land in Salford was carried out during 2002. The purpose of the survey was to update the information held on derelict land within the City and to monitor the amount of derelict land that has been reclaimed since the last survey.

1.2The last comprehensive survey of derelict land in the City was carried out in 1999, so the report analyses changes since then.

1.3The definition of derelict land for the purposes of this survey is the same as that used in the previous surveys, that is:

“Land so damaged by industrial or other development that is incapable of beneficial use without treatment”.

1.4As in 1999 “neglected and unsightly land” has been included on the database as well as derelict land. There is no statutory definition of such land but the definition adopted by English Partnerships and subsequently the North West Development Agency is:

“Land which has at some stage been developed and which is capable of some beneficial use but which is at present uncared for, untidy and in a condition detrimental to the environment or to the local economy”.

1.5 The decision to include neglected land as well as derelict is that funding programmes run by the Development Agency generally consider the treatment of derelict, neglected and underused land. It was therefore considered helpful to have a record of such land.

1.6The North West Development Agency started a review of the Land Reclamation Programme in July 2000. The results of this review are that the development agency are looking to significantly increase the amount of money available for the reclamation of land within the region for soft-end uses.

1.7The survey work was mainly carried out during June and July 2002, with the identification of land that has become derelict since 1999 being carried out during August and September 2002.

1.8In 1998 the National Land Use Database (NLUD) was launched by the DETR, English Partnerships, the Improvement and Development Agency and Ordnance Survey. The survey was developed to gain a consistent assessment of previously developed land and buildings across England. NLUD collects data regarding previously developed land (PDL), including such land that is currently in use but which is allocated in the UDP and/or where redevelopment is anticipated. A further update of NLUD was undertaken in 2001 and another in 2002, and it has now been decided to undertake an annual revision of this survey.

1.9NLUD is a survey of all previously developed land. A proportion of the NLUD resource is also derelict land. The NLUD and Derelict Land databases need to remain as two separate databases, as they will cover different types of land. A common element of both databases will however be the derelict land element. Historically inconsistencies existed between these two databases on the derelict land element Considerable work has taken place during this year to ensure that these two databases are now consistent.

1.10This process of ensuring consistency between the two datasets has required boundaries of certain sites to be redefined. As a result of this, if the total amount of derelict land identified in 1999 was recalculated using these areas it would be altered from 301.57 ha to 370.81 ha. This process means that the figures in some of the tables may not look correct in the sense that they may not appear to add up correctly.

2.0 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

2.1The main findings of the 2002 survey are:

• within the City there is currently 380.40 ha of derelict land and 64.51 ha of neglected land;

• the total area of derelict land reclaimed since 1999 was 76.59 ha;

• of the 76.59 ha reclaimed since 1999, 10.19 ha (13%) was reclaimed by the City Council, the majority, 65.28 ha was reclaimed by the private sector;

• since 1999 77.49 ha of new derelict land has been identified and 64.51 ha of neglected land has been identified.

2.2The following table summarises the overall situation with regard to derelict land within the City and the changes that have taken place since 1999.

Table 1

N.B. Please refer to paragraph 1.10 when trying to understand this table.

3.0 LAND RECLAIMED BETWEEN 1999 AND 2002

3.1 The total area of land reclaimed between 1999 and 2002 was 76.59 ha. This represented 28 sites. Plan 1 shows the distribution of the sites that have been reclaimed.

3.2 The amount of derelict land reclaimed between 1999-2002 is less than the amount reclaimed in previous survey periods; 1982-1988 -140ha and 1988-1993 – 112 ha, 1993-1999 – 201. ha. This partly reflects the fact the survey period is considerable shorter this time but is also an indication that there has been limited funding available for land reclamation over this period.

3.3 The major land reclamation schemes completed between 1999 and 2002 in Salford were at:

• Deva Centre
• Former Peel Hall Hospital, Little Hulton
• Thermalite site, Agecroft
• Livia Tar Pond
• Lumns Lane Coal Tip
• Boysnope Park Golf Driving Range
• Agecroft Valley Phase 1

3.4 Between 1999 – 2002 the City Council was responsible for the reclamation of 10.19ha (13% of the total). This figure is lower than the amount the City Council was responsible for reclaiming between 1993 –1999 (40.03 ha) and between 1988 – 1993 (39ha). This highlights clearly the fact that there has been very little funding available over this period to enable the City Council to carry out reclamation work.

3.5 Most of the reclamation carried out by the City Council since 1999 was carried out by the private sector. They were responsible for the reclamation of 20 sites (65.28 ha). The other 1.06 ha were reclaimed by other public sector agencies.

3.6 The following table shows the type of derelict land that has been reclaimed 1999-2002.

Table 2

In terms of the amount of land reclaimed the largest category is colliery spoil heaps, which reflects the fact that one large spoil heap (Lumns Lane Coal Tip) has been treated over this period. When considering the number of sites reclaimed, the majority of the reclamation has been focused on general industrial dereliction and other forms of dereliction.

3.7 The following table shows the use of the derelict land that has been reclaimed since 1999. Just over half the land reclaimed has been for amenity uses.

Table 3

3.8The following table compares the after use of reclaimed land between 1988 – 1993, 1993 – 1999 and 1999 - 2002.

Table 4

Overall the comparison between the three periods shows a lot of similarities. In all cases the two main after uses were amenity and industry and commerce, although the amount being reclaimed for the former has increased the quite significantly. This category could potential increase further in future periods given the NWDA’s emphasis on reclaiming land for soft end uses.

In terms of the number of sites reclaimed the biggest category is housing. This may reflect the increasing attraction of housing in some of our inner areas close to the regional centre.

3.9The following table shows the amount of land that has been reclaimed since 1999 in each ward of the City.

Table 5

4.0 DERELICT LAND REMAINING

4.1A total of 380.40 ha of derelict land (157 sites) remains in the City. This represents 4% of the total land in the City. In comparison in 1999 the City had 301.57 ha (123 sites) which represented 3% of the land in the City. However, as explained in paragraph 1.10, this increase is largely due to the work carried out to get consistency between the NLUD and DL database. The net increase in derelict land between 1999 and 2002, without this correction work, is actually only approximately 10 ha. Plan 2 shows the distribution of derelict land in the city.

4.2The following table gives details regarding the nature of the remaining derelict land in the City.

Table 6

4.3For the first time the largest category of derelict land in the city (44%) is “other forms of dereliction” (166.64 ha). This category includes cleared housing sites and tipped areas. The second largest category of remaining derelict land consists of “General Industrial” (34.5%) which includes pithead buildings, gas works, canals and docks, disused and demolished factories. This kind of dereliction obviously reflects Salford’s industrial past. The other significant category of derelict land in the city is colliery spoil heaps (14.7%) which reflects the mining history of the city.

4.4These 2 main types of dereliction (General Industrial dereliction and Other forms of dereliction) have remained the largest categories of dereliction since 1993, although the amount of land in these categories is at highest levels since 1993. There has been another significant increase in the number of sites in the “other forms of dereliction” category.

4.5The following table shows the ownership of the derelict land in the City.

Table 7

The City owns a third of the derelict sites in the City but this equates to only 15% of the derelict land area in the city. The majority of both derelict land and sites is however in the ownership of the private sector. This will potentially cause problems for the reclamation of sites in future as the City Council will need to acquire the land first.

4.6The ownership figures for 1999 were very similar to those for 2002. In 1999 the City owned 20%, other public agencies owned 13% and the private sector 67%.

4.7The number of derelict sites has increased from 123 in 1999 to 157in 2002. Whilst there is number of large derelict sites in the city, what is clear from looking at Plan 2 and the information in Appendix 2 is the significant amount of relatively small derelict sites. These are particularly prevalent in the inner city areas. The treatment of these sites may be best dealt with by packaging them together as this approach would make their treatment more economic. A similar approach has been used to treat neglected sites in these areas in the past.

4.8The following table shows the amount of derelict land in each ward of the City.

Table 8

5.0 NEGLECTED LAND

5.1There is a total of 64.51 ha of neglected land (63 sites) in the City. This represents 0.7% of the total land in the City. Plan 3 shows the distribution of neglected land in the city.

5.2The following table gives details regarding the nature of the neglected in the City.

Table 9

5.3The majority of the neglected land in the city (44%) is in the “General Industrial” category and a further 34% is “other types of land”. This category includes public open space and cleared housing areas.

5.4The following table shows the ownership of the neglected land in the City.

Table 10

The City owns half of the neglected sites and land in the city. Whilst the private sector own the majority of the rest of the sites, this only equates to 6% of the area, as the sites in private ownership are all very small.

5.5A small, but significant amount of this neglected land in the city’s ownership, represents land that in the past has been treated for either dereliction or neglection and has now returned to a neglected state due to lack of maintenance. It is essential that in future schemes the long term management and maintenance of sites is adequately addressed so that this situation does not continue.

5.6The following table shows the amount of neglected land in each ward of the City.

Table 11

6.0 NEXT STEPS

6.1The NWDA are looking to significantly increase the amount of money available for land reclamation for soft end use within the north west region. This results from a desire to significantly improve the image of the region, which is seen as a hindrance to attracting inward investment.

6.2As a result AGMA are currently developing a 3 year programme of land reclamation in the conurbation. These are all sites that are suitable for soft end use. This programme will need to be approved by AGMA Planning and Transportation Committee before being passed to the NWDA for approval. A start on this programme will hopefully be made in summer 2003.

6.3The position regarding funding for the reclamation of sites that will be used for hard end uses is a lot less clear. Many potential funding streams have been constrained by European state aid rules, although new funding sources are being developed that are within the European laws. There also appears to be confusion over who has the main responsibility for such reclamation, with both the RDA’s and English Partnerships being involved.

6.4Recent announcement regarding the work of English Partnerships have made clear that they have a national role in the regeneration of brown field land. They are currently preparing a national brown field strategy which is due to be published in April 2003.

6.5English Partnerships commissioned research in early 2002 to identify the extent and characteristics of long standing larger vacant and derelict sites in England. These sites were known as hardcore sites. This research highlights that the North West has the greatest prevalence of these sites in the country and that Salford, with 234ha of hardcore land is ranked as 7th in the region. It is anticipated that English Partnerships will focus their work on these hardcore sites.

6.6At the request of the NWDA and as a result of the increasing emphasis on land reclamation, the 10 AGMA districts have produced a Derelict Land Strategy for the conurbation, which was approved in 2002.

6.7The Greater Manchester strategy sets out a series of overlapping themes that should underpin the prioritization of individual schemes and the allocation of resources. The themes identified are:

• To secure major improvement in the image and competitiveness of the conurbation;
• To promote sustainable urban regeneration;
• To help address deprivation, including unemployment, by job creation and provision of services;
• To support improvements to town centres and the regeneration of neighbourhoods; and
• To enhance biodiversity, forestry initiatives and recreational facilities.

6.8The City needs to build on this conurbation-wide strategy and develop a Derelict Land Strategy that will set out its aims, objectives and priorities for dealing with derelict land within the city. This strategy would enable the Council to captialise upon the funding sources that are becoming available from the NWDA and other sources. This strategy will need to be developed by the Environment and Projects Group in conjunction with Chief Executives and Environmental Services and will also need to link into a number of other strategies in the City Council. It is anticipated that a draft of this strategy will be produced by Summer 2003.

7.0 CONCLUSIONS

7.1The following table summarises the overall situation with regard to derelict land within the City and the changes that have taken place since 1993.

Table 12

N.B. Please refer to paragraph 1.10 when trying to understand this table.

7.2The following table summarises the situation in each ward of the City.

Table 13

* The apparent discrepancies in the figures in this ward reflect the fact that in achieving consistency between the Derelict Land and NLUD, the Barton site which cross the boundaries between Barton and Irlam ward is all classified under Irlam.