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Leeds ARTICLES

Can we use 'holes in the ground'?

22nd March 2010

Have you noticed a proliferation of 'holes in the ground'? Not the pothole-type but rather a number of high-profile developments in Leeds, and elsewhere in the county, that have ground to a halt mainly as a result of the recession.

A national campaign, called Site Life, has started in this World Cup summer of 2010.

It is hoping for mothballed development sites to be used by the people who live nearby.

BBC Radio Leeds talked to Giles Barrie from the magazine Property Week that has launched the Site Life campaign.

Giles explains the simple idea.

"It is to bring sites all over the UK back into temporary life as a park, or football pitches. It (mothballed sites) is a truly national problem. "

Alternative uses for these site is a simple idea that may be tricky to turn into reality, not least the question of who finances the temporary changes.

Leeds is leading

Here in Leeds we have an already working example on Wellington Street. A mothballed city-centre development site has had life breathed back into it by the addition of allotments, a football pitch and even facilities for beekeeping.

That approach, by developers MEPC, may be somewhat unusual.

Perhaps it is a feeling of shame that is holding back alternative uses of stalled developments, Giles hopes not.

"There's no shame in acknowledging this has been a deep recession and these people should give something back. The property industry has made a lot of money during the boom. . . "

Perhaps the tide is turning in the search for temporary alternative uses for these sites.

Earlier in March environment secretary Hilary Benn and communities secretary John Denham launched a scheme to hand over unused sites and derelict land to gardeners.

And in London's Oxford Street developers Land Securities have 24 life-size animatronic dinosaurs roaming a Jurassic forest as part of the Dinosaurs Unleashed exhibition.

The local Wellington Street site may not be as eye-catching but it could prove to be in the forefront of a new trend.


Source: BBC