Swansea Eastside Connections May 2015
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SWANSEA EASTSIDE CONNECTIONS MAY 2015 1 Contents 1. Introduction. 4 5. Broader strategic considerations. 50 Context . 5 Place promotion and city branding . 51 Study area . 5 Planning criteria . 51 Approach . 9 Signposting . 52 Outcomes . 9 Recognising there are hills here . 53 Constraints . 10 Maintaining initiatives . 54 Report structure . 11 Community engagement and ownership . 54 Measuring impact . 55 2. Crymlyn Bog and the Tennant Canal. 12 Key issues . 13 6. Conclusion. 56 Initiatives . 14 Appendix 1 – References. 58 3. The Lower Tawe . 26 Appendix 2 – Stakeholders. 59 Key issues . 27 Initiatives . 28 Contact details. 60 4. Kilvey Hill. 40 Key issues . 41 Initiatives . 42 INTRODUCTION ONE 4 Urban Foundry is commissioned by Natural Natural resource management is the The Environment Bill has the following benefitting the wider economy by creating a Resources Wales (‘NRW’) to ‘explore the management of natural resources such as underlying principles: tourism destination . potential offered by the Lower River Tawe, land, water, soil, plants and animals, with a Kilvey Hill, Crymlyn Bog, and the Tennant particular focus on how management affects • Wales’ natural resources are among our most On completion of the trials NRW aims to develop Canal, the connections of these green the quality of life for both present and future valuable assets; a successful template for the implementation spaces to each other and the surrounding generations . • our natural resources are as fundamental to of area-based planning across Wales . communities’. the long-term success of our economy as they The Tawe Trial and are to the quality of the natural environment and the well-being of our communities; Study area the policy context • long-term economic prosperity must go hand- in-hand with the health and resilience of the Context The Tawe Trial aims to work with local partners environment that supports us; and As part of the Tawe Trial NRW staff identified to examine the issues, challenges and • strategic challenges we face demand a long- several underutilised key sites that sit in opportunities for using and managing natural term approach to decision-making with an Swansea East, namely: The Tawe Trial resources to deliver more for people, the emphasis on managing natural resources in environment and the economy . There are nine a proactive, joined-up and informed way by • Kilvey Hill; This commission is a part of the ‘Tawe Trial’, projects underway across the Tawe catchment, using the best available evidence directed • Crymlyn Bog; which is 1 of 3 trial areas that have been set with this commission one of them . at achieving the maximum possible lasting • the Tennant Canal; and up by NRW to test and explore the ‘ecosystem benefit . • the Lower Tawe (for the purposes of this study approach’ to natural resource management at The information and learning from the various this is the section of river from the Liberty an area level . projects will be used to develop a draft The principles above stress a long-term Stadium to the sea and includes both banks) . ‘Area Statement’ setting out the key issues, approach and this report takes a similar, The ecosystem approach is: opportunities and priorities for the future use strategic view, albeit initiatives are identified These four areas form the study area for this and management of natural resources in the that are achievable in the short and medium commission . “a holistic and inclusive approach to looking Tawe catchment . term . The Environment Bill will provide a fresh after the natural environment. It helps apply legal framework to manage Wales’ natural The study area is currently isolated and relatively current thinking about ecosystem services In turn, that will inform how NRW implements resources in a joined-up and sustainable peripheral to development thinking . Despite (what nature does for people) in line with the requirements of the Environment Bill, way and support achievement of wellbeing long-standing recognition of its isolation from sustainable development. It is the primary which proposes a new duty for NRW to prepare goals – it has strong links to the Wellbeing Bill the rest of the city and the need to rectify that, framework for action under the international area statements that set out the priorities and processes, principles and aims . it remains disconnected with no clear current Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD).” opportunities for the sustainable management strategy for its effective integration in physical of natural resources for that place . With further support, the intent is for the Tawe or thematic terms . Indeed, many recent (ecosystemsknowledge .net) Trial to provide benefits to deprived communities developments have further exacerbated the by improving health and wellbeing as well as relative isolation of these areas . 5 Study area 6 The reasons for its disconnection are in part challenges and does not seek to revisit these geographical, due to the river, and a steep in detail – Appendix 1 contains references to and polluted hill (a legacy of the industrial various documents that give futher context . revolution), beyond which lies the wetlands of Crymlyn Bog . The west bank of the river The countryside of the hill is clearly valued by is bounded by the river on one side and the communities that bound it – it is clearly railway lines on another . In addition, two major their countryside and there is much informal human-related obstacles, the east side road recreation, as well as more formalised and hugely busy Fabian Way, created in the activities through NRW woodland on the hill, post-War period, significantly altered the city’s including mountain bike trails, community central structure . woodland initiatives and various community arts projects amongst other initiatives . As the new route to Cardiff (previously the route However, the valuation of these assets from went to the north of the city up the Swansea a nature conservation standpoint and by the Valley) gained prominence and motor vehicle communities that immediately surround them traffic volumes steadily increased, the east has not translated into their valuation for wider side communities became increasingly cut off development thinking as part of the socio- to pedestrian and cycle movements . Modern economic regeneration of the city . As assests traffic schemes, including the most recent Poor connectivity between the St Thomas grid and SA1 of the City Region they have great potential but changes to the Tawe road bridge junctions and they are currently significantly underachieving . the west end of Fabian Way have paid little Following on from the Lower Swansea Valley riverside is recognised as a ‘wildlife corridor’, heed to pedestrian and cycle movements . project (to the north west of this study area) the and these sites are all recognised as key Despite its peripherality, the east side of the once barren hillsides, blighted by the very industry ecological assets within a citywide mapping of city does not remain static and the urban Similarly, for all of its positives and potential for that defined much of the form and position of such corridors and reservoirs . area is sprawling – urbanisation has been the city, the investment in the SA1 area to the modern Swansea, have been replanted . slowly creeping along the northern edge south of Fabian Way has paid scant attention Whilst they are geographically peripheral, of the study area, heading eastwards, for (in spatial alignment and physical design at the For some time, Crymlyn Bog and Kilvey Hill the environment in these areas is well some time . The increased urbanisation of the very least) to the established community to the have been recognised from an ecological understood, valued and protected in a formal significant Coed Darcy development to the north . There are no effective connections to perspective for their biodiversity and they sense, principally by NRW and the two local east of Crymlyn Bog will further underline that those communities . are seen as ‘wildlife reservoirs’, with the authorities . process . But the south, until relatively recently, former a Site of Special Scientific Interest was leftover industrial wasteland – declining (SSSI), National Nature Reserve (NNR), and a This study recognises a considerable array of port and associated rail yards and industrial designated wetland of international importance work and knowledge that exists in terms of uses . No longer – a £450m second campus under the Ramsar Convention . The Tawe the ecological riches and also the associated for Swansea University will be operational 7 Urban sprawl gradually encircling the study area imminently, with full completion by 2017, Join these urban areas up and the natural and University of Wales Trinity Saint David is assets cease to be a peripheral area to the planning a similarly ambitious development north east of a compact and geographically of the Prince of Wales Dock and surrounding constrained city centre . Instead, they become land in partnership with Welsh Government . central to the larger conurbation; Swansea’s These, coupled with major investments at Bay Central Park – an urban wilderness to be Studios and Amazon, along with the potential recognised and planned for as such . That is of a £1bn investment to create the world’s first the ambition of this process – to realise the tidal lagoon will stimulate development of the potential of these remarkable natural assets, Fabian Way corridor . Access to the landfall for proud accoutrements of so many other the Lagoon is planned to be a relatively short cities, but which are taken for granted, seen distance to the south of the bog and eastern as problems, even as landfill and dumping fringe of Port Tennant community . grounds . A masterplan produced by the City and Effectively connected (physically and County of Swansea Council indicates expected thematically) with the wider city, the potential development towards the Swansea University of these assets as core elements of the city’s second campus in the not too distant future .