Bradford, United Kingdom
City population: 521035
Duration: 2011 – 2021
Implementation status: Ongoing
Scale: Micro-scale: District/neighbourhood level
Project area: unknown
Type of area: Residential
Last updated: October 2021

New Bolton Woods Ltd is a development partnership between the regeneration company Urbo and Bradford Council (ref5). This project aims to create a new sustainable urban neighbourhood, linked to the existing Bolton Woods. As the majority of the proposed development is situated on land which falls within Flood Zone, a range of measures including the raising of ground floor levels, and incorporation of sustainable drainage techniques will be used to manage runoff. The project intends to provide a series of well landscaped, high-quality open areas and parks for the community. There is potential for a long term phased canal restoration (ref. 1). The second stage,145 houses are currently under construction on the slopes off Poplars Park Avenue, overlooking Canal Road, and are due to be completed by 2021 (ref 6). West Yorkshire Ecological Service raised concerns that the development would lead to a loss of woodland (ref 6).

Overview

Nature-based solution

  • Grey infrastructure featuring greens
  • Alley or street trees and other street vegetation
  • Green playgrounds and school grounds
  • Parks and urban forests
  • Pocket parks/neighbourhood green spaces
  • Green corridors and green belts
  • Other
  • Community gardens and allotments
  • Allotments
  • Blue infrastructure
  • Rivers/streams/canals/estuaries
  • Green areas for water management
  • Sustainable urban drainage systems

Key challenges

  • Climate action for adaptation, resilience and mitigation (SDG 13)
  • Climate change mitigation
  • Water management (SDG 6)
  • Flood protection
  • Green space, habitats and biodiversity (SDG 15)
  • Habitat and biodiversity conservation
  • Green space creation and/or management
  • Regeneration, land-use and urban development
  • Promote natural styles of landscape design for urban development
  • Social justice, cohesion and equity (SDG 10)
  • Social interaction
  • Health and well-being (SDG 3)
  • Creation of opportunities for recreation

Focus

Strategy, plan or policy development

Project objectives

1. There are plans for Doorstep Parks around the village, where these small green areas will offer informal local recreation around housing areas - pocket greens could provide an open space that can be created around housing areas, and domestic gardens (Ref. 1); 2. Natural open spaces will have opportunities for biodiversity enhancement (Ref. 1); 3. Some green informal corridors to provide local gathering spaces for recreation and nature conservation (Ref. 1); 4. A network of footpaths are planned to link the housing to green spaces and wildlife areas (Ref. 1); 5. SUDS schemes are envisioned for the project site. The aim is to promote best practice sustainable development at the site (Ref. 1); 6. Naturalise the nearby Bradford Beck, making it more open and attractive, and in 2019 opened a new cycleway and greenway that passes right through New Bolton Woods (Ref 7).

Implementation activities

URBED developed the masterplan following a series of public consultation events which were used to inform changes to the design. Following comments from local people and businesses changes made included more sports pitches, and retaining green areas of land to the north of the scheme, which were of a particularly high value to neighbouring residents. (REF 4) In 2019 opened a new cycleway and greenway that passes right through New Bolton Woods (ref 7).

Climate-focused activities

Climate change mitigation:

  • Increase green urban nature for carbon storage (wetlands, tree cover)
  • Invest in public transport/bicycle infrastructure as a means to prevent car use

Biodiversity conservation or restoration-focused activities

Biodiversity conservation:

  • Protect and enhance urban habitats
  • Means for conservation governance
  • Public engagement

Main beneficiaries

  • Local government/Municipality
  • Private sector/Corporate/Company
  • Citizens or community groups

Governance

Management set-up

  • Co-governance with government and non-government actors

Type of initiating organisation

  • Local government/municipality
  • Private sector/corporate actor/company

Participatory approaches/ community involvement

  • Consultation (e.g. workshop, surveys, community meetings, town halls)

Details on the roles of the organisations involved in the project

Urbo has been working alongside Bradford Council, in a Public-Private partnership to deliver a revitalized Canal Road corridor for Bradford City. Further, they are working with urban designers 'Urbed' (Ref. 5). The plan for New Bolton Woods has been prepared carefully over several years in consultation with the local community. CRUVL is supported by a talented team urban designers, planners, engineers and other development professionals (Ref 8).

Project implemented in response to ...

... an EU policy or strategy? Unknown
... a national policy or strategy? Unknown
... a local policy or strategy? Unknown

Financing

Total cost

More than €4,000,000

Source(s) of funding

  • Public local authority budget
  • Corporate investment

Type of funding

  • Direct funding (grants, subsidies, or self-financed projects by private entities)

Non-financial contribution

Unknown

Impacts and Monitoring

Environmental impacts

  • Water management and blue areas
  • Increased protection against flooding
  • Green space and habitat
  • Increased green space area

Economic impacts

  • Unknown

Socio-cultural impacts

  • Social justice and cohesion
  • Fair distribution of social, environmental and economic benefits of the NBS project
  • Health and wellbeing
  • Gain in activities for recreation and exercise
  • Cultural heritage and sense of place
  • Improvement in people’s connection to nature

Type of reported impacts

Expected impacts

Presence of formal monitoring system

Unknown

Presence of indicators used in reporting

No evidence in public records

Presence of monitoring/ evaluation reports

No evidence in public records

Availability of a web-based monitoring tool

No evidence in public records

References

1. URBED. 2014. Design and Access Statement. Accessed: Source link
2. Urbo. nd. News. Accessed: Source link
3. The environment partnership. n.d. GO AHEAD FOR NEW BOLTON WOODS SCHEME IN BRADFORD. Accessed: Source link (not accessible as per July, 2020)
4. Urbed. nd. New Bolton Woods. Accessed: Source link
5. Urbo. nd. New Bolton Woods. Accessed: Source link
6. Bradford Telegraph and Argus. 2019. Drive-Through Set To Open As 'Urban Village' Plan Reaches New Milestone. [online] Available at: <Source link [Accessed 4 August 2020].
7. Destination Chesterfield. 2020. Bolsterstone’S £150Million Bradford Scheme Delivers ALDI Food Store - Destination Chesterfield. [online] Available at: <Source link [Accessed 4 August 2020].
8. Statement, M., Woods., O. and FAST, M., 2020. Home - New Bolton Woods. [online] New Bolton Woods. Available at: <Source link [Accessed 4 August 2020].
9. New Bolton Woods. 2020. What Will Be There? - New Bolton Woods. [online] Available at: <Source link [Accessed 4 August 2020].
10. Young, C., 2020. Work On Bradford 'Urban Village' On Hold Due To Coronavirus Outbreak. [online] YorkshireLive. Available at: <Source link [Accessed 4 August 2020].
11. Source link. 2015. [online] Available at: <Source link [Accessed 5 August 2020].