Academic literature on the topic 'Sefton (England). Metropolitan Borough Council'

Polish cities need to redevelop post-industrial areas located within their boundaries. Cities’ authorities, while preparing regeneration programs, can use best practices of Western European cities. One very good example is the case of the English town Barnsley. Barnsley in earlier days was famous for coal mining, but the last pit was closed in 1994. With the demise of the coal industry, people suffered from unemployment and the town from losing its main revenue sources (in 2000, the town was ranked 16th out of 354 most deprived district of England). Town was blighted by a very high incidence of post-industrial areas: disused colliery spoil tips, pit yards and the railway infrastructure which served the collieries. For many years Barnsley has carried out an extensive land reclamation program, together with investments put into new road links and job creation schemes for the former colliery workers. Between 1982 and 2003, over 23 million GBP was spent on the restoration of over 600 hectares of derelict land. Barnsley’s vision is to be a 21st Century Market Town. Those plans are prepared for the next 30 years, and the budget of 380 million GBP (including EU co-financing) constitutes the basis for the town transformation. In 2002, the Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council, together with local partners, started the Rethinking Barnsley weekend, a consultation project, which was the entry for preparing the urban centre regeneration program, called Remaking Barnsley. Planned and partly realised projects include construction of the new Barnsley Interchange – bus and coach station opened in May 2007, new cultural centre in the old Civic Hall, new commercial centre in Barnsley Markets, Digital Media Centre – opened in August 2007 – an incubator of new technologies, as well as new office and residential areas in the town centre. New business parks opened the new possibilities on the labour market. A well planned and perfectly realised process of the town development, started by wide citizens’ consultancy program, treated as a basis for establishing the town development vision, transformed then into an action plan and verified by already completed projects, is a good example to be copied by Polish towns.

This chapter investigates the response of a local authority in Greater Manchester, Wigan Metropolitan Borough Council, to the opportunities afforded by localism, implemented in the face of austerity. The impact of austerity measures imposed by central government amounted to an effective reduction in Wigan Council's budget of 40 per cent phased in over 10 years, and a loss of around a fifth of its workforce. Wigan experienced the fifth highest cut in spending out of all local authorities. The response, the creation of the 'Wigan Deal', is a major transformation programme which is still ongoing at the time of writing. The transformation started in 2012 and is both an approach to manage demand for services as well as a positive change in the understanding and relationship between citizens and public servants.

Sefton, on the north side of Liverpool, holds a radioactive legacy from its industrial past. This legacy is in the form of Tin slag buried in sub-surface seams. Located near the docks and adjacent to the rich Lancashire coal seams, Sefton became one of the main production centres of Tin plate in Britain. A consequence of this industrial process is the production of mildly radioactive waste slag. Tin rich ores are heated under reducing conditions to produce a molten metal stream This is then separated into the component metal streams. Solid wastes produced by this process are known as slag and were usually stored on site in spoil heaps. Because this slag is a very hard, glassy material it has been historically used as aggregate in underlying roads and rail way sleepers. Many of these sites pre-date the introduction of the regulation of radioactive substances in the UK and have never been under legislative control under the Radioactive Substances Act, RSA93. There is a risk that the existence may not be known of some of these sites. U-238 and Th-232 and their associated decay chains, are the major contributors to the radionuclide inventory of the slags, levels of these radionuclides being in the range 1–10Bq/g. A series of alpha and beta decays for both chains leads eventually to the generation of a stable isotope of lead. Radiologically, the main area of concern is with the potential inhalation or ingestion of contaminated dusts. There is also a potential for Ra-226 to leach out into groundwater. AMEC has worked for Sefton Metropolitan Council and various developers, to carry out specialist, non intrusive gamma radiation surveys of numerous sites in Sefton. This is the first stage in carrying out a radiological risk review of a given site. What often then follows is an intrusive, geo-technical survey, with trial pitting and radiological sampling for later sensitive lab based radiochemical analysis. Radiological supervision is also required at this time to ensure that the radiological exposure of the Contractors carrying the survey is restricted and ensure that plant dose not become contaminated with radionuclides. These surveys are the preliminary stage for redevelopment works with new housing replacing antiquated commercial premises. By bringing together expertise in sensitive gamma surveying, radiochemical analysis and a detailed understanding of the regulatory framework, AMEC is able to support the borough of Sefton in its re-development programme ensuring safe compliant development of an area with an historic radiological legacy.