The Government has announced that all Regional Development Agencies (RDAs), including SEEDA, will close by 31 March 2012.
Responsibility for economic development and regeneration in England is being passed onto successor bodies, including Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and central Government departments
Our objective is to ensure a professional and cost effective closure by this date. We have pledged to work closely with our partners, contractors and stakeholders to ensure that the past and future economic benefits of key programmes and assets continue to deliver the greatest economic value for the South East and value for money for the taxpayer.
Please click here for more details about our closure plan, transition arrangements and successor organisations.
In action: Kent and Medway: Key activities: Kent Coalfields
The Kent Coalfield Regeneration Programme was one of SEEDA’s largest derelict land reclamation projects. It involved the recovery of brownfield industrial land in East Kent, on four former colliery sites: Betteshanger, Snowdown, Tilmanstone and Chislet. SEEDA, acting as agent for the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly English Partnerships'), acquired the sites to carry out the development. The Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) provided the finance within the national coalfields programme.
Three of these collieries closed in the 1980's as a result of the radical restructuring of the UK coal industry; the fourth – Chislet – ceased mining operations in 1969. The closure of these collieries has had a significant economic impact on the communities of the surrounding areas.
The sites
Betteshanger
This 120 hectare site near Deal was the largest in the Kent Coalfield Programme. The project received a total of £18.8 million HCA investment, aimed at creating a sustainable, mixed-use development with a strong emphasis on high quality design and landscaping.
The development consists of a 200 acre nature reserve with leisure facilities. This includes a visitor’s centre, sculpture park, a track for casual cyclists, mountain biking circuit and a 3.5km cycle racing circuit registered for Olympic training. A community park for Betteshanger Village generated public open space and features a skateboard area and swing park. There is also permission for 22,500 square metres of commercial development, including the refurbishment of an existing building to create 550 square metres of new office space for small expanding businesses with new occupiers already established.
As a model mixed development, the regeneration of Betteshanger exemplified SEEDA's commitment to sustainable development and enhancing the physical environment to raise the quality of life for local people.
Snowdown
The former Snowdown Colliery site extends to 50 hectares and is adjacent to the parishes of Aylesham and Nonington, which together have a population of 4,700 (approximately 1,750 households). It has been identified as having potential for economic regeneration. The objective was to prepare a planning application which set out the detailed case supporting comprehensive re-use of the site.
To complement the regeneration of Snowdown, new community workshop facilities have been developed in Aylesham.
Tilmanstone
At just 10 hectares, the smallest of the East Kent colliery sites, Tilmanstone – between Betteshanger and Snowdown – was completely remediated and the land prepared for development. The centre of this development is the new 15,000 square metres food-processing factory that has already created over 500 new local jobs. SEEDA and the HCA’s financial commitment to this project was £4.95million.
Chislet
SEEDA completed the purchase of four hectares of derelict land in January 2003 in order to unlock a total site area of 12 hectares and act as a catalyst to greater development. The core of the project focused entirely on business growth and provided in excess of 25,000 square metres of new employment for local Canterbury businesses.
Benefits for the local economy
The Coalfields Programme has been important in facilitating the recovery of the East Kent economy following the closure of the Coalfields. East Kent is a rural economy and the programme has helped to generate alternative employment opportunities. Emerging employment opportunities (such as the construction of the Channel Tunnel) meant that with the benefit of local retraining programmes, persistent long term unemployment in east Kent could be partially addressed by some out migration of the local workforce.
For further information please contact the Homes & Communities Agency.
