At Sighthill in Glasgow, City Deal investment is helping to re-connect an area equivalent in size to 60 football pitches to the near-by city centre and open up the north of the city for growth.
Extensive remediation has addressed historic land contamination, a result of the area’s industrial heritage, enabling the construction of thousands of new homes, landscaping to create a new city park and green pedestrian and cyclist bridge over the M8 motorway, bridging physical barriers between people and place. Local flood management issues are being addressed with the completion of Europe’s first ever smart canal scheme close to Sighthill, unlocking a further extensive area in the north of the city for regeneration.
Residents will have access to woodlands and wetlands, allotments and a village green, with terraced canal-side banks providing access to the waterfront. Play is prioritised. SuDS feed into a ‘Smart Canal’ and are a city-wide prototype.
Some facts about the project…
- Sighthill involved a phased construction programme and extensive public engagement, including the decant of two schools and working around 250 existing homes on site and educational campuses operational throughout.
- 48 hectares of city centre land have been brought back into safe public use through extensive remediation of the site, the ground having suffered industrial contamination. 30ha of this is new green infrastructure.
- 4,120 new trees of at least semi-mature size have been planted across the site, varying in size to ensure both instant impact and longevity. For bio-resilience, a wide range of tree species has been chosen and even main avenues feature mixed species to guard against potential catastrophic species failure in future.
- The site has capacity to retain 100% of surface water through an extensive sustainable drainage system. This SuDS strategy includes a pioneering Smart Canal drainage system, which allows the canal’s water levels to be controlled mechanically and digitally. It is the largest example of an integrated SuDS system in the west of Scotland, and it has unlocked development potential for hectares of waterside frontage.
- 25% of housing is social rental. Housing mix was considered to encourage generational moves within a development – important in terms of creating and sustaining a strong sense of community in a neighbourhood.
- Local businesses will be encouraged to take on-site commercial units. Retail will provide additional job opportunities.
- Main and subcontractors are committed to providing community benefits, including an on-site training facility for young people offering them the opportunity to begin a career in construction.
