Issues in waterfront regeneration: More sobering thoughts-A UK perspective

Abstract

The issues of waterfront regeneration, including questions concerning the problems associated with regeneration panaceas, design paradigms, public facility provision public/private sector partnerships and broader concerns between economic and social objectives, are now well documented. Evidence increasingly suggests that development strategies should perhaps rely more upon a balanced economic and social provision of facilities. At a time when the new UK government is establishing its urban planning credentials, the concept of 'the people's city' echoed by the authorities in Barcelona is one which fits well, at least in concept, with the ethos of the new British Government, although such examples from the Greenwhich waterfront are not promising indicators. It is also disappointing and perhaps an irony that most recent commentary relating to contemporary waterfront regeneration still largely originates from the US. Nevertheless, lessons from Europe, together with a new-found impetus to offset pressures for out-of-town development and to re-focus on the regeneration of declining urban areas, will provide the UK with new opportunities and challenges to redevelop waterfront sites in the next millennium. Indeed, Kelly's recent assessment of waterfront regeneration prospects indicates that there is now a clear upturn in development interest for new waterfront sites (Kelly, 1996). It is time, therefore, for new waterfront development projects, especially in the UK, to increasingly reflect more on wider European development perspectives which tend to integrate design, environmental, social and economic objectives more effectively.