Waste land from previous industrial use, can be brought back into working order, providing amenity, leisure, education, training and employment opportunities for the local community.

Coal Spoil can be re-vegetated using methods developed by my friend Mel White, in South Yorkshire. In creating a balance in the soil structure, pioneering plants can establish, providing the amelioration sufficient for climax vegetation to grow very well indeed. 

The heavy metals are locked up in the soil structure, and the physical problems of compacted coal spoil are lost, too. Within 4 growing seasons an area of coal spoil can support growth similar to a young woodland habitat. This then provides beautiful habitats in an area that once was pure waste land.

This work can be completed in partnership with the local community, who would provide the vision for the development plan. this really can be Ecological Restoration, For the people and by the people.

An economic potential can be built into the design, so that the land can return a nominal fee each year. If you and I were offered £1,000 for a years work, we would not be too interested. This money can be raised by the community toward local community social needs. It could act as the multiplier effect, where a further amount of grant aid could increase the £1,000 to maybe £3,000 or even £10,000 from local Government Grant aid sources. This type of money could begin to make a significant impact on local community social problems. This does sound like idealism, and yet there are a great many instances where these things have taken place. Its just more "Power to the People", and who better to give it to.

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