What is the One Leicester regeneration campaign?

The main aims of the One Leicester regeneration campaign are to...

(1)Create a new and unifying brand for Leicester’s identity, for both people inside and outside Leicester (2)To solve some of the social, economic and environmental problems caused by manufacturing decline facing

Leicester and the UK today.

Business Quarter

The Business Quarter is not yet finished and is currently being developed. Its main aim is to strengthen Leicester’s economy by growing the tertiary sector, particularly creating more office space.

The Business Quarter has been located next to Leicester’s railway station. It is hoped Leicester’s central location within the country combined with its good rail links to London and the rest of Europe will encourage more business to move their offices to Leicester. At present the plan is for the business quarter to create 4,000 new jobs which would help to reduce Leicester’s unemployment.

The council also hope that more business’s will be wanting to use railways in the future in an effort solve some of the environmental problems created from carbon emissions produced when using flights and vehicles to conduct business.

The biggest improvement in the cultural quarter is the Curve Theatre. The idea for it came from the council in 2001. They wanted to develop a section of the city that aimed to provide a wider range of leisure and entertainment services in Leicester. They also hope the Curve will help trigger improvements to some of the derelict factories in the old inner city industrial area near St George’s Retail Park.

The cultural quarter is also home to the Leicester Creative Business Depot (LCD).This is large building where several of Leicester’s creative businesses have their base. This part of the cultural quarter aims to help the growth of Leicester’s quaternary industry where research and development into new and creative ideas can take place.

Retail Quarter

The opening of the Retail Quarter provided the big launch of the One Leicester Campaign. Although the extension of the Shires shopping centre to create the Highcross has vastly improved the retail and entertainment services in Leicester and generated more employment in the tertiary sector, there have also been other improvements.

In an effort to reduce the problems caused by traffic, several sections of the city centre have been pedestrian zones and have also seen the installation of new street furniture. These have aimed to improve the overall environmental quality of the city centre.

There are also further plans to develop the old retail area on Grandby Street near what will become known as the Business Quarter and create a park and ride drop off point that will reduce the number of cars entering the city centre, in an effort to further reduce congestion and air pollution in the city

Science Park

The Science Park is designed to expand employment in Leicester’s quaternary industries.

Leicester has two main universities but many of the graduates leave the city after they finish to take up jobs elsewhere. The Science Park will have strong links with the Universities and provide first class labour supply in form of highly skilled graduates to work in the research and development industries located in the Science Parks.

No figures are currently available to say exactly how many jobs will be created but the area designated for the Science park is quite large. The land has been cleared and the construction of the first few research spaces will take place later this year.

Waterfront

The Waterside project aims to improve an area of the city that was used by factories during the industrial revolution. These factories were derelict and have stood empty for many years. This project aims to make better use of the waterfront more environmentally attractive and improve residential property.

The river Soar and Grand Union canal run close to the CBD of Leicester. This project aims to provide 3,500 new and improved residential buildings next to the river. Some of the old factories have been converted to flats while others demolished making way for newly designed properties. It is hoped that many young workers in the expanding tertiary and quaternary industries will want to live in the new waterfront properties.

Key tasks

MUST... (1)Describe the main aims of the One Leicester regeneration project?

(2) Stick in the satellite image of part of Leicester into the centre of a double page. Annotate your map of Leicester with the names of three regeneration projects you feel will help solve the problems of manufacturing decline.

SHOULD...

(3)Stick in an image and briefly explain the aims of at least three projects

COULD...

(4) Evaluate the extent to which each project aims to solve some of the problems caused by manufacturing decline.