Improving the Braehead Environment
At Braehead, work has continued to treat contaminated soil. Contaminants had been left behind from past uses of the sites for industry and power generation. The removal of the contaminants forms part of Capital Shopping Centres’ (CSC) programme of improvements to these brownfield sites.
CSC has adopted a variety of methods appropriate to the contaminant and is successfully treating the land on sites both for future commercial use and those designated for residential development.
The remaining site to be remediated at Braehead is to become a residential development. Hydrocarbons from power generation and other pollutants have already been removed and the site is now to be capped with a crushed concrete isolating layer incorporating geotextile membranes. They will then be upfilled with clean soils to create a site surface that can be safely developed for the benefit of future generations.
In addition to the comprehensive contaminated land remediation works, a run of seven prominent electricity pylons at Renfrew Riverside have been removed and the cables re-routed underground, in a £4.5m improvement project entirely financed by CSC.
Once the re-routing of the cables underground was complete, the pylon removal work commenced at an event in November 2007 with the collapse of the first pylon being triggered by Renfrew North Councillors Derek Mackay (Leader of Renfrewshire Council), Bill Perrie and Alex Murrin.
The pylon removal programme was one of the largest
‘over-to-underground’ projects of its kind undertaken in Scotland
in recent years. The project has brought significant improvements
to the visual amenity of the town of Renfrew, residents at Ferry
Village and Braehead, which is one of Scotland’s fastest growing
mixed use communities. As well as the aesthetic benefits these
works have allowed previously “sterile” land to be brought back
into economic use.
Manmade contaminants are not the only pollutants to be dealt with
by the CSC team. Natural Japanese Knotweed, an invasive non-native
plant, has continued to be treated to eradication at Braehead.
Apart from spreading rapidly, it is capable of destructing
structural elements of roads and buildings through root and stem
growth.
Four years ago the plant was widespread across the development but, through a rigorously enforced programme of in-situ treatment, it has now virtually disappeared. Remaining plants are still being monitored and treated. They are diminishing such that within a further year there will be nothing of the original plant stock remaining.
All the above works demonstrate the benefits that our policy of developing wherever possible on brownfield sites can bring significant benefits to local communities. When working with the various agencies in improving environmental amenity, the close collaboration necessary can bring about important economic benefits by re-cycling land for residential and job-creating commercial developments.
