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Environmental planning in Balaclava |
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Report on a Study Trip to the UKContents |
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Introduction
In October 2001, three project participants from Ukraine, Mr V.V. Saratov - the Mayor of Balaclava, Dr V.P. Isikov - a scientist from Nikita Botanic Garden, Yalta, and Dr V.P. Hayova - a scientist from the M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, Kiev, travelled to the UK on a study tour. The visit was prepared and organized by the Co-ordinator of the project Dr D.W. Minter. Another British participant, Mr R.I. Brown made presentations on planning for new towns and led a tour of Peterborough. A seminar on environmental planning was held in Whitby. Dr V.P. Hayova carried out all translation work. Objective
of visit
The main objective of this visit, funded by the DFID Small Environmental Projects Scheme, was to enable the Mayor of Balaclava and his Ukrainian colleagues to see environmental planning in operation in a British context, particularly in a new town, and in Whitby, a small coastal town in the northeast of England. Locations
visited
Among the
many sites visited by the group during this study trip, the most important
were (in chronological order):
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Tour
of Peterborough
The tour
was conducted by Mr R.I. Brown, a planner with many years involvement
in the development of Peterborough new town through his work with the
Peterborough Development Corporation. The programme began with
a presentation introducing the history of urban planning in Britain,
and going on to an analysis of past, present and future planning in
Peterborough.
The tour itself included visits to a wide range of different urban housing types, from an area in the bottom 2% of British housing (the Cromwell Road district of the city) to prime older up-market housing in Westwood Park Road. As an example of the value of the listed buildings scheme, the group were shown Thorpe Hall, a preserved building from the post civil war period of the Major Generals. From a practical view of future planning of housing in Balaclava it was particularly interesting to visit Orton township, one of the older parts of the new town, to see the interior of one of many Swedish-style houses built to attract Scandinavian investment. Hampton new town, one of the largest new town developments currently being constructed in the UK, was demonstrated as an example of maintaining traditional architectural styles in modern construction. A visit was made to a show house and to the newly opened shopping centre in Hampton new town. Hampton new town was of particular interest because significant conservation issues had been raised during its construction when the unexpected presence of a major colony of a rare newt listed under the Berne Convention was detected after construction had begun. The result of this discovery had been that the development company was obliged to provide a suitable alternative habitat for the animals at an enormous additional cost. This example was used to appraise the Mayor of Balaclava of the importance of full information about nature conservation issues before embarking on any development programme. The tour then finished with a visit to the city centre, taking in central Square, the cathedral and its precincts, and the traditional open market. Workshop
in Whitby
Why Whitby? Whitby was
selected as the workshop venue because of certain remarkable similarities
with Balaclava. Small coastal towns of similar size, Balaclava and Whitby
each have a rich and interesting history. Both have town museums (Whitby's
superb museum is an inspirational example for Balaclava of what is possible
in a town of such size) and, nearby, both have locations important in
their country's religious history: the monastery of Cape Fiolent for
Balaclava, the abbey for Whitby. Both towns have a harbour with a narrow
entrance guarded by hills, and where Whitby has its ruined abbey, Balaclava
has the ruins of a Genoese fort. Whitby has recently developed a marina
in its harbour, while Balaclava hopes soon to do the same, and in both
harbours at present there is a floating dock. Respectively, in each
town there are environmental problems associated with water: sewage
for Balaclava (a problem recently and very elegantly solved in Whitby)
and for both towns alarmingly rapid coastal erosion.
Beyond the
towns, where Balaclava has Yalta and Sebastopol as neighbours, Whitby
is close to Scarborough and Middlesborough, one also a large and famous
resort, the other a busy industrial port. For many years the military
have had a presence in Balaclava in the form of a submarine base, whereas,
less than 20km from Whitby there is the huge military early-warning
system base at Fylingdales. More attractively, the beautiful backdrop
to Balaclava is the magnificent range of Crimean mountains. Inland from
Whitby are the North York Moors, a national park of smaller but in their
own way delightful hills.
Meeting
of Mayors
The visit
to Whitby began with a formal welcome to the Mayor of Balaclava by the
Mayor of Whitby, Councillor Maurice Hatton. After an interview and photographs
for the press, the party toured the town's Museum & Art Gallery in Pannett
Park. Whitby has one of Britain's top ten private museums and, with
the Art Gallery, this stimulated much discussion on how Balaclava's
museum could be improved. The visiting party was fortunate to enjoy
the hospitality and guidance of Whitby's Mayor for much of their stay
in the town, including visits to a local school and a college teaching
English as a foreign language. During those tours the Mayors were able
to make an informal exploration of the possibility of twinning towns.
Water
Pollution
Whitby and
Balaclava have a similar layout, with built-up areas on steep sided
hills both sides of a narrow inlet. As a result, Whitby is an excellent
model for Balaclava in how to deal with waste water problems. The main
objective of the visit to Whitby was therefore to study the town's very
recently installed £32 million sewage system. This presents an elegant
solution to a difficult problem: the site where waste water gathers
is located in the centre of the town, to one side of the inlet. It takes
the form of a deep pit descending to well below sea level. This pit
is hidden from the public by clever landscaping: all that can be seen
from the road is a pleasant patio, and the Tourist Information Centre.
The site is also odourless. The entrance to the pit is through an inconspicuous
door at the rear of the Tourist Information Centre building, which leads
to a series of steel staircases. The pit is fully lined, well lit, and
equipped with the latest computer-controlled pumping equipment, with
a series of backup systems. Waste water accumulates in tanks at the
bottom, arriving from the north side of the inlet (the side on which
the pit is located) by gravity, and from the south side by pump action
through a large tunnel running beneath the inlet. All waste water is
then pumped out from the pit, through a further pipe which travels back
beneath the inlet, to the south side of the town, and then up the hill
to a sewage treatment works at Broomfield Farm, several kilometers outside
the town.
The Broomfield Farm sewage treatment works was also visited. This site, located several kilometers to the south of Whitby, and several hundred metres west of the main road to the town from the south, is very effectively hidden in a natural hollow, enhanced by further digging, and by a shelterbelt plantation of hundreds of native British trees. Here the works take the form of a series of agitation pools where the waste water is aerated to enhance microbial sewage decomposition, and gradually filtered. The solids arising from the filtering process are periodically compressed and removed to Scarborough for further treatment. Like the site at the centre of the town, these works are remarkably odourless. All work is computer-controlled, and employs only a small workforce. Tours of these facilities were led jointly by the Mayor of Whitby, and Mr Dave Williamson of Yorkshire Water. A point about the development of this system, not missed by the Mayor of Balaclava, was how the town's elected authorities (and in particular the Mayor of Whitby) had been involved in the scheme from day one, with full public consultation at each stage. Coastal
Erosion
Significant
areas of Crimea's coast are suffering from serious erosion. Yorkshire's
northeast coast has similar problems. Some time was therefore spent
to compare and contrast the two areas. Visits were made on foot to the
cliffs immediately northwest of Whitby, where severe mudslides are occurring,
and by car to Staithes, where major defensive works are in progress
to improve the small harbour. Robin Hood's Bay was also visited, to
see not only the efforts to protect the houses, but also to look at
how the village copes with the intense pressure of large numbers of
visitors. Finally a trip was made to see the new sea defence works beginning
at Scarborough, below the castle, and around the esplanade.
Sustainable
Tourism
The livelihood
of the town of Whitby is a balance between traditional fishing, various
other activities and employments, and tourism, including holidaymakers.
The group from Ukraine used the visit to become familiar with the different
attractions of the town, and the way these were used in a sustainable
manner. These attractions included Whitby's exceptional museum and art
gallery, the ruined abbey, the remarkable ship-like parish church of
St Mary's adjacent to which is the grave of Cadmaon, the earliest English
poet, the recently re-opened Tourist Information Centre, the jewelry
industry using locally gathered amber and jet (a speciality of the town),
the old lifeboat, the marina, the kipper trade, memorabilia of Captain
Cook, including a replica of his boat, the Endeavour under construction,
the Scoresby family of explorers, the famous early photographers of
Whitby, the literary connexions with Alice in Wonderland and Dracula,
and the high-quality places to eat, including the famous Magpie Restaurant
on the waterfront next to the fish market. The visitors were given many
opportunities to see how tourism and visitors are actively used for
economic development. At the same time the necessity to balance tourism
with needs of residents was emphasized, and the Mayor of Balaclava was
given several examples of how public consultation functions in a small
British coastal town.
Publicity
The visit and study tour were covered by national and local newspapers, including an article in the Yorkshire Post. |
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