Meanwood Valley Strategy and Climate Resilience Plan

North Leeds

The Meanwood Valley runs from the city centre of Leeds out to its rural edges. The valley follows the Meanwood Beck which is a tributary of the River Aire. It provides a much-needed green corridor for wildlife and recreation/wellbeing for the diverse range of communities situated along its banks. It also contains several popular destinations which attract visitors from further afield.

The Meanwood Valley project is an ambitious set of aims created by a passionate group of residents, local groups and engaged professionals. The aims set out to improve water quality and biodiversity, and to protect heritage assets, whilst providing opportunities for healthy recreation for the local community. Urban Wilderness have been engaged in the project from an early stage and have helped to build a team of local consultants to enable the community to make strides towards realising their ambitions.

Client

Meanwood Valley Partnership

Services

3D Visualisation, Feasibility Studies, Historic Landscape Survey & Restoration, Landscape / Public Art Strategies and Design Coding, Public Consultation.

Urban Wilderness have produced a large-scale landscape strategy and biodiversity & climate resilience plan. We have also undertaken extensive community engagements, the findings from which feed into an online GIS interactive map. These are read alongside landscape and historic designations, and other known constraints, to illustrate a detailed baseline of the conditions. The interactive map is made available online to be viewed by all. These strategy documents, alongside the GIS mapping, now form part of a detailed evidence base, from which a series of potential projects have been identified as important to achieving the key aims of the broader vision for the valley. This evidence base demonstrates the level of understanding the group has of the valley corridor, the extent to which various groups of locals and professionals are involved in the project, and the vision to enhance both health and accessibility. This information is currently being used as an evidence base as part of a large HLF bid.

Look who's involved

“Meanwood Valley is uniquely situated within North Leeds to greatly improve urban nature and associated recreation opportunities. We look forward to seeing each sub-project come forward as part of this wider strategy ”

Hannah Beard, Project Landscape Architect