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The ‘A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park’ bid was one of four across the country short-listed for a national television and website vote. The Black Country's bid was not successful.

The BIG Lottery Fund announced on the 12th of December 2007 that Sustrans’ Connect2 is the winner of The People’s £50 Million Lottery contest; the biggest ever award to be decided by a public vote.

Sustrans’ Connect2 is a UK-wide project that will create new cycling and walking routes to improve local travel in 79 communities across the country.

Inside Dudley's limestone caverns

Leaders of the ‘A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park’ project have spoken of their disappointment. They have vowed the ambitious scheme, for a £100 million environmental ‘revolution’ across Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell, will still become reality, albeit over a longer period of time.

Sarah Middleton, chief executive of the Black Country Consortium that led the joint bid, said:

“It is a disappointment but the project will go ahead,Ìý it just won’t happen as quickly as if we had the £50 million from the Big Lottery Fund.

“Thirty three projects entered the competition two years ago and to have gone right to the finishing line is a significant achievement.

“For the ambitions of the Black Country to be recognised alongside these other internationally prestigious projects is a signal of the great strides the region is making.Ìý We congratulate Sustrans and wish them well.

“We have received fantastic support over the past few weeks, from people in the community, from business and from our partners.Ìý We thank them all and particularly the tens of thousands across the country and in the West Midlands who voted for us.

“This has been an extremely worthwhile venture.Ìý The Black Country has gained national recognition for its outstanding industrial heritage, its world-leading geology and the opportunities presented by its unrivalled network of canals and green spaces.

Proposed Barr Beacon visitor centre

“Perhaps more importantly, it has brought so many people and diverse groups together in pursuit of a common cause, something we hope to build on as we go forward.

“So we will take a quick breath and move on.Ìý We will shortly be announcing the next steps in achieving Black Country as an Urban Park.â€�

The £50 million of Lottery funding would have supported the first five to ten years of Black Country as an Urban Park activity.

Cheering the Urban Park

More information: Black Country as an Urban Park

The ‘A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park’ bid included four key projects.

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Major visitor and education attractions at Wren’s Nest National Nature Reserve, Dudley, including stabilising and refurbishing the Seven Sisters limestone mines and subterranean canal basin.ÌýVisitors will travel underground by boat and rise to the surface by an inclined lift.ÌýA new interpretation centre will explain how 400 million years of geology led to the Black Country becoming the ‘workshop of the world’.

‘Canals and Waterways’

This will create new moorings, education and interpretation facilities along City Canals in Wolverhampton; improvements to open space and wildlife habitats, and making the canals safe and accessible to communities.

‘Green Bridge Park’

Plan includes a new low carbon footprint visitor centre at Barr Beacon and expansion of the existing RSPB visitor centre in Sandwell Valley; also a new pedestrian bridge across the A41.

Professor Burland in Dudley mines

‘Living Landscape’

Enhanced and increased access to natural areas around the canal network; involvement of over three-quarters of the one million population.

Bid partners

The partners in the bid were the Black Country Consortium, Dudley, Walsall, Wolverhampton and Sandwell Councils and The Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country.

They estimate that more than 800,000 people will become within a 15-minute walk of safe and attractive green space if the Urban Park becomes a reality.

Transforming the Black Country

Before the vote, Councillor David Caunt, chair of the Consortium, said: “The whole Urban Park project is a £100 million programme that will transform the Black Country’s historic and natural environment based around our unique canal network.

“It will involve 300,000 children and 3,000 local groups in transforming their environment, provide 60,000 volunteer opportunities, deliver 500 local projects and open up 3,700 acres of green space – as well as save one of the world’s most important geological features, the limestone caverns at Wren’s Nest.�

More information

Further details of ‘A Million People: Black Country as an Urban Park’ can be found on www.blackcountryup.co.uk.Ìý