Online

The Prince's Foundation

Poundbury

< Visualisation of the Llandarcy proposal (BP D'arcy Development Ltd)

The Prince's Foundation and its partners have launched an ambitious scheme to create a new urban village at Llandarcy near Swansea.

Formally launched by Economic Development Minister Andrew Davies AM on 9 January, the £1.72bn project, on the site of the former Llandarcy crude oil refinery, is planned eventually to provide 2,500 jobs and 3,500 homes.

Scheme partners include BP, the Welsh Development Agency, Neath-Port Talbot council, and the Welsh Assembly Government, and the scheme is supported by the Prince's Foundation, which has developed an "urban village" at Poundbury near Dorchester, to demonstrate principles of mixed and sustainable development and good architecture and design. In size and scope, Llandarcy far outstrips previous urban village projects; but although it may take 25 years to complete, the first 100 homes should be completed this year.

Prince Charles describes the scheme as, "Quite simply, one of the country's most ambitious redevelopments with all the potential for demonstrating genuine sustainability." He was delighted that the other project members shared his belief that you must create communities rather than simply build structures, but warned that vigilance will be needed to ensure that the results meet the rhetoric.

People, not cars, say the partners, should come first in a community that sets new international standards for design.

There is no doubt that in scale and ambition this will be one of the most challenging brownfield developments in the UK, and a true test for the urban village concept, both in terms of planning and design quality, and in terms of economic impact on the local, regional and Welsh economies. Relatively few projects that claim to be urban villages truly reflect the ambitions set out by the Prince's Foundation, and the term has been much abused by developers' marketing literature.

13/01/2003