Heartlands — Polkemmet Colliery Reclamation Scheme

This £500m regeneration project covering over 600 ha involves landscape design at a large scale. The site is located to the north, west and south west of Whitburn, close to corridor of the M8 Motorway and halfway between Glasgow and Edinburgh.

Polkemmet Colliery was the largest mine in the area. Since its closure in 1985 the area has been left with significant environmental liabilities in terms of the quality and appearance of the land, and effects on the air quality and water environment. The largest bing remains an unnatural landform and is visible from much of Whitburn and the M8 corridor. Around 120 ha of the reclamation site is derelict land in the form of mining spoil and coal bings. The remaining areas are moorland, coniferous plantation and poor grade and disused agriculture with some treebelts.

To reclaim the site it is proposed to excavate (by opencast methods) the remaining shallow coal reserves, and recycle the spoil within the excavations to create a new landscape with more natural contours. The excavations to the north will be compacted to allow future development to take place. Ground preparation to the south will see the creation of a rolling landscape suitable for the construction of two championship standard golf courses.

Heartlands is the restoration proposal for Polkemmet Colliery Reclamation scheme.

The Heartlands development covers the same area and also includes an additional area, the triangle of land between Polkemmet Country Park, the M8 and Whitburn. It proposes around 2000 houses, a new business park at Cowhill ("The Horn"), community facilities, new golf courses and leisure facilities, as well as a new interchange on the M8 and road infrastructure.

Most of the existing landscape will change and be replaced by a new overall landscape created and integrated with the new development. Around 55% of the total Heartlands development area will consist of this new landscape framework and include golf courses, woodland and avenue tree planting, watercourse restoration, habitat enhancement areas, recreational corridors and Sustainable Urban Drainage (SUDS) areas. The pattern of tree belts to the north will be recreated within the new development to replace those trees lost as a result of open cast operations and enhance those retained.

This large scale multidisciplinary project has involved a range of environmental consultants including planners, engineers, ecologists, soil scientists, arboriculturalists and golf course architects. As landscape architects, Ann Nevett Landscape Architects has developed and coordinated the landscape framework masterplan, carried out the landscape and visual assessment for the environmental statements and work is now ongoing in developing the more detailed landscape proposals for the landscape framework.