Owen Temple

I’m expecting a surge in readership in the next twenty-four hours as people log in to see what Project Genesis was designed to do to our townscape!

I’m not sure about the precise dates of these two maps, but the print and low tech black and white design of this one B&W Genesis Map (click to open) and the detail makes it clear that it is the earliest. The Consett bypass still looks to be under construction, and certainly there is no idea that Consett is to have so much housing developed. Nor is there any suggestion that the heart of Consett should become skewed towards the Berry Edge site which many people see as the result of moving the Technical College, Sports Centre and proposed retail park there.

The second map project-genesis-trust-map.pdf (click to open) is later with the Consett bypass constructed and the earliest buildings on the Hownsgill Industrial Estate. A little bit of extra housing has just sneaked into the plan, too, down at Templetown.

The original plan was never meant to be set in tablets of stone, and that is made clear in the documents of the time, but what was meant to happen was clear from the article printed yesterday. Any change had to be approved by the trustees, upon which the Council is represented. The upshot of that should clearly have been that changes were reported back to the council , together with their justification. That’s the argument which is still going on - and it also shows the biggest weakness of the scheme.

A primary motivation of the scheme appears to have been to enable access to government grants, particularly Derelict Land Grant, on favourable terms which would not have been available to the council. There’s nothing wrong with that - except that in giving away control of the land to a development company (whose ownership has changed) and a charity (whose trustees have changed out of all recognition in a decade and a half) true accountability for this legacy from Consett’s past was also given away for all time.

All I’m interested now is in recovering as much of that accountability as is possible, through pressure and publicity, and through the active involvement of the Derwentside District Council Audit Committee. This is vital before we move into the new unitary authority which will lack knowledge of the history of the project, and may lack the will to influence the future of the project.