Cinderford
An SRB-funded regeneration programme for the town at the heart of the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire
Cinderford is an ex-mining town and the largest town in the Forest of Dean, population c. 10,000 and rising. Fifteen years ago it had closed shops and no town signs, but a combination of a weekend design workshop and Civic Trust study report led to a successful bid for Year 2 of the Government’s Single Regeneration Budget scheme, with work starting in 1996.
As the first regeneration partnership manager, I organised a visible town centre office and a series of public evening meetings and discussions. The resulting action plan was made up in equal measure of suggestions from residents, suggestions from the study report, and ideas brought in by myself from elsewhere:
Cinderford Partnership Delivery Plan 1998-9
The programme continued for five years, and some pictures of key projects are shown below. Subsequent regeneration ideas came through the East Dean Initiative, the GL14 project, and a series of proposals for redeveloping the “northern arc”, ex-mining land to the north of the industrial estate. The latest details of current proposals can be found on the Forest of Dean District Council’s website:
