Interreg IV B North West Europe "Value Added"
The “Value Added” project (2012 – 2015) is a European project funded as part of the Interreg IV B North West Europe programme.
The total budget for the project was 5,165,829 euros (of which 50% was subsidised by FEDER).
The 12 partners on the “Value Added” project were:
- South Yorkshire Forest Partnership – main partner
- Sheffield City Council (GB)
- Gemeente Amersfoort (NL)
- Vlaamse Landmaatschappij (B)
- University of Sheffield (GB)
- Verband Region Stuttgart (D)
- University of Liège (B)
- Institut für Landes- und Stadtentwicklungsforschung gGmbH (D)
- Community Forests North West Limited (GB)
- Stichting Van Hall Larenstein (NL)
- Intercommunale Leiedal (B)
- City of Liège (B)
The “investor” partners, each with a pilot project, were:
- Stuttgart: “Route der IndustrieKulturLandschaft”, a 63-km road in the Fils Valley linking historical industrial sites.
- Amersfoort: the refitting of Randenbroekpark, a somewhat abandoned site that will be restored and expanded once the hospital currently in place moves to other premises.
- Sheffield: Edward Street Park, a park situated in a multi-cultural district undergoing a booming renewal.
- VLM: Cathemgoed, creation in Dudzele of a park that will serve as a buffer zone to the A11 motorway, necessary for the development of the Port of Zeebrugge
- Manchester: “Meanwhile” aims to temporarily renew 3 sites located in the city of Manchester.
- Leiedal: the development of a “green” and “blue” network between Courtrai and Menin and a green infrastructure in a densely populated zone.
- Liège: The Chartreuse site.
The operators are funded to the tune of 50% by the Interreg programme and 50% by the Walloon Region (DG04 and DGO5). The total budget of part conducted by ULG (now known as ULiège) totalled 305,712 euros. The City of Liège part totalled 438,300 euros.
Thanks to the experience obtained on previous Interreg programmes, the City of Liège is able to provide administrative support as well as linguistic aid.
One of the project’s objectives was to reconcile and integrate the “top-down” and “bottom-up” approaches of town and country planning and in particular green infrastructure.
The other objective of Value Added was to encourage greater participation of citizens and local stakeholders, not only through increased consultation but also via more active involvement of these people in all the stages of the process: during design, implementation but also in more long-term management of planning. The project’s ambition was to show that more participation contributes to creating opportunities and benefits well beyond the planning project, in terms of community movements, social cohesion, more equitable and inclusive urban development and learning.
The project enabled financing of a series of participatory pilot projects as well as exchanges of “good practices” between European partners, whilst enjoying the support of several research institutes.
Liège therefore tested these innovative approaches on the Chartreuse site.
Between 2012 and 2015, the City of Liège extricated 400,000 euros from the municipal budgets to create footpaths within the site.
The Value Added project was an opportunity to supplement the approach described above.
The City of Liège was chosen by all the partners to host the closing conference, entitled “Adding value through community engagement”. The conference was organised on 21st and 22nd April 2015.
The sister and partner cities located in the eligible zone within the scope of Interreg IV B North West Europe were also invited to this conference. As a result, Lille, Nancy, Cologne, Esch-sur-Alzette, Gand and the MAHHL cities were invited.
Maastricht, Cologne, Lille and Nancy responded favourably to this invitation.