The Meden Valley
Click on the green hotspots below to go to each settlement's section. Text-based links are also provided at the foot of the map.
Warsop Vale
Royal Estate
Pleasley
Mansfield Woodhouse
Whaley Thorns
Creswell Model Village
New Houghton
Shirebrook
Brownlow Road, Mansfield
Other Settlements
The Meden Valley crosses the boundaries of Bolsover and Mansfield District Councils in the counties of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire respectively.
The Meden Valley covers 52 square miles and includes 34 villages and towns, many of which were reliant on the coal mining industry until its demise in the 1980s. The communities are in a predominantly rural setting, surrounded by attractive countryside.
During the 1980s, many of the Coal Board houses were sold off to private landlords. The target settlements within Meden Valley contain streets of derelict housing, which desperately need to be improved or cleared, in order to prevent their impact spreading out to neighbouring areas. The problem is particularly acute in this area, primarily because of the large number of rented houses in private ownership, owned by only a few landlords.
In approving the funding package for the project all stakeholders concurred with the view that the local authorities did not have the resources to tackle this problem in the timescale needed. A private sector solution is not seen as viable without major public sector commitment to address this market failure.
The problems of the area were highlighted in the Coalfields Task Force report of 1998, 'Making the Difference'. All the settlements lie in coalfields wards as identified by Sheffield Hallam University as part of the Coalfields Task Force report; 8 out of 9 wards covered by the project are in the worst 10% wards in England according to the DTLR Index of Multiple Deprivation 2000. The Task Force report concluded that the issues of major concern were:
- High vacancy and void levels
- Unduly high proportion of private sector landlords
- Poor tenure mix
- Poor physical environment and a lack of social infrastructure
- Rural isolation and poor transport links
- Lack of investment and movement in the property market over the last decade
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