CampbellReith People: James Clay: Land Regeneration Specialist: A life in Context

Halfpenny Bridge and Tinsley Viaduct circa 1991. The cooling towers long since demolished. Not far from the Templeborough Steel works (now the Magna Centre); Templeborough had several fine electric arc furnaces.

My Grandmother worked at English Steel in Brightside[i] in Sheffield and my Dad designed measurement probes[ii] used in steel making around the world. When I was 11, the infamous miners strike occurred which heralded the sharp end to the already doomed coal mining industry.

As I grew up, the north of England slid down the tail end of the Kondratiev[iii] wave that had sustained it for 150 years and, against that backdrop, I first became interested in the economic, social and environmental effects of industrial decline. 

In my youth, this led to early forays into environmental science, wading into the River Don, to sample one of the key rivers that sustained the steel industry in Rotherham and Sheffield. I scrambled down overgrown banks to take samples[iv] that revealed a river filled with pollution and low oxygen tolerant species[v] which I took to the NRA[vi] laboratories in Doncaster for freely offered analysis. 

I was fortunate at this time to see the birth of the Development Corporations[vii] that gave power and purpose to the mission to regenerate derelict land, full of the legacy of industrial past[viii]. A mission that continues to this day by Homes England. 

My interests led to a degree in geography, a masters in geochemistry and an initial career working for the Environment Agency (sampling for water pollution and spending an unhealthy amount of time handling the migratory salmonids that still regularly ‘ran’ down the industrial rivers of the northeast). 

Following that I moved into consultancy, focusing on the types of sites that scattered the landscape of my youth. I helped turn former gasworks, shipyards, landfills, power stations and steel mills[ix] (to name a few) into productive uses that have provided housing, employment, and positive regeneration to many parts of the country. 

Every site has presented unique issues that tell a story of the industrial past and sometimes contaminants that have resonated in my own life. As we remediated a former shipyard affected by asbestos[x], I reflected on the life of my own Grandfather, who died of mesothelioma 2 days after his 63 birthday (exposed long after the risks of asbestos were well known and well before its use was prohibited).

As I now enter my 5^th decade, I can reflect on how resilient nature has been to the process of industrialisation, adopting to all manner of disturbances and pollutants. I am delighted that many sites have been regenerated ‘on my watch’, the broken windows, crumbling brickwork and rusting iron work replaced by new housing, infrastructure and life.

There have been many positive developments. The process of regeneration has continued throughout my lifetime and financial and regulatory mechanisms are increasingly being introduced to properly account for value of the environment (notably associated with greenhouse gasses, nutrient neutrality and ecological biodiversity).

I also reflect on how the process of environmental improvement has not quite followed the upward trajectory I expected as I waded into the Don. Water pollution is an issue with readily available technical solutions, but society has been tolerant of slow progress (and sometimes backward steps) that continue to leave us with a degraded environment in need of further investment and protection.

As we see the closure of the last blast furnace[xi] and last coal burning power station[xii] this month, it is clear that the process of regeneration and environmental improvement will need to continue with renewed energy. I am glad to be surrounded by brilliant engineers and environmental scientists who can help to provide solutions, and that remains my drive to this day.

James Clay is a Partner at CampbellReith[xiii]. A number of our projects can be seen at the forthcoming Brownfield Awards on the 17^th of October in Manchester.[xiv][xv]

You can get in touch with James Clay here.

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