This talk will present the historical and heritage contexts for the AHRC funded Landscape Decisions project, ‘Decommissioning the 20th century: energy landscapes, heritage and community’, and current work in progress.
The project aims to establish a new role for local communities in decommissioning large industrial facilities. As the UK aims to achieve a zero-carbon economy, one impact will be to transform much of the UK’s 20th century energy infrastructure – a change comparable to the end of coal mining. Decommissioning the Twentieth Century, and its sister project, Planning Creativity examine how techniques and knowledge from the Arts and Humanities can inform more genuine community involvement in what happens to sites in which many have invested much of their lives. It brings together communities connected to three sites:
• Chatterley Whitfield Colliery near Stoke on Trent
• Fawley Power station and oil refinery near Southampton
• West Burton Power station near Gainsborough.
We are working with a range of community partners, artists and other local groups to co-produce a reflexive set of reflections and creative and digital outputs. This talk will present work in progress, including the digital outputs of a 3D rendered model of the Chatterley Whitfield site as a potential method for engaging local communities in heritage and the planning process.