The Black Country Urban Park is an ambitious proposal to transform the environment of the Black Country through positive action at an unprecedented scale.
The heart of the industrial revolution, the Black Country went into a serious economic decline in the 1980s, with the loss of almost all the heavy industry,especially metal founding. Having had the longest history of heavy industry of any urban area in the world the area was left with a legacy of dereliction and contamination. Combined with considerable economic deprivation - amongst the highest levels in the UK.
The aim of the Black Country Urban Park is to turn around the area's fortunes, making it a desirable place for businesses to relocate and reverse the current trend for outmigration.
The lead partners in the development of the Urban Park are Black Country Consortium, the Metropolitan Borough councils of Dudley, Sandwell and Walsall, Wolverhampton City Council, Wildlife Trust for Birmingham and the Black Country and British Waterways.
The Urban Park proposal was an unsuccessful, second place, contender for the Peoples £50 Million lottery competition organised by the BIG Lottery Fund.