ABSTRACT
Assessing the impact and influence of such groups is difficult, given their heterogeneity and the diversity of their aims and approaches. Their involvement with local authorities and developers can range from close consultation and involvement to outright hostility and confrontation. While it is dangerous to overgeneralise, it is probably true to say that the impact of these groups has been relatively marginal to the aims of local authorities and developers. Often the concessions granted to protesters have been token or developers have appeared to take note of community issues largely to give the appearance of democracy, consultation and communal involvement in development (T. Hall and Hubbard 1996: 166).
An ongoing wave of urban regeneration and change that seems destined to have a significant impact on the geographies of cities in the early part of the next millennium is that associated with millennium projects. Millennium projects, are those projects in the UK, over 10 000 in total, funded primarily through a combination of national lottery and private industry funding, designed to celebrate the millennium. Projects range across the areas of heritage, culture, arts, sports, the environment and community regeneration. To date in the UK millennium projects have absorbed over £2.5 billion of national lottery funding with an additional contribution, itself likely to be in excess of £2 billion from private sponsorship. In total, it is likely that over £5 billion, from various sources, will be spent on millennium projects. Millennium projects are incredibly diverse ranging from micro-scale community initiatives such as street history projects, through architectural restoration and ecological projects, up to the major landmark projects located in major UK cities. The most famous of these is the Millennium Dome in Greenwich, built at an estimated cost of £780 million. However, major millennium projects have also formed the cornerstone of area, or even city-wide, regeneration programmes in cities like Birmingham, Manchester and Leicester. Grants for millennium projects are awarded through one of five awarding bodies (Arts Councils, Millennium Commission, National Heritage Memorial Fund, National Lottery Charities Board and the Sports Councils). Grants typically contribute up to fifty percent of project costs, the rest being raised from alternative sources such as private sponsorship.
