Representatives from Nottingham City Council have visited the city of Timisoara in Western Romania to lead a high profile seminar on urban regeneration to top officials and businesses in the city.

The aim of the visit was to share Nottingham’s experience of transforming neighbourhoods through regeneration with the Timisoara authorities and key figures including the Romanian Minister for Public Works, Mr. Laszlo Borbely and the UK Ambassador to Romania, HMA Robin Barnett.

Led by Derek Martin, the Director of Regeneration at Nottingham City Council, the team of experts delivered a half-day seminar on urban regeneration, sharing their experience on issues such as the development and implementation of the Strategic Regeneration Frameworks, the restoration and regeneration of contaminated land and the development of public/private partnerships to deliver regeneration. The event, chaired by the Mayor of Timisoara and attended by the UK Ambassador and the Romanian Minister for Public Works, was extremely well received, with over 80 people in attendance.

Also accompanying the Nottingham group was an official from the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Chamber of Commerce, who visited the Timisoara Chamber and several key businesses in the area, exploring the potential for business links between Nottingham and Timisoara. The Timisoara Chamber are very keen to cooperate with Nottingham, and plan to bring a delegation of businesses back over to Nottingham later this year. They identified the extensive opportunities currently available in that area of Romania for UK firms, particularly in sectors such as renewable energies, built environment, urban regeneration and manufacturing.