Dalton Park was conceived in 2000 as a retail outlet center in the northeast to serve the Newcastle area. The site, a 35Ha colliery tip site, was highly contaminated and required the movement of over 600,000m² of colliery shale to create the building footprint. The terrain modeling and SuDS design carried out by Peter Wilder led to one of the most comprehensive systems in the UK with biofiltration lagoons, ephemeral stream beds, attenuation ponds and filter strips. The resultant water quality is so high that it is discharged into the local stream.
In June 2000 Tim O'Hare visited Dalton Park to assess the potential of an insitu improvement of the soil in order to create a growing medium. Using locally sourced bulk organic material he formulated a strategy for the remediation of the site.