All Party Parliamentary Group for Excellence in the Built Environment
Regeneration and Localism - how urban regeneration schemes can be taken forward within the context of
the new localism agenda?
Monday 11 July 2011
Speakers
Baroness Hanham, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Communities and Local
Government
Darryl Flay, Essential Land
Charles Campion, John Thompson and Partners
Cllr Andrew Bowles, Leader, Swale Borough Council
The practical implementation of localism?
What are the components of genuine meaningful community based planning?
From pioneering to mainstream
In the mid 90s John Thompson, the chairman of John Thompson and Partners took part in an Urban Design
Assistance Team or UDAT in Pittsburgh. Over several days he worked intensively with other professionals and the
community to develop proposals to improve what was then a very depressed city.
Since then our practice, John Thompson and Partners (JTP), has adopted and adapted the key team working and
participatory planning techniques first discovered in Pittsburgh. We have progressed from community architects,
involving residents in designing their own homes, to community planners using similar methods at a
neighbourhood, town and city scale. Design Charrettes and Community Planning Events have become central to
our approach and we are now applying these techniques on a wide variety of diverse placemaking projects
throughout Europe and internationally - from reinventing a street in central Stockholm, to agreeing a place based
regeneration strategy along the Crumlin Road in Belfast, to planning an eco resort with fishing communities in
Lombok, Indonesia.
We believe that sustainable development is best achieved when the knowledge and commitment of stakeholders is
engaged at every stage of the process. A structured participatory process enables the community, the private
sector and the local authority to work together in a creative way that ultimately adds value at all levels - physical,
social, economic and environmental - leading to better planning and decision making and more sustainable places.
During a participatory planning process we take people up the ladder of participation to a point where they
understand more about what is possible and what is not. We often have people saying, "I didn’t realise how
difficult it is to plan an area and balance all the competing needs!" Citizens from all walks of life learn about design
and planning and the professional team learn more about the local area and what citizens need in order to have a
good quality of life. As a result, participants begin to understand that the way forward can be about negotiation,
reconciliation and compromise.
The state of the art has progressed a great deal over the last two decades. In the 90s most of our work was
organised for the public sector including SRB programmes and Housing Action Trusts. Since then we have
demonstrated that the approach can be very worthwhile for the private sector too.
The breakthrough came at Caterham Village where a five day Community Planning Weekend, about what to do
with a redundant army barracks, was attended by over a thousand people. The process transformed the
community's previous hostility to new development into positive support for the creation of a mixed use scheme
that increased the development value of the site by £50million with over £2.5miilion of new community benefit to be
partly owned and run by a not for profit Community Development Trust. In addition, because everybody was
involved in developing the proposals, the planning application passed through the system quickly with no need for
time consuming and costly public enquiries.
Government commitment to community involvement in planning has increased dramatically in many countries, not
just the UK, and this is to be welcomed. But involvement has mostly been seen as "consultation" not "participation".
The danger is that it may become merely formulaic, leading to superficial tick box exercise carried out with little
belief in the value of the outcome.
"Neighbourhood Planning" and the "Duty to Consult" written into the Localism Bill both present a timely opportunity
to consider current modes and methods of community engagement.
The "Duty to Consult" placed upon private sector developers raises a number of issues relating to the quality of
engagement. The tick box consultation currently carried out by some major developers represents the sort of
practice the Bill aims to avoid. But who will judge the quality of the engagement undertaken and how will they
decide whether the "Duty to Consult" has been carried out to a satisfactory level?
Neighbourhood Planning also provides the opportunity for high quality community engagement to come into its
own. It lies with those who currently demonstrate best practice to establish the framework for good community
engagement. JTP is part of the Scottish Government’s Framework to Deliver Design Charrettes or Community
Planning processes in Scotland and in our tender we set out three key attributes that such processes demand:
1. the ability to engage and inspire the community;
2. the ability to successfully manage the logistics, mechanics and team work through an intensive charrette
process; and
3. the skills of Visioning, masterplanning and effective graphic communication.
The International Association for Public Participation has 7 Core Values for Participation - fundamental is that the
process is open and includes the promises that the public's contribution will influence the decision and that what
this influence has been will be reported back.
1.
Public participation is based on the belief that those who are affected by a decision have a right to be
involved in the decision-making process.
2.
Public participation includes the promise that the public's contribution will influence the decision.
3.
Public participation promotes sustainable decisions by recognizing and communicating the needs and
interests of all participants, including decision makers.
4.
Public participation seeks out and facilitates the involvement of those potentially affected by or interested in
a decision.
5.
Public participation seeks input from participants in designing how they participate.
6.
Public participation provides participants with the information they need to participate in a meaningful way.
7.
Public participation communicates to participants how their input affected the decision.
A few thoughts from our experience
Timing
Public participation must be timed at the correct point in a process, early enough in the project where it can have a
genuine impact but not too early so that the aims are unclear and overly speculative.
Mission statement
The purpose of the process must be explained - there should be a clear reason why it is being undertaken and a
clear point or end result.
Clear goals
The process must lead to something tangible
Openness and transparency
The process must be open and transparent - it is best to get certain facts into the public forum early e.g. number of
new homes to be planned for.
Designing the process
Involve the community in designing the programme including dates, times and locations of event.
Publicity
Agree with local representatives how wide to publicise and how to do it.
Community animation
It’s important to get to know the community in advance, explain the process and ensure wide ranging involvement.
Event organisation and facilitation
Be professional, punctual, approachable, relevant and flexible.
Post event
Communicate clearly about the development of the Vision and organise further meetings and exhibitions at key
milestones giving further chance for input.
Case Studies
Neighbourhood planning
On of the best examples of a local community involvement in planning the future of their place is in Scarborough.
At the turn of this century, the town was on the brink of terminal decline and Scarborough's Renaissance began in
2001 with a town wide visioning process. Following comprehensive community animation, over 1000 people
participated in the Scarborough Renaissance Community Planning Weekend. The outcome was a Visionary
Renaissance Charter for the town dedicated to quality and the establishment of a Town Team, which still actively
engages 300 people every month under the guidance of Nick Taylor, the Renaissance Manager appointed from the
private sector.
In 10 years Scarborough has been transformed. An initial public sector strategic investment of £20million, signed
off by three bodies including the Town Team, stimulated a private sector response of over £200million. In 2009 the
town won the Enterprising Britain award, the award as Europe's Most Enterprising Place, the Academy of Urbanism
Great Town Award and the International Association for Public Participation's Project of the Year. I would
recommend anyone to visit Scarborough and ask Nick Taylor to show you around.
Duty to Consult
On the private sector's "Duty to Consult" I could give many examples of recent processes. For example, I am
currently in the middle of a Community Planning Weekend for a new proposal at Shopwyke Lakes on the east side
of Chichester. The report back is tomorrow evening but just this morning we have received an email from Anthony
Quail, Secretary of the Chichester Society thanking us for "a most stimulating event" and "providing local residents
with the opportunity to participate at this very early stage in the development of Shopwyke Lakes". He goes on to
ask if we can supply images and information for a feature article they wish to include in the Society's next quarterly
newsletter. I cite this just to show how much appetite there is for genuine involvement and to illustrate the
importance of good open relationships which in no way compromise participant’s independence to comment on the
scheme through the statutory planning process once the application is submitted.
However, it seems appropriate for me to explain briefly our process at Langley Court, Beckenham for Essential
Land. Here we started with an initial on site walkabout with councillors prior to launching the community planning
process. We agreed the area for publicising the event and, following the leafleting of that area and invitation letters
to key stakeholders, we contacted local people and groups to arrange pre-event meetings. This Community
Animation was vital to explain our approach and why it is important for people to attend the community Planning
Event at this early stage in the development of the proposals. It was also helpful to have previously met some
participants when they arrived at the event rather than meeting them all for the first time.
At the Community Planning Event we had an exhibition about the background to the project that people could look
at. Many attendees may not know anyone else and it is helpful for people to have an occupying activity when they
arrive.
We then gathered people for a brief introduction before going straight into participative discussion workshops using
Post-its. We wanted people to tell us about their place. We started with Problems or Issues - not necessarily the
most comfortable thing for clients to hear at the start of the day but this approach gets everything aired upfront and
then allows space for more creative discussion. Following the workshop, which usually takes about one and half
hours, we then went on to hands-on planning and we combined these groups with site and area walkabouts.
Groups are themed and facilitated by the design team. This gives the community the chance to work with and get
to know the professionals who will draw up and submit the proposals for planning. Local participants reported back
the groups' ideas to the plenary session and we ended the day with a way forward workshop focussing on the
process going forward.
Following the public sessions our team worked to consider the outcomes and develop the ideas into an illustrated
Vision, which included an indicative masterplan for the site. This was reported back to the community at an
evening presentation and we prepared a summary broadsheet for the community to take away and consider the
Vision at their leisure.
The process is backed up by a website where people can download all publicly issued documents and by social
media - Twitter and Facebook. A key outcome at Langley Court was that the local community wanted to continue
their involvement and establish a Steering Group with key local stakeholders including the local neighbourhood
Resident's Associations. This is now being set up and we will continue with regular meetings and public events at
key points along the way to the submission of the planning application for the site and on through the delivery of
the scheme.
Conclusion
Full participation is not about getting people to agree to proposals drawn up by professionals; it is about creating
better proposals and therefore better places. Improving the quality of life becomes a shared goal around which a
Vision for the future and therefore specific projects can be developed.
One of the most urgent challenges facing humankind is how to build more sustainable cities, towns and villages.
Places that consume less energy, create less waste and pollution and that are uplifting to live and work in. The
quest is to identify and determine new forms of urbanism for the 21st century. Design based participatory planning
can play a vital role in taking this agenda forward and accelerating its delivery.
Freiburg, Germany was mentioned in the 2010 Conservative Manifesto as a "world leader in environmental
sustainability". The Academy of Urbanism’s “Freiburg Charter for Sustainable Urbanism” has twelve principles,
four of which are to do with process and community involvement. Speak to the Chief Planner Professor Wulf
Daseking and he will tell you that the people of Freiburg now expect to be actively and continuously involved in
planning their city. And for anyone who has visited Freiburg, the results are clear.
Thank you.
Charles Campion
Monday 11 July 2011