Building a Neighbourhood Plan
for Bermondsey
John B. Corey, Jr
ISG Acting Chair
Bermondsey Neighbourhood Forum
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The Neighbourhood Plan:
– triggers for action
• Concern following Southwark Council’s
consultation on an SPD for the area
• Recognition of development pressures in the
area
• Established concerns wishing to preserve
historic nature of Bermondsey Street Area
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A community push for action
• A variety of groups and individuals from Bermondsey
came together at a public meeting
• Common concern to preserve the ‘special and
different’ nature of the area
– historic buildings and areas
– the social and economic mix
• Agreed a group would take Neighbourhood Plans
forward
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Our area
• Bounded by Borough High Street, Tower
Bridge Road+, New Kent Road and the river
• Includes the London Bridge ‘opportunity area’
and extended to keep neighbouring
residential communities together
• Includes:
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major employers (e.g. Guys Hospital, Southwark Council)
riverside office and tourist areas
significant private residential redeveloped areas
large social housing estates
schools and other community facilities
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How we are building the plan
• ‘Crowd Sourcing’ of ideas and concepts –
including through traditional public meetings
• Structured engagement of individual
community groups using consultants
• Gap analysis of communities/demographic
sections contributing
• Specific reengagement of ‘missing groups’
• Filtering and balancing – producing final plan
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Transparency and accountability
• Significant use of digital media channels
– Facebook page and Twitter news feed
– Using pictures and video to save time writing up
– Recognition of the limitation of a digital-led approach
• Recognition of the value of
face-to-face engagement
– going to groups in their own settings
– Acknowledging weakness of mass-meetings & write-in
consultation
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Issues for the Forum
• The unrepresentative nature of motivated group
leaders
– overwhelmingly professional middle class
– a group with an inherent focus on process
– a predisposition to the top-down formal consultation
model – as used by the council
• The challenges of pre-existing local campaign groups
– limited issues motivate people to be involved
– these groups can dominate public meetings and written
input
– those not motivated can be alienated and broader ‘softer’
interests can be sidelined or feel excluded
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Solving the representation issue
• Specific skills or domain knowledge is needed
– The specialists who get things done
– Local ties are less important than specific skills
• Leadership needs to come from a broad
representative group
– Senior elders, community leaders, special interest
groups in the area
– Local ties are critical plus breath or reach into the
community
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Jigsaw puzzle
• The Representatives Group (RG) sets the tone,
owns the decisions
• The Steering Group (SG) does the work,
implements the decisions and offers expertise
• The Community is the ultimate source of the
wants and needs of the community
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Localism does not ignore strategy
• We live and work in a context
– The national, greater London and Southwark
Borough strategy plans plus regulations take
precedent
• A neighbourhood plan fits under or within the
strategic plans
• We are talking about planning
– We can aspire & set a tone slightly wider
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Where are we today?
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DCLG Front Runner Status
Constitution in place; DCLG funds available
Partnered with Southwark Council
Actively engaging with community groups
Reaching outside the community to similar
‘localism groups’ in other areas
• Facebook page, website, multiple documents
capturing progress so far
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Active work on-going
• The project plan shows the main streams of
work
– Communication
– Identifying one or more of the DCLG funded
consulting firms to assist
– Recruiting volunteers and activists to complement
the professionals
– Liaising through Simon Bevan to stay on track
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Project Plan
• refer to project plan
– copies to be emailed to those who request one
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Taking a first step as
representatives
• Do you want to engage as the representative
for your group?
– Yes
– No
• If yes, there are a couple more things to do
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If Yes
• The SG has been an interim group with the
sole purpose of jumpstarting the process.
– The SG needs a mandate to continue for 30-60
days
– As the project evolves, the SG should evolve to
reflect the skills needed. This is a RG decision.
• Once one or more recommended professional
organisations are identified, a decision needs
to be taken to sign an engagement contract
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ISG Membership
• refer to profile PDF
– copies to be emailed to those who request one
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