camden blueprint project€¦ · nimbyism and work to involve communities beyond the usual...
TRANSCRIPT
Camden Blueprint Project
Testing neighbourhood planning in Bloomsbury and Somers Town
Donna Turnbull, Voluntary Action Camden. Michael Parkes, Voluntary Action Camden / Planning Aid for London. May 2012.
The Camden Blueprint Project has set out to test neighbourhood planning in two inner London neighbourhoods. The intention has been to use methods that mobilise as many people as possible, address issues of access and equality, and highlight the importance of having the capacity to deliver neighbourhood planning through effective community development work and independent technical aid.
1
Summary: ingredients, observations and lessons
London: a special place
A truly global, multi-cultural city where land and rental values are higher
than anywhere else in the UK: thus the stakes are higher. London has a
long history of successful community led action ranging from Covent
Garden1 and Coin Street2 to far smaller campaigns like the Calthorpe
Project3, and countless others which either only partly succeeded or
which failed.
In this context there are projects to learn from, access to independent
technical aid, inbuilt community capacity and often a mistrust of the
private and public sectors.
Against a background of major growth opportunities there is still a
considerable voluntary and community sector network at regional and
borough levels, but funding to support core community development
work is scarcer than ever.
Community led planning: more than bricks and mortar
All community led plans will identify and address issues of community
safety, jobs and training, health, housing, education etc. If they did not
they would not be particularly credible within the neighbourhood and
would certainly miss major opportunities for making cross connections or
negotiating planning gain.
1 www.coventgardentrust.org.uk
2 www.coinstreet.org
3 www.calthorpeproject.org.uk
In Camden working with credible, experienced community organisations
like the Bloomsbury Association and Somers Town Community
Association has been essential.
Neighbourhood planning is proving to be popular and it can and should
be done.
Challenge and opportunity: culture change
Culture change is needed in the public, private and voluntary and
community sectors. Regeneration is about people as well as place. Be
pragmatic rather than formulaic, learn from mistakes, and be brave.
The public sector can help people to help themselves by sharing
information, responsibility and power. Participatory democracy can add
value to representative democracy. The neighbourhood planning process
is beginning to demonstrate this, for example through councillors seeking
information from officers on behalf of a neighbourhood forum, and
thereby assisting overview and scrutiny.
In the private sector genuine pre application consultation, ideally in
partnership with the neighbourhood forum, should take place. There is
also opportunity for mentoring and support for local small businesses,
local jobs and training schemes. There is no duty for landowners to
engage and some will not. This could be a serious problem in London.
The voluntary and community sector can support growth, help to avoid
nimbyism and work to involve communities beyond the usual
gatekeepers.
2
Challenge and opportunity: resources
There have to be resources for independent technical aid and the
voluntary and community sector should be centre stage, particularly in
London.
Both Somers Town and Bloomsbury initiatives could not have been
sustained without the basic resources of Voluntary Action Camden (VAC)
staff time, equipment and basic community savvy. VAC type specific skills
and local borough knowledge of service demand and delivery, political,
legal and operational feasibility, capacity building on all sides are essential
if neighbourhood planning is to move forward successfully from plan to
action.
Likewise it is essential to secure experienced independent planning
technical aid. Access to design, architectural or conservation services are
not usually the first priority. Central and local government funding needs
to be refocused to the appropriate local level and sector at this time.
Collaboration: a context for culture change
Get local councillors on board as soon as possible, and ideally find an
existing base e.g. Somers Town Community Centre, to champion and
ground the process. Outreach to as broad a range of residents, small
businesses and other local interests as possible and tailor the outreach
work to the people you wish to involve.
Work with existing local organisations and networks and start a skills /
resources bank or database. Meetings should be as participatory as
possible. Small groups may be a better way for everyone to be involved in
a discussion than a large forum. Use other facilitated activities like games,
themed walks, and surveys and make use of technology where
appropriate.
Equally important is to develop good relations with planning officers as
well as with others like Safer Neighbourhoods Team, Business
Improvement District etc. Prepare and agree joint briefing notes with
officers. Show good intent from the outset: invite planning officers to
speak at community based meetings, brief working groups and feed the
neighbourhood planning work into their broader frameworks and vice
versa.
Neighbourhood plan boundary and forum
The plan and forum must be credible if the public and private sectors are
going to take both seriously. That means derived in a democratic way
with input from as representative a range of local interests as possible.
The concept of a ‘first try’ boundary and forum allows for some flexibility
and change as the neighbourhood planning process unfolds. Inaugural
events were held in Bloomsbury and Somers Town to include as many
people as possible in early decision making about boundaries and forum
membership. The ‘first try’ forums and boundaries emerged from
deliberative workshops and games.
Make sure the boundary and population is not so enormous to render the
whole process difficult to realise and support in the future.
Get and keep people involved
Have a publicity strategy that uses local events e.g. Somers Town mini
planning day to be held during the summer festival. Set up working
3
groups that can get things done, link up with other initiatives, and achieve
some early wins.
Encourage different people and groups to set up their own activities that
feed into the process. Or incorporate the planning project into their
existing programmes e.g. through an ESOL class or film group. Outreach,
outreach, outreach…………
A gift: the added value of neighbourhood planning
As the most local level of all planning documents, neighbourhood
planning is the one with greatest potential to engage and empower
communities – providing it is community led. It is inevitably bottom up
and therefore likely to be dealing with, certainly where early wins are
concerned, manageable, viable, and useful small scale projects.
Neighbourhood planning is a potential gift to all those concerned to
secure real evidence of sustainable social development and the
promotion of community cohesion and community development.
Likewise it is best placed to start the necessary process of capacity
building and collaboration for delivering planning and other services in an
economically challenging climate. The connections between housing,
health, education, community safety, jobs and training, transport,
environment at neighbourhood level are invaluable in their own right.
Each element can credibly inform or cross fertilise the respective housing,
health, education, crime and disorder, employment and training,
transport strategies.
As a result much better coordination of services can be achieved,
including where so identified, local delivery solely by the community, or in
partnership with other sectors.
4
Neighbourhood planning in Bloomsbury and
Somers Town March 2011 – May 2012
Community Context
Beginnings
Camden Community Empowerment Network (CCEN)4 hosted a seminar5
in March 2011 to debate the implications of the then Localism Bill.
Feedback and follow up calls from voluntary and community groups
revealed neighbourhood planning to have the most popular appeal of all
the new ’rights’ included in the Bill. Two groups with an interest in
developing a neighbourhood plan who contacted us were the Bloomsbury
Association and Somers Town Community Association.
The Bloomsbury Association had already familiarised themselves with the
planning elements of the Bill and had aspirations for ‘Bloomsbury Village’
which they believed could be achieved through neighbourhood planning.
So with a Planning Aid for London (PAL) volunteer on board we decided to
shape a local approach to neighbourhood planning before legislation and
the potentially inhibiting influence of regulations.
Initial meetings with Somers Town Community Association also revealed
local priorities that could be developed through neighbourhood planning.
Critically the two neighbourhood associations we decided to work with
have broad based constituencies and ideas that need a vehicle.
4 CCEN was hosted by Voluntary Action Camden until end December 2011.
5 Speakers from Voluntary Action Camden, London Borough of Camden, Planning
Aid for London.
Enthusiasm for forging new networks and partnerships and willingness to
share power has also been important. The neighbourhoods both have
histories of development impact with little community influence or gain.
Bloomsbury Village
The Bloomsbury Village neighbourhood covers twenty acres immediately
south of the British Museum and has a population of approximately 1800
residents, dozens of small businesses, students and thousands of tourists.
There is a vast gap between rich and poor with pockets of extreme social
exclusion and high levels of crime and fear related to the night time
economy. There are no dedicated community facilities apart from St
Georges Church6. The neighbourhood has two large development sites7
within its boundary, is in close proximity to the Tottenham Court Road
Crossrail development, and overlaps the InMidtown Business
Improvement District.
Somers Town
Geographically and socio-economically Somers Town is almost a natural
neighbourhood. The majority of the population of about 9000 have a life
expectancy ten years lower than people living in Hampstead in the north
of the borough. Dense housing is bounded by major railway stations at
Euston and Kings Cross St Pancras, and Camden Town and Euston Road to
the north and south. There is currently one new development site8 within
the neighbourhood, construction of the Francis Crick Institute is
6 Anglican Grade I listed Hawksmoor church on Bloomsbury Way.
7 Former Royal Mail Sorting Office site and land opposite on Museum Street,
both fronting New Oxford Street. 8 Euston Traffic Garage on Drummond Crescent.
5
underway behind the British Library, and there is the probable arrival of
High Speed 2 at Euston in the future. Many Somers Town residents have
lifetimes of living with the impacts and inconveniences of building
development.
Getting started
Bloomsbury Village
The Bloomsbury Association was already forming a Bloomsbury Village
vision. Neighbourhood planning was seen as a means to develop those
ideas. Priorities included improving streetscape and community safety,
and supporting small businesses. An event took place in July 2011 to set
up a ‘first try’ neighbourhood forum and agree the boundaries of the
neighbourhood. The venue was Hawksmoor’s grade 1 listed St George’s
Church – the only obvious community space in the neighbourhood. The
event was well attended by residents, local businesses, and landowners.
Council planning officers attended and also helped out at the last minute
with workshops.
Alternating workshops were designed to encourage deliberation.
Discussion about the neighbourhood forum was facilitated with a card
game where participants chose 21 stakeholders and 6 additional co-
optees or advisers. The resulting forums then influenced, or were
influenced by, the neighbourhood boundary discussions. Analysis of the
workshops revealed strong relationships between percentage of
residents on the forum and what to include within the boundaries. Whilst
small business interests are one of the drivers behind the Bloomsbury
Village project the consensus was to include large development sites on
New Oxford Street only if the majority of forum members were local
residents.
Attendees were also invited to fill in postcards offering time, skills and
other resources to the project. The cardboard post-box filled up with
offers of meeting space, people taking on the tasks of talking to
6
neighbours, leafleting and carrying out surveys, various built
environment and design skills, and IT support.
Somers Town
In September 2011 a similar event was held at Somers Town Community
Centre. Somers Town is a larger area than Bloomsbury Village and houses
significantly more people. The event took place during the day with
workshops targeted at specific groups of older people and parents of
young children, and in the early evening for open public workshops.
Somers Town is almost a natural neighbourhood so discussion about
boundaries focussed on whether to include newer additions to the area
along the boundaries like the shopping area in St Pancras Station, or
other areas on the periphery with residents who use facilities in Somers
Town. The discussions about forum membership were more complicated
with a large population and numerous interests to represent. Analysis
revealed consensus on having a majority of ‘representative’ residents,
and including local councillors, businesses, institutions, the voluntary
sector, police etc. The challenge was (and is) keeping the forum
representative but lean enough to be able to make decisions and get
things done.
The postcard offers in Somers Town were less forthcoming, possibly
because the area has a high number of active residents and supportive
community groups who invariably take on responsibilities. Importantly
the area has a community centre with formal and informal space for
people to meet and stay in touch with the project. Worth noting is that
approximately 80% of people attending the first Somers Town event did
not use email or websites. In Bloomsbury all participants had an email
address.
An addition to the event in Somers Town was to ask people to list their
top three priorities for the neighbourhood. The results reflect
longstanding needs and aspirations in Somers Town for real and local
economic benefits from new development. Generally speaking jobs,
health equality, and more improvements to housing and the
environment. An agenda actively championed by the local ward
councillors.
Camden Council
VAC contacted council planning officers at an early stage of the project. A
first meeting established that officers were prepared to give technical
guidance where they could and would supply electronic plans of the
neighbourhoods. It was agreed that officers would be kept up to date
with developments and could also learn from the process.
Camden Council had already embarked on a place shaping initiative. Place
shaping plans are being developed for areas of the borough subject to
development pressure and change. The process involves consulting
communities affected and developing a vision to guide new development.
The Bloomsbury and Somers Town neighbourhoods both overlap with
place plans. This has been approached as a positive and mutually
beneficial aspect of the Blueprint project from the start. The parallel
processes can share information and enrich both plans. Additionally the
place shaping has meant that there are lead officers for each plan
focussed on issues that are also relevant to the neighbourhood planning.
These officers have been involved in planning and development working
7
groups in Bloomsbury and Somers Town, and have provided valuable
briefings and Local Development Framework (LDF) guidance.
The neighbourhood plan is the bottom rung of the local planning
framework so it needs to connect and contribute to shaping the whole
too. Camden’s place shaping is not part of the statutory planning
framework, but the approach makes a useful resource in Camden for a
young neighbourhood planning process finding its way.
Planning process plus
It’s not new, but……
Communities have led planning initiatives before. The difference now is
legislation that gives a neighbourhood plan a place within the statutory
planning framework. Whilst limited in some ways (expectation of adding
to existing development plans) it still gives people an opportunity to start
from a positive point of view. To engage with the planning system
constructively, not simply to object to imposed development. From there
anything can happen, and neighbourhood planning may or may not turn
out to be the right vehicle to achieve community aspirations.
On the other hand it can be part of a much more integrated platform for
civic participation in shaping and improving services, growing community
assets and generally reinvigorating democracy. Priorities can be matched
up by linking the neighbourhood planning process with other local
strategies like the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment, safer neighbourhood
plans, Business Improvement Districts etc.
Where this has happened in Somers Town the activity that goes beyond
building development ensures that the whole project maintains a
vibrancy and momentum that might wain simply waiting for plans to get
agreed and building to happen.
Through this additional activity there are early wins to be had, like the
neighbourhood watch schemes and new business enterprises being set
up by the Somers Town Neighbourhood Forum working groups.
8
Mobilising
To make the planning process as inclusive and representative as possible
a variety of activities, outreach opportunities and media have been used
in the Blueprint project. Meetings have been kept as informal as possible.
Encouraging action focussed working groups that reflect neighbourhood
priorities has allowed people to pursue areas of interest rather than get
bogged down in every detail.
The emerging neighbourhood forums are more dynamic cluster of
working groups than formal committee. Representative participation in
the projects is more difficult the larger the neighbourhood. Even in an
area as small as Bloomsbury Village the capacity to reach people
effectively is limited. Nothing is ever as effective in motivating and
mobilising as talking to people face to face. The commitment of people
who get involved to talk to others in the neighbourhood (a sort of ‘knock
on’ recruitment) is crucial.
Activities
There are already plenty of methods and tools available for community
planning, from Planning for Real9 type activities to readymade surveys like
Place Check10. Community outreach work is essential to ensure the
process presents opportunity for everyone to get involved, and
establishes different ways of gathering opinion and information. In
Bloomsbury personalised letters and stamped addressed return
envelopes were used to encourage input from 70 housebound residents.
9 See www.communityplanning.net for ideas, and information about Planning for
Real® and similar tools. 10
www.placecheck.info
In Somers Town young people suggested defining neighbourhood
boundaries by filming whilst cycling around the area – a sort of beating
the bounds by bike.
Local mosques have been engaged through the persistence of the PAL
volunteer in developing personal relationships with trustees, and taking
time for some important myth-busting about earlier planning and
development in the area. The culmination of these efforts was
information about the project being disseminated to a congregation of
several hundred people attending Friday prayers, and the participation of
trustees in the neighbourhood forum.
Outreach and involvement is a continuous element of the planning
process embedded into the whole array of activities. Activity doesn’t just
happen though. Support, facilitation and technical help are all critical to a
successful project – a project that has purpose, lets different people take
the initiative, can meet local expectations, harness local skills and
resources, include everyone who wants to take part and boost local
neighbourliness and well-being through process not reliance on an end
result.
Relationships
In Bloomsbury and in Somers Town the relationships between local
stakeholders are different to the multi-agency / local community
collaborations that have developed in the past, for example single
regeneration budget and neighbourhood renewal partnerships. These
have been instigated and led by the public sector with the public body
having the decision making power but also shouldering the
responsibilities and risks of ownership.
9
The emerging neighbourhood planning forum in Somers Town has
already encountered some of the challenges involved in real community
led collaboration, from tensions between voluntary and community
sector values and some private business practices, to issues of
representation across a large and diverse neighbourhood, to managing
relationships with traditional hierarchical public structures. All the
stakeholders are stepping into new territories, and familiar boundaries
are changing.
With no higher authority to refer to for rules or decisions a process of
collective problem solving is developing drawing on the resources of all
stakeholders. The emerging peer networks where contribution is valued
equally also present broader opportunity for more people to join in – they
don’t have to start at the bottom or fit into a fixed structure. Our
experience so far shows that ward councillors appear to fit pretty well
into this way of working, as do the local authority planning officers
who’ve enabled the process through guidance and advice. The challenge
is to properly engage cabinet members and chief officers so that they can
trust in and surrender some power to what may seem a chaotic and risky
new landscape.
Emerging outcomes
Outcomes
Facilitation of neighbourhood planning in Bloomsbury and Somers Town
has brought stakeholders in the community together motivated by
legislation and diminishing economic resources. In order to develop
neighbourhood plans governance and management working groups are
busy consulting on and writing constitutions, and preparing to apply for
recognition as neighbourhood forums. Already in Bloomsbury a major
developer has approached the forum group to discuss development plans
for a site within the neighbourhood boundary. A cautious meeting on
behalf of the developer, but still a coup for the Bloomsbury Village
project, who have practically been a pre planning application first point of
contact.
A planning for real type event in December 2011 gave some indications
about what might end up in the Bloomsbury Village neighbourhood plan,
and the project has generous professional pro bono support that is
helping with streetscape strategy and an interactive website. However
the project is still largely dependent on one energetic individual
organising everything that happens. The danger is that without more local
residents taking the lead the project will cease to be community led and
instead become a showcase for professionals (ourselves included!)
developing resources and expertise in neighbourhood planning.
In Somers Town the opposite has happened. The energy of the
community and a community association happy to share power is driving
the project forward. The pro bono skills and resources are all coming from
within the neighbourhood. The planning and development group are
10
moving forward using the under construction Francis Crick Institute as a
precedent for negotiating better future planning gain11. The section 106
agreement is securing apprenticeships and jobs for local people, a new
‘living centre’, support for local schools, and streetscape improvements.
The planning and development group is currently focussing on a
designated development site and the possibility of High Speed 2 in the
area. A neighbourhood plan will eventually be agreed, but the Somers
Town project has already moved well beyond the confines of the planning
system.
An employment and training group is addressing youth unemployment by
connecting local businesses, institutions like the British Library, and the
local council with young people looking for opportunities. The result is
fairly straightforward: local employers are offering training and jobs to
local people that need them.
In parallel residents, housing providers, the police and other stakeholders
are busy setting up small neighbourhood watch type schemes to start to
address some of the anti-social behaviour issues in the area. This overlaps
with the young people looking for jobs, so they have set up a youth forum
and will be getting involved in the neighbourhood watch too. Residents
concerned with open social spaces on the local estates also believe that
there’d be less anti-social behaviour if everyone knew each other a bit
better. Through the neighbourhood forum parents can easily connect
with housing providers to set up key holder schemes to open up locked
playgrounds and gardens. The thinking is that their kids will all get to
know each other and develop mutual respect that will help to combat
11
UKCMRI / LB Camden Section 106 agreement. March 2011.
anti-social behaviour in the future. They are thinking long term and
sustainable.
The groups all come together back at the ‘forum’ each month. Three
months down the line there is strong communication and healthy overlap
between activities which adds value all round. For example the
connection between anti-social behaviour and unemployment, or
building development and health, or any other combination is hard to
avoid, but it’s all in the right place to find achievable solutions.
11
Next steps
What’s needed now?
All this work should be long term and on-going. Ingrained in the
neighbourhood, part of the culture. Ideally the potential for
neighbourhood planning projects to empower and inspire communities to
solve problems and improve life quality will eventually be recognised in
the form of sustainable resources.
There is potential to plan environments that really do deliver the
infrastructure, services and social and economic benefits that people
really need and want. The small scale bespoke DIY nature of the
Bloomsbury and Somers Town projects make it possible to accurately
connect a problem with a solution, or demand with supply. Key resources
needed to enable projects like this are technical aid and creative
community development work that will ensure inclusion and provide
independent insights for progressing the projects.
The sums of money required are pretty small compared to the millions
currently spent on vast contracts that are often chasing the same results.
Or indeed compared with funding available to progress aspects of
government’s Big Society. The tendency to throw millions into short term
bursts of support is wasteful and gives no time for coherent development
and change. To put it in perspective £400,000 could enable and facilitate
the extremely lively Somers Town and Bloomsbury projects at current
activity levels for 6 years. This is the sort of sum government programmes
seem to want to see spent in 6 – 18 months.
The neighbourhood planning ‘front runners’ are being reviewed, and
independent projects like Bloomsbury Village and Somers Town are also
examining the pros and cons of community led planning with statutory
weight. At this stage the obvious conclusion is that realistic and
sustainable resources are critical to sustainable planning and stronger
communities. In short the seriousness of legislation needs to be matched
with some more serious enabling if people are really going to be given a
chance and equal opportunity to shape their own neighbourhoods.
Next steps in Bloomsbury Village and Somers Town
In the next few months it is likely that the neighbourhood forums in
Bloomsbury Village and Somers Town will seek ratification, and
formal agreement on plan boundaries, in order to progress their
neighbourhood development plans.