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Better Places National Awards: Nominate a project now!

Submitted by Louise Dredge

Putting local people at the heart of improving the places and spaces around them is what we do (and promote) at The Glass-House. So we’re delighted to see that New Start - the magazine for making better places - has announced the launch of the Better Places National Awards. 

The Awards will celebrate and reward inspiring initiatives and the people behind them, that are making a difference to local quality of life in cities, towns and villages across the UK.

New Start are looking for organisations and projects that are innovative, work in economically and socially inclusive ways, contribute towards resilience in their locality and that have overcome significant challenges.

Examples of this are:

• The way in which your local authority engages businesses or promotes and nurtures social enterprise

• A community organisation helping the most vulnerable take a step closer to the labour market

• A partnership project that has enabled different organisations to pool their resources to fulfil a joint goal

Do you know a project or group that deserves to be rewarded for their efforts in improving your local area?

To find out how to nominate a project click here. Closing date for entries is Friday 18 May 2012.

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The National Planning Policy Framework and Community Led Design

Submitted by Sophia de Sousa

Yesterday, the final version of the new National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was released. I would like to draw attention to three very simple points that Minister Greg Clark makes in his foreword to the document:

1.    Our standards of design can be so much higher.

2.    Planning must be a creative exercise in finding ways to enhance and improve the way we live our lives.

3.    This should be a collective exercise.

Community led design aims to do all of this, and the support that The Glass-House has given communities leading built environment projects over the past decade has been founded on these principles. We firmly believe that a participatory design process that places local people at the heart of changes to their neighbourhoods can lead to neighbourhoods that are more economically, environmentally and socially sustainable. With the right support, community led design and planning can lead to more creative and better informed solutions to local problems, and to places that are both functional and delightful.

However, let us be under no illusion that this is a quick simple process. In order to achieve great placemaking, the emerging neighbourhood plans will have to grapple with urban design principles and planning legislation, feeding them into an inclusive and participatory design and planning process. They will need to consider the social, economic and environmental impact of their plans in the short and long term. Their community will need to include those who live, work, study and play in the area.  It will need to consider and include local residents, businesses and government, as well as those who manage, maintain and service the area.  Each neighbourhood plan will have to fully understand and respond to issues around land ownership and to the local (social, historical, economic, environmental etc.) context. It must also consider how the neighbourhood links to and complements the neighbourhoods around it. Neighbourhood plans must begin with a thorough understanding of place, a collective vision for change and an informed and aspirational brief.

So Minister Clark, we agree with your declaration of the importance of design quality, achieved through a creative and collaborative process, as a means of improving quality of life. We hope that the application of this new National Planning Policy Framework, and in particular the presumption in favour of sustainable development, creates the space for inspired and inspiring design and planning by, with and for communities. And we hope that adequate time, resources and practical support will be made available to help make this happen.*

Read the whole National Planning Policy Framework document here


*The Department for Communities and Local Government made a commitment to providing up to £50 million until March 2015 to help make neighbourhood planning a success. As one of the organisations delivering the 'Supporting Communities and Neighbourhoods in Planning' programme this year we look forward to hearing more about how government intends to carry forward this commitment and to exploring how The Glass-House can work with DCLG and other partners to continue to support community led design and planning within our new National Planning Policy Framework.

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Lots to learn from Neighbourhoods Study Tour in Sheffield

Submitted by Hannah Gibbs

South Owlerton in Sheffield made a fantastic case study for us to visit on a Study Tour we ran as part of the Building Community programme – supporting communities to become ‘neighbourhood planning’ ready. A number of community groups came with us to hear from South Owlerton Area Regeneration (SOAR) and tour their huge array of projects including a library, a community centre, an enterprise centre, a park and street improvements.

SOAR was originally set up by community activists and has done a huge amount of work to try and make South Owlerton which suffered from multiple deprivation a better place to live.

Groups involved in neighbourhood planning may find these learning points from the day useful:

• Projects need leadership - Each neighbourhood in the area was designated a support worker throughout the regeneration. This really helped to drive projects
• Spend time and money on building quality - SOAR decided early on to spend a bit more money on their buildings to give them distinctive features, giving the area some character. Some residents were unsure about this and felt it would be better to ‘get more building for their money’ but with hindsight, they are pleased they made this decision as the buildings they now have are of high quality
• Speak to others! - In developing the SOAR Enterprise Centre, the group spoke to other Enterprise Centres in Yorkshire & Humber and this really helped to inform their design brief
• Involve young people in a positive way – Young people in South Owlerton were involved in developing local parks and instead of vandalising those parks, were encouraged with an artist to paint graffiti to decorate them
• Work together – We felt that much of the successful regeneration in this area was due to a close working relationship with the council and others

Many thanks to SOAR for hosting us, to Sarah Hollingworth from Architecture 00:/ for  being the Enabler (providing architectural and urban design expertise on the day) and all the groups who came along.

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Glass-House Debate - Newcastle

Submitted by Rebecca Maguire

Once again the topic – Community Led Design: what is it and does it work? – was tackled in the latest Glass-House Debate, held on 21^st February. The event was hosted by partners, Northern Architecture, at the Bond Centre in central Newcastle. Sophia de Sousa, Glass-House Chief Executive, introduced the theme and said how glad she was to return to Newcastle, where there is always such a lively response to Glass-House Debates. 

As with all the Glass-House Debates, there were contrasting experiences from speakers of very different backgrounds. The first speaker was David Stewart, of the Allendale Community Housing (ACH), a community company, which is run as if it were a Community Land Trust. He spoke about the process of developing Allen Gardens - 1 family house and 2 apartments - for much needed social housing in Allendale, a small town of 3500 people in Northumberland.

Time, effort and the right skills were contributed at all levels from within the community, from the ACH Board to the developer to those working on all aspects of the project. It was possible to not only create housing with high environmental standards, meaning they cost very little to run for the tenants, but to employ local companies in the construction process too – thus ensuring that financial benefits circulated locally too.

The project was driven by clear evidence of need within the community, and allowed for lots of engagement and empowerment of the community, with open meetings throughout. There was too, a ‘mysterious ingredient’ – the passion and commitment, which helped the project complete in such a successful way.

Image courtesy: ACH

Carinna Gebhard, of space_architecture, continued the evening with her account of two projects that she had been involved with designing. Both were educational buildings, though for and with very different communities. The first example was the Evenwood Surestart and Community Centre, in a small mining town in County Durham – with high unemployment, especially amongst the young male population, many of whom were also carers. Although Teesdale Surestart was the client, the whole community was recognised as having a stake in the centre and were involved in workshops, organised so that many people could have a say in the whole building, not just the Surestart part of it. Carinna reflected that, although young people became, on completion and opening of the Centre, very proud and protective of the new centre – a higher level of involvement throughout the process could have made for fewer broken windows during the construction phase.

Her second example was a Special Educational Needs school. There was real engagement with all staff, many of the pupils and their families and carers, the medical community and wider community, as well as the client -  Knowesley Council. They listened and learnt from one another and continually reviewed and discussed the design. Collectively, the children, the wider stakeholders, client and designers, were able to come up with a beautiful and successful building designed very specifically for the range of needs of the user group –  the children themselves. 

Image courtesy of space_architecture

Last but not least, Nigel Brewer, of Places for people, talked about the engagement with existing and new communities. As one of the largest property management, development and regeneration companies in the UK – with assets in excess of over £3 billion, Places for People (PfP) still believe that every place requires a unique approach to design, and needs more than just houses to thrive – it needs schools, jobs and training opportunities, shops and leisure facilities too. For each development project they engage with both existing and future stakeholders in neighbourhood  and project planning and design. Mixing aspirations with realism, Nigel felt the process is creative and engaging. But PfP also pride themselves in providing local employment opportunities as a result of the developments  The immense social benefits of community led design, he felt, were greater ownership and respect, which in itself leads to safer communities; the raising of aspirations amongst local people and an enhanced environment for all.

Sadly, our last scheduled speaker Phil Jones from Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council was unable to attend due to poor health, but he contributed his reflections on developing a neighbourhood plan as one of the pilot Front Runners. He felt that whilst it will continue to be challenging, he felt that they had made some good progress and that in genuine partnership and collaborative effort, plans and aspirations could be achieved.

      Image The Glass-House                  

The debate that followed was passionate and heated at times. The audience was unusually ‘professional’ – usually there are many more community members in attendance. We debated the difference of scale that had been highlighted by the speakers and the impact that this had on community involvement; the different types of ‘communities’ that might be involved as users and clients, and indeed the differing nature of involvement and ownership. Once more, the breadth and importance of community involvement in the design process was eloquently emphasised by our speakers and audience.

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Building Community at Eden's Core

Submitted by Louise Dredge

Earlier this month we joined our Building Community partners - Eden Project, Locality and communityplanning.net - at the awe-inspiring Eden Project in Cornwall for the Building Community Planning Camp, an event which aimed to help communities get their heads around neighbourhood planning.

Groups from all over the country came along to participate in three days of creativity, skills development and experience sharing.

The Glass-House ran a number of workshops and we were delighted to meet so many passionate, engaged and dynamic individuals working towards positive neighbourhood change!

Here's a sneak peek of what we got up to:

What a sight on arrival! The marvel of Eden..

Visual Minutes at work

Jargon busting session - with cake!

A site visit to a proposed Eco Town site near St. Austell in Cornwall

Dinnertime!

Developing a shared vision at The Glass-House 'Design by Consensus' workshop

Participants get some hot tips and tricks on architectural drawings from The Glass-House team

A quick look inside the Mediterranean biome before departure!

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Community Rights Made Real: What will the Localism Act mean for communities?

Submitted by Hannah Gibbs

With the Localism Act (the government’s new policy giving increased decision-making powers to communities) soon to become part of our planning system, there is a lot of talk about how our communities and neighbourhoods will be affected.

Among the increased powers are 3 new Rights for communities:

• The Community Right to Bid – i.e. the transfer of buildings or land to the community
• The Community Right to Build – i.e. neighbourhood planning
• The Community Right to Challenge – i.e. the transfer of service provision to the community/voluntary sector or private companies

I went along to an event run jointly by NAVCA, Urban Forum and Croydon Voluntary Action to hear about these new rights and join the discussion on the concerns and opportunities they bring.

The Community Right to Bid could mean that assets which are valuable to communities continue to provide for them and act as hubs – giving people a space to interact and socialise. It may also help to preserve buildings of historical significance. We heard from the Stanley People’s Initiative about their building, and their story revealed how the support of the Local Authority is crucial for achieving success. You can read more about this tenacious group and how they are campaigning to take over the Stanley Halls here.

The Community Right to Build was deemed by the majority of us at the event as the right most likely to increase community influence. It will allow planning to be more proactive than reactive and will mean that an area develops as its community wants it to. However it is complex process - setting up a representative group to work on the plan, defining the neighbourhood it refers to, ensuring the plan conforms with policy and other local plans – which can be off-putting. The importance of trust between stakeholders in this process was emphasised by Donna Turnball of Voluntary Action Camden. Donna urged for fresh methods to be used (and traditional ones such as formal meetings avoided), to ensure an effective neighbourhood planning process.

Attendees felt apprehension towards the new Community Right to Challenge. Some are sceptical that it will actually allow community and voluntary organisations to take on Local Authority services, despite them being best placed to do so in many cases. The major concern for such organisations is that deprived and marginalised communities they work with who are most in need of support receive the best possible quality services.

It is crucial that Local Authorities and support organisations like us give communities the help that they need to fully take advantage of the opportunities presented by these recent legislative and policy changes, whilst helping them to avoid any dangers these new community rights can bring.

There are several free events on Community Rights scheduled around the country over the next couple of months

Residents in Kirdford analyse the neighbourhood for their Village Plan

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Reflections on the Portas Review

Submitted by Hannah Gibbs

The Portas Review, an independent review into the future of our high streets by Queen of Shops Mary Portas was published recently and made for a thought-provoking read.

The review is incredibly relevant to the work of The Glass-House and the groups we support. One of the main areas of focus is just how important high streets and town centres are and how much they can contribute to creating sustainable communities and places. The review states:

“Our high streets can be lively, dynamic, exciting and social places that give a sense of belonging and trust to a community”

(Illustration taken from the Portas Review 2011)

Portas highlights how high streets can and should be places where people mix and engage with each other and their local area. High streets have historically been importance places for social and commercial interaction and if they are made “accessible, attractive and safe” they can be again. There is also a call for planning and regulations to encourage meanwhile use of empty space and cheap market stalls for small businesses but to more explicitly discourage out of town developments.

The review stresses that high streets should form a key part of any neighbourhood plan and that neighbourhood planning as a concept should be better explained to local people to encourage them to get involved. Portas feels that communities should create a strong vision and brand for their high streets – to give them recognisable identity and character which will guide their development and create better places.

The focus on local people taking action and collaborating to improve their high streets is where The Portas Review really chimes with our work. It calls on all relevant stakeholders (the public sector, landlords, retailers and the public) to come together to make their high street work for them, whatever their interest may be. Portas also explains that through her research, she has found that the biggest successes have been where excellent communication and collaboration between local people are in place. There is a good balance in the review between encouraging local communities to take action and an appreciation that they will need local backing and wider support to be successful. Like us, Mary Portas believes that communities will be successful when they are ‘inspired and empowered’ to create change.

What strikes me having read the review is the potential local people have to make some really positive changes to their town centres and high streets. The recommendations are overwhelmingly positive, given the context they are written in, but there is a recognition that structure and guidance are required for local people to achieve change. The review seems to echo our organisational values:

“The public should no longer be seen simply as customers but as co-creators of place. At the heart of it, will be you”

It will be interesting to see how much of this potential is realised – hopefully with the right support, local people can be at the heart of changes to their town centres.

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