Camden Blueprint: neighbourhood planning

Donna Turnbull, Voluntary Action Camden, June 2013.

Beginnings• Voluntary Action Camden (VAC) remit to support local

groups to ‘activate’ new policy developments.

• Localism seminar March 2011.

• Neighbourhood planning captures imagination of participants.

• Regeneration / built environment knowledge and skills. Including community-led planning expertise.

Voluntary sector support

• Relevance of council for voluntary service (CVS) type skills to setting up new projects and partnerships.

• Community development work.

• Enterprise and asset development.

• Networks, relationships, local knowledge.

Basic ingredients • Community / neighbourhood groups with broad constituency

and willingness to share power.

• Community development work, and up to date knowledge of local planning context.

• Building confidence, trust and working relationships to enable the shift from being consulted into leading.

• Keeping doors open: plan boundaries; neighbourhood planning forum; working groups…….

Somers Town• Population of approximately 7,000.

• Social housing, community groups and facilities, big businesses and institutions.

• Lifetimes of living with building development.

• Poor health, no jobs, fear of crime.

• Development sites include Francis Crick Institute behind British Library and High Speed 2 at Euston.

Somers Town neighbourhood

Bloomsbury Village• Neighbourhood of approx. 2000 residents, small businesses, students and

tourists.

• Vast gap between rich and poor, pockets of extreme social exclusion, crime and high levels of fear related to night time economy.

• No dedicated community facilities.

• Overlap with Business Improvement District.

• Big development sites on southern boundary and close proximity to Tottenham Court Road Crossrail.

Museum Street (north)

Museum Street (south)

Where is your Neighbourhood?

First Try Forum?

Planning process

• Events, surveys, workshops, walks, film ……. different ways to get people involved and share ideas.

• Working groups developing ideas into projects.

• Mobilising resources.

• Continually building involvement and consensus.

What have you got and what do you want?

Good, bad and most wanted.

Planning days

Planning context

• Planning Framework: Local Plan Site Allocations ‘bite sized briefings’; seminars; training.

• Working with planning officers leading on Camden’s Place Shaping Plans.

• Camden’s Community Investment Programme.

Bloomsbury pros and cons

• Business and social networks with resources and clout.

• Built environment / other professional skills and knowledge within community.

• Too few ‘leaders’.

• Small neighbourhood area.

Somers Town pros and cons• Civil society organisations, businesses and institutions with range of skills

and knowledge to support multifaceted project.

• Good working relationship with local authority, not just the planning officers.

• Publicising and communicating in community with low levels of internet use, but not having the resources for texting, frequent leafleting, door knocking etc.

• Community politics.

• BIG LOCAL ?!

dturnbull@vac.org.ukwww.vac.org.uk/localism