Rural Regeneration Conference Building Sustainable Rural Communities Thursday 19th March 2015

#ruralregen

Rural Regeneration Conference Building Sustainable Rural Communities

Thursday 19th March, 2015Cefn Lea Park Conference Centre, Newtown, Powys

9:30–10:00 Registration, Tea and Coffee

10:00Conference Chair Welcome Berwyn RoomNia Griffiths, Director of CREW Regeneration Wales

10:15Conference address from Lesley Griffiths AMMinister for Communities and Tackling Poverty

10:30

Keynote Address

• Rural Housing; Creating Sustainable Communities Steve Jones, Chief Executive, Tai Ceredigion

• Stimulating Economic Growth in Rural Communities Doug Hughes, Director, Hughes Architects and Chair of the Severn Valley EFFECT

11:30 Refreshments and networking

11:45

Keynote Address Berwyn Room

• Securing Rural Community Benefits Gerallt Llewellyn Jones, Managing Director, Menter Môn, and CREW Board member

12:15“Just a Minute” Workshop sell – without hesitation, repetition or deviation!

12:20

Workshop Sessions: (choice between)

1. Rural Alliances/Wales Rural Vibrancy Index Cader Room 2 Richard Tyler, Sustainable Tourism Manager for Brecon Beacons National Park Authority with Jill Venus

2. Innovative Finance for Rural Communities Cader Room 1 Mick Brown, Development Manager, Robert Owen Community Banking

3. Transition Towns and One Planet Council Plynlimon Room 1 Pete Linnell, One Planet Practioner and Theorist

4. Developing Housing in Rural Communities and the role of Rural Housing Enablers Berwyn Room Walis George, Chief Executive, Grŵp Cynefin and David Hedges, Director, Cyngor Da

5. Rural Retail Support for Community-Owned Shops Plynlimon Room 2 Grant Peisley, Community Advisor, Plunkett Foundation

13:15 Lunch and networking

14:00

Keynote Address Berwyn Room

• A New Rural Paradigm Professor Terry Marsden, Cardiff University

14:30“Just a Minute” Workshop sell – without hesitation, repetition or deviation!

14:35 Refreshments and networking

14:45

Workshop Sessions: (choice between)

1. Community Renewable Energy Berwyn Room Dan McCallum, Co-founder, Awel Aman Tawe/ Egni Community Energy

2. Community Transport Cader Room 1 Sian Summers-Rees, Director, Community Transport Association with Sarah Leyland-Jones, Senior Officer Community Transport & Training, PAVO

3. Rural Engagement Processes Plynlimon Room 2 Helen Murray, Chief Executive, PLANED and Aidan Ackerman, Director of Customer Services, Mid Wales Housing Association.

4. The importance of getting residents online in rural communities Plynlimon Room 1 Anthea Hogg, Tenancy Services Manager, and Louise Blackwell, Community Development Officer, Clwyd Alyn Housing Association

15:45 Plenary/Feedback session

16:00 Chair Close

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Rural Conference workshop summaries

Nia GriffithsDirector, CREW Regeneration Wales

Steve Jones Chief Executive, Tai Ceredigion

@NiaCREW

@SteveJones93

Nia took on the role of Director of CREW in September 2014, on secondment from Welsh Government. Prior to this Nia worked on the Rural Development Plan, most recently as Head of Implementation for the community-led LEADER programme. She also established the Wales Rural Network which promotes co-operation and the sharing of good practice amongst organisations in rural Wales, as well as bringing in expertise from the UK and Europe.

Nia has over twenty years’ experience of working in the regeneration field, with a particular focus on community and grassroots-led regeneration. She established the Cadwyn Leader Group in North Wales, was involved in the design and delivery of the Welsh Development Agency’s Community Regeneration Toolkit and spent six years co-ordinating rural training networks with Education and Learning Wales (ELWa).

A Welsh speaker, Nia spends a good deal of her time volunteering in her native community in the Severn Valley, Mid Wales. She was a founder director of a local regeneration company, is involved in several arts and heritage projects and is currently leading community research into the impact of the First World War on the local area.

Steve has worked in housing for 30+ years across the UK including Anglesey, Sheffield, and in Scotland, after gaining a housing degree at Sheffield Hallam University.

He is Chief Executive of Tai Ceredigion, a community based LSVT housing association which he helped establish in 2009 to take over and improve the 2227 homes from Ceredigion County Council. He is a Board member of the Chartered Institute of Housing Cymru. Steve is Chairman of the Wales Rural Housing Strategic Group, and is also a Trustee and Chairman of Digartref Ynys Mon Board, a successful homelessness charity on Anglesey which he helped to establish.

Steve is a fluent Welsh speaker who is committed to providing services bilingually.

Speaker Biographies

MORNING

Workshop 1– This workshop will outline the Rural Alliances initiative which aims to develop alliances between local businesses and their communities with the idea of pursuing mutually compatible aims. In the Brecon Beacons this is being expressed through sustainable tourism.

Workshop 2 – In this workshop Mick Brown will be exploring Innovative Finance models for rural communities and the role of ROCBF.

Workshop 3 – This workshop will cover the work of the One Planet Council, ie. one planet living and sustainable communities, environmental building and refurbishment and negotiating the planning system, especially in regard to land values and renewable energy/low carbon technologies such as solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, etc.

Workshop 4 – This workshop will explore the role of housing associations in developing affordable homes in rural communities, and the challenges and opportunities experienced by the sector. David and Walis will demonstrate how Rural Housing Enablers have been vital in bringing together key partners and taking forward housing schemes.

Workshop 5 – Year-on-year rural community-owned shops have been outperforming the large supermarkets. By attending this workshop you will have the opportunity to learn all about community owned shops and the impact they have. With this information, alongside an understanding of who to ask and what support is available, you will be ready to help start your own community-owned shop.

AFTERNOON

Workshop 1– Within this workshop Dan McCallum, of Awel Aman Tawe, will be giving an overview of community energy in Wales and its potential future directions.

Workshop 2– This workshop will give a definition of community transport and the role of the CTA as a national organisation. The role of PAVO and local case studies will also feature with examples of setting up schemes and an interactive session around what rural communities might need to consider when setting up a community transport scheme.

Workshop 3– This session will share examples of good practice community engagement in integrated rural development projects, with input from PLANED, internationally recognised in its practice of community led local development, and Mid Wales Housing Association who have experience in engaging with communities in deeply rural settings.

Workshop 4– Anthea and Louise will demonstrate the importance of getting their tenants online and enabling tenants to learn the necessary skills to become digitally included in rural communities.

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Richard TylerSustainable Tourism Manager, Brecon Beacons National Park

Mick BrownDevelopment Manager, Robert Owen Community Banking Fund

@RuralAlliances1

@BreconBeaconsNP

@ROCBF

Richard is Sustainable Tourism Manager for Brecon Beacons National Park Authority where he has worked for 12 years. He leads a team of 7 involved in a wide range of tourism development activities from community and green tourism development, through the Geopark programme to a major visitor transport project. Partnership development, including strong engagement with the private sector, has been a major part of his role.

Prior to working for the National Park Authority, Richard had a long history of working in nature conservation where he was involved in a wide range of sustainability projects.

Mick has worked within the UK community finance sector for 18 years as a trainer, consultant, innovator and social entrepreneur. For the past six years he has been running a finance company specialising in renewable energy investment. He was a member of the National Credit Union Liaison Team, advising on regulatory and legislative reform to HM Treasury and to the FSA. He has published numerous reports on community finance and publications for the new economics foundation as well as leading on numerous evaluation and feasibility studies for local authorities, RDAs and independent commissions.

Pete LinnellOne Planet Practitioner and Theorist

A founder member and key figure of the One Planet Council, Pete is an all-round One Planet practitioner and theorist. He is the founder of a group in the Marches, “Grow Your Own Home”, which is attempting to implement sustainable rural communities elements in line with TAN6 and the One Planet Development agenda. This is presently assembling a critical mass of demand, engaging with the local planning process to advocate the adoption of relevant policies and providing opportunities for capacity building and skills development.

He presently earns his living managing woodlands and orchards on a traditional Herefordshire farm whilst undertaking specialist consulting and contract work in eco refurbishment of traditional buildings. A lifetime builder, furniture maker, fruit grower, woodsman, Pete is also an expert in planning narrative. He holds an MSc degree from the Graduate School of the Environment at CAT. Following graduation he undertook research work funded by DECC in opportunities for deployment of community owned renewable energy in Herefordshire and helped a local farmer obtain consent for a medium scale WECS in a highly contested area. Recently he was engaged in the fabric design and initial contract management of a full eco retro fit of a large Victorian town house in south Manchester, described by the Ecology Building Society as “exemplary”.

@uklsdesign

Walis GeorgeChief Executive, Grŵp Cynefin

@Walis_Cynefin

Walis George is Chief Executive of Grŵp Cynefin, a charitable housing association operating across north Wales. Grŵp Cynefin was formed on 1st April 2014 by the merger of Cymdeithas Tai Clwyd and Cymdeithas Tai Eryri. Prior to the merger Walis had been Chief Executive of Cymdeithas Tai Eryri for more than 18 years.

At present he is Vice Chair of Care & Repair Cymru and Chair of the Gwynedd and Anglesey Local Services Board. Walis grew up in Llanelli, Carmarthenshire and lives with his family in the village of Llanrug near Caernarfon.

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David HedgesDirector, Cyngor Da

David has spent over 30 years in the social housing and environmental sectors in Wales. Now Director of Cyngor Da, his own consultancy, he has worked for the Prince of Wales’ Committee (an environmental charity), Wales & West Housing, one of Wales’ leading housing associations and Community Housing Cymru, the representative body for housing associations in Wales.

David’s work includes the 2014 Evaluation of Rural Housing Enablers in Wales (with Jo Lavis, Catherine Stubbings and Lin Cousins), RHEs in Wales - Mapping Activity and Outcomes in 2011 and Enabling Affordable Housing in Rural Wales - A Good Practice Manual for Rural Housing Enablers and RHE Steering Groups in 2008.

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Grant PeisleyCommunity Adviser, Plunkett Foundation

Professor Terry MarsdenCardiff University

@CymrAussie @DEG_Cymru

@PlunkettFoundat

Grant Peisley is a Sustainable Communities Consultant and the Plunkett Foundation’s Adviser in Wales. The Plunkett Foundation provide a one-stop shop of support for predominantly rural communities looking to set up and run community-owned shops, co-operative pubs and community food enterprises. They are the only national organisation supporting the development of community-owned village shops in the UK. Grant is an advocate of Localism as an economic development tool and is presently working on a range of localism projects including Community Energy, Community Owned Shops and Pubs, Community Health Services and a Buy Local scheme. He is Founding Director of two community enterprises.

Terry Marsden is director of the Research Institute and Professor of Environmental Policy and Planning in the School of Planning and Geography at Cardiff University. He is also Dean of the University Graduate College.

With more than 25 years of experience working in the field of sustainability, Professor Marsden has a broad range of research and policy experience based around the themes of international rural development, sustainability and the rural environment. He is involved in funded projects concerning food networks in rural areas, the multi-level governance of the rural environment, and intermediate labour markets in rural Wales.

He is a Member of the Royal Town Planning Institute, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and Academician of Social Sciences.

Professor Marsden’s research expertise is in theoretical and empirical studies in rural development, agro-food studies, sustainable development and planning, policy development and rural governance.

Gerallt Llewelyn JonesManaging Director, Menter Môn

@MenterMon

Gerallt Llewelyn Jones is a native of Holyhead. Having graduated in Agricultural Botany from Bangor in 1975 he completed a postgraduate Diploma in Education in 1976. After three years of primary school teaching in Llangefni he joined the staff of Ysgol Uwchradd Bodedern in 1979, a new bilingual secondary school serving the rural areas of western Anglesey.

Three years of working on the WDA’s Rural Prosperity Programme from 1992 facilitated his move out of education and into the economic development arena. Since establishing Menter Môn in 1995 he has steered its development into a diverse development deliverer and a social enterprise business in Ynys Môn and Gwynedd with a turnover of £7m per annum and 60 employees.

In June 2014 Menter Môn was appointed leaseholder of 37km2 of sea bed in the Irish Sea to develop tidal energy production over the next 45 years. His interests include art, literature, history and entrepreneurship.

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Dan McCallumCo-founder, Awel Aman Tawe/ Egni Community Energy

@AwelAmanTawe

Dan is Manager of Awel Aman Tawe (AAT), Director of Egni Solar Cooperative and Community Energy Wales. He is a member of the Community Energy Contact Group established by the UK Government to advise on and support the development of the Community Energy Strategy. He also sat on the Planning sub-group. AAT is a charity involved in renewable energy, energy efficiency and environmental projects in Wales. Egni is a cooperative which raised £171k from a public share issue and has now installed 130kw of solar pv on community buildings and schools. AAT is also contracted to deliver an advice service to other community groups in the S. Wales Valleys as part of the Welsh Government/ERDF funded Ynni’r Fro programme to develop community renewables, particularly wind, hydro and anaerobic digestion. AAT also works as Client Manager on the Resource Efficient Wales programme and on the Renew Wales programme.

Siân Louise Summers-ReesDirector, Community Transport Association

Helen MurrayChief Executive, PLANED

@SummersRees

@HelenPLANED

Siân is the Director for Wales for the Community Transport Association (CTA). Siân took up the post in June 2014 and is enjoying the challenge of supporting the community transport sector in Wales.

Siân studied law as an undergraduate and then went on to complete the postgraduate diploma in legal practice. Most of her career has been in the third sector working in the equality field. In her previous role she worked as Chief Officer of Displaced People in Action for eight years. During her time in the refugee and equality sector she developed expertise in community development, equality, diversity and immigration/refugee issues.

She has also achieved an NVQ Level 5 Management, an ILM qualification and recently achieved the MSc in Human Resource Management with distinction. Siân is also a trustee and qualified volunteer immigration adviser for Asylum Justice.

Helen Murray is currently the Chief Executive of PLANED and has had a diverse career working across the private, public, academic and voluntary and community sector. She has been a researcher, trainer, consultant, policy developer, development officer and Director with a focus on the development of charity focused working and supporting the most vulnerable in society. These roles have included training and facilitation (participatory appraisal and business planning for community organisations and local authorities) as a consultant at Insight Social Research.

Doug HughesArchitect and Managing Director, Hughes Architects and Severn Valley EFFECT

Doug is an architect and Managing Director of Hughes Architects with offices in Newtown, Welshpool and Aberystwyth. He is Chair of the Mid Wales branch of the Royal Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW) and architect member of the steering group of Wood Knowledge Wales and the Powys Strategic Housing Partnership.

As a response to local inertia he set up the local action group ‘I Love Newtown’ in order to stimulate debate and inspire community action in 2012. This led to the design of a Town Plan which influenced local planning guidance. Members of the Group are now Town and County Councillors effecting change on an elected and regional level. He is also a Welsh Government Role Model which encourages young people to become entrepreneurs and Private Sector member of the Stronger Communities Board of Powys County Council. His most recent role is Chairman of the Severn Valley EFFECT which can be briefly described as a locally grown project to encourage and support the next generation of entrepreneurs. Rather than spoil the surprise he shall tell you more during his workshop!

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Anthea HoggTenancy Services Manager, Clwyd Alyn Housing Association

Louise BlackwellCommunity Development Officer, Clwyd Alyn Housing Association

@PennafHGroup

@PennafHGroup

Her role includes providing a full generic housing service to 3,500 properties. Anthea is the lead officer on Financial and Digital Inclusion in her organisation. Whilst admitting to not being a wiz on computers she has had a lot of experience in developing technologies within the association, in promoting a channel shift to bring efficiencies. She is very interested in engaging her customers to use new technologies for the benefit of themselves and to enhance their customer experience with the association.

Louise is passionate about working with local residents and partners in order to facilitate change in North Wales’ communities, founded on social justice, equality and inclusion. Over the last few years Louise has worked with relevant agencies (i.e. Communities 2.0 and CVCs) to organise a range of ICT courses, tailored to residents’ particular needs, that have helped to address digital exclusion in diverse communities and settings.

Aidan AckermanDirector of Customer Services, Mid Wales Housing Association

@midwaleshousing

Aidan has worked in housing since 1988 when completing a post graduate Diploma in housing and a separate MA on housing design in the twentieth century. Throughout this period Aidan has worked primarily in rural housing environments – East Dorset Housing Association, Carrick District Council and currently Mid Wales Housing Association as Director of Customer Services. However, there have been periods in more urban and suburban locations – Southampton Council, Eastleigh Council, Shrewsbury Council and Retirement Lease Housing Association.

One of Aidan’s interests at the present time is undertaking “meaningful” engagement with tenants in a rural environment using twenty first century tools. Aidan will intend to cover these more modern mechanisms as well as a fresh look at older ways of engaging with tenants in a rural environment. At the Rural Regeneration Conference Aidan will explore some of these possibilities.