The government has just announced some areas which are to pilot new Neighbourhood Plans, and I'm interested to see how this new approach will follow on from earlier community plans. See the Department for Communities and Local Government for the pilot areas, which include North Somerset (Backwell), South Gloucestershire (Hanham) Torbay (Brixham) and West Dorset (Sherborne) in the South West.
There is also a rolling programme of new areas - local authorities can apply to be part of the scheme and a neighbourhood will receive £20,000 to develop a plan. This all sounds quite promising but I wonder what happens to the plans after that. I'm thinking of my town Liskeard which developed a community plan a few years ago. This was part of the Market and Coastal Towns Initiative funded by the Regional Development Agency, both of which have since shut their doors (or are in the process of doing so).
The problem now is the perception that little of the plan has been implemented and to some local people it feels like a pipe dream. The town would certainly benefit from some more community engagement and joint planning, and I'd be delighted to hear that Cornwall Council had applied for the scheme to cover Liskeard. However, unless there is the will and, crucially, the resources to take forward recommendations I fear it would be counter-productive and result in community dis-engagement rather than engagement.
The dangers of stop-start community engagement will be very familiar to those of you who work in this area, and this was one of the messages that has come through loud and clear from the Empowering Communities programme. Read the Taking Stock report for some of the lessons from the programme - in particular the report cautions that communities can have long memories (page 10) - longer perhaps than policy makers!
Will this new initiative from government, backed by a Localism Bill and 'Neighbourhood Development Orders', be any different?
Read more about neighbourhood planning in 'Community led planning - how full is the glass?', posted here following an event earlier this year.
Empowerment Works is a movement of people and organisations committed to building support for community empowerment in the South West and beyond. For more information please visit the Empowering Communities website.
Isabel,
ReplyDeleteSorry to hear about the problems with Liskeard's Plan - not an uncommon situation, they can 'go wrong' when not owned or led well enough by Town and/or District Councils.
Yes, it will be very interesting to see how the Neighbourhood Plan pilots develop, especially those in the South-West. As part of the Planning 'system', they will have an advantage over Community Plans, which rely on positive Local Authority Officers to champion within their authorities, though its a very patchy situation as different Planning Policy managers have different views on Community Plans and how they bridge/relate to Local Plans/LDF's.
The fault there is with the last Govt really; they launched the MCTi but didn't issue guidance for Planning Authorities on what to do with them.
What all of us working in Community Planning want is that the lessons learnt from 11 years of doing this (more if you include Parish Plans) are learnt and passed on, as Community Planning has had its successes too - but, sadly, SWERDA decided not to evaluate the MCT initiative. However, the Carnegie UK report into CLP in the UK and Ireland goes some way to doing this.