"There was a resistance towards the standard volume housebuilder’s product, but when they realised that they were going to get something completely different, the mood changed."
Nick Tubbs,Stockbridge Land and Red Tree
People centric
By involving communities from the outset and giving them a voice in the process, we can overcome the fear of change and growth and nurture a more positive outlook on developments. One focus must be to demonstrate that development, through a patient approach, can be done differently, with greater benefits to the local and wider communities. Nick Tubbs, Stockbridge Land and Red Tree, explains that in Sherford, there were initially 4,000 objectors. They set up a group called SHARD, South Hams Against Rural Destruction. “There was a resistance towards the standard volume housebuilder’s product, but when they realised that they were going to get something completely different, the mood changed.”
The enquiry by design process, spearheaded by Ben Bolgar, Executive Director Projects Team at The King’s Foundation, has been a great success because it encouraged people to pick up pens and get actively involved in drawing up the plans for their local area. It made people feel empowered. The ambition was to upstream democracy in the local plan process, to counter the desk top driven exercises that fail to engage communities. Charettes with developers, landowners, key stakeholders and the public were enabled through the planning performance agreement (a project management framework for handing a major planning application), with extensive conversations and sketch workshops resulting in tangible plans and diagrams by and for the community. This process made it real and place specific.
"Allowing a local tradition to evolve and remain relevant gives people a sense of pride and identity about where they live. That doesn’t negate a modern interpretation. Good placemaking is less dependent on style, and more driven by materials, details, the urban form and the flexibility to respond to modern needs."
Robbie Kerr, Director at ADAM Architecture
The rationale for the enquiry by design process was to define design codes and building types for an area, which could be handed over to the local authority to help shape future development. One challenge is the abstract nature of local plans, which discourages communities to engage — often, it is not until the detailed planning application stage that people truly get involved.
Bringing local people along on the development journey is a crucial consideration for landowners and developers seeking to create sustainable places (environmentally and economically). Communities are our best sources of accumulated knowledge, and engagement provides the opportunity to integrate local wisdom and lived experiences into new projects.
Lucy Greenwood recalls one of The Prince’s Foundation’s workshops, where villagers made their own local plan. “They were so much more engaged as a result of it, really involved. When a planning application came forward, they had been part of shaping it. When you have long term communities that you can engage well with, it is really good.”
Community involvement helps create harmonious living environments that are responsive to people’s needs and aspirations as they evolve over time. This generates thriving communities where people choose to live, because they feel invested and a sense of belonging; local pride and care for the neighbourhood encourage residents to become enthusiastic stewards of place and design, which helps sustain and maintain it long-term.
Residents and users could have a continued role as an empowered community association that can be active from conception of the scheme to post-completion, taking a role as estate managers. This is different from a design panel, who has no buy-in and knowledge of the place. Ultimately, the place that is being created will become the property of the people who live there, and as inhabitants and users of the place they are well placed to take on the role as advocates and custodians of the emerging scheme. The community association is also equipped to safeguard against a change of administration within the stewardship entity and hold the developer responsible against the original vision.
In today’s market, the patient developer is a rare and brave breed. Choosing to do things differently requires persistence and determination. The current planning and financial systems are not incentivising a long-term horizon for new developments, and there are many stumbling blocks to overcome. In the next section, we explore how a more patient-positive system can be encouraged.
