Knowledge

Community engagement tools

Tool: Community-led action planning

Community-led action planning, inspired by Market Town Healthchecks and Parish Plans, has been used in Somerset since 2000. Over 20 towns now have Community Plans, which involved extensive and broad consultation with all parts of the community, identifying needs, the development of a vision for the community and an action plan of how to get there.

Example of tool in use: Community Planning in Somerset’s Market and Coastal Towns

Community Planning in Somerset’s towns has been successful in terms of gaining community engagement (an estimated 29,000 people directly engaged), giving people an opportunity to envisage how their place should develop, and also in increasing the capacity of communities to deliver projects they need (estimated £4.25m of investment directly influenced). The forming of effective town Partnerships, which has occurred in some towns, is very much in line with the Government’s Localism thinking.

Community Planning in Somerset has been less successful in integrating with local Land-Use or Spatial Plans and also in influencing service delivery by local government, though there are some exceptions to that. As a non-statutory process, we have to depend on supportive local Councillors and Officers to achieve our goals.

Case Study: Wiveliscombe Area Partnership (pdf, 344 kb)

Contributed by Matt Day, Coordinator, Somerset Market Towns Forum

Tool: Community Forum

A free, independent and community-led local Community Forum.

Example of tool in use: The Devon Heartlands Community Forum

The forum was created in 2005 to utilise the community capacity gained through Market Town and Parish Planning and Town Design Statement initiatives in and around the Town of Okehampton in Devon. It provides a bridge between local people, the Agencies, Local Authorities, Councillors and the Local Strategic Partnership. This addressed the otherwise short term nature of community-led planning initiatives and provided an inclusive platform for ongoing community engagement, now explicit within the Localism agenda.

The Community Forum initiative has been recognised and reported by the Carnegie UK Trust in its Rural Manifesto 2009 and the Power of the Plan 2011, also highlighted by Creating Excellence at their localism conference 2011 and reviewed by the Young Foundation 2011. The Forum concept addresses the missing element of other initiatives by offering a mechanism for ongoing engagement within which existing and future requirements are addressed within a collaborative framework.

Further information

Contributed by Paul Delahoy, Director, The Devon Towns Forum

Tool: Residents Survey

Example of tool in use: Village Survey Chalfont St Peter Residents Survey – November/December 2009

Chalfont St Peter parish council undertook a survey of all village residents in late 2009. The objectives were to measure opinions about all aspects of living in the village in order to guide the development of a Parish Plan. The survey also provided input into the Village Design Statement. Everyone had a chance to participate, and responses were received from just over half of all households, resulting in a very high level of confidence that the results represent the views of the whole village.

The main issue facing the village at the time was (and remains) the threat of large numbers of high-density housing, possibly changing the character of the village and over-loading the infrastructure. Residents gave very clear opinions on this matter:

they are strongly against so many new houses being built
they would strongly support development of the Holy Cross site either through a school land site swap or through the building of new houses, including some affordable houses, in keeping with existing densities and character

The parish council will use the findings to guide decisions, actions and plans on all aspects of parish management into the future.

Contributed by Philip A Turner MRTPI, Volunteer, Planning Aid England

Tool: Village Handbook and village plan

Example of tool in use: The Gleann Airbh Plan - Glenariffe & Waterfoot Village Plan

The tool is the "Village Handbook" which can be easily downloaded by all village managers and can be updated at or just after monthly meetings. This allows change as developments occur. It allows solutions to be recorded and items remaining to have appropriate focus at each meeting.

Referring to the CABE approach of "Design - Manage - Maintain", the handbook is more about maintenance and management than about design and this is right for a village where the local "software" for linking local people, their place and the statutory providers is only three or four years old. When design and "planning" opportunities come along, people are going to be significantly more helpful to these processes because of their continuing involvement. The plan and handbook continue to develop.

The Village Plan/Village Handbook were initiated in connection with a specific European Grants programme, but have been kept up to date since then and are again being used to draw Rural Programme Grants into the village.

Contributed by Arthur Acheson RIBA MRTPI

Tool: Concept Statements

Devised for The Countryside Agency, now Natural England, Concept Statements address five major hurdles to effective and on-going participation of local communities in the forward planning process: complexity, speed, ambition, consensus, enjoyment.

Concept statements do not deliver a detailed plan – that takes more than a few days. What they provide is a clear and simple statement of community ambition as an end point on which the technical work can be focused – a common direction of travel.

Examples of tool in use

Easington Colliery, County Durham: an agreed plan for regeneration of this former pit village. Durham County Council and Natural England. 2010
Redevelopment of Hindhead, Surrey. Plan for regeneration of the central area of this village when severe traffic blight is removed by tunnelling the A3 under the Surrey Hills AONB. Hindhead Together and Natural England.
Scratby Village, North Norfolk. An agreed plan for the roll-back of property threatened by coastal change. Gt Yarmouth BC and the Gt Yarmouth Pathfinder Project DEFRA. 2011. Taken on board by GYBC as the basis of the Coastal Change Management Area it is required to define.

Contributed by Richard Silson MRTPI, The Planning Cooperative

Tool: Parish Plan Resource Sheets

This is a joint project, managed by Cornwall Rural Community Council. The aim is to produce topic based resource sheets to help parish groups in developing their parish plans.

Example of tool in use

The resource sheets include procedural advice (e.g. consultation techniques) and topics such as planning, health, environment, community buildings, housing etc. The aim is to stimulate debate within the parish group, so that they are aware of the potential scope of their plan. It should help with both e scope and format of their consultation so that they get the most out of their plan. The resource sheets also give information about who to contact, either within the council or other service providers, e.g. Primary Care Trust, either for help for the production/content of the plan or later, in the process, to deliver the actions prioritised in the plan.

Production of the resource sheets not only helps the parish group, but raises awareness of parish plans within the council (and other service providers.) The aim is to ensure that parish plans are used to help plan service delivery. The resource sheets are currently in production and we hope to adapt this process to incorporate Neighbourhood Plans.

Contributed by Sarah Arden MRTPI, Senior Planning Policy Officer, Strategic Policy Team, Cornwall Council

Tool: community development approach

A community development approach to a regeneration scheme.

Example of tool in use: Plean Community Development

In December 2007 an Outline Planning Application was prepared for a residential development of 500 units of mixed tenure properties and affordable housing, to be delivered in conjunction with new and upgraded community and recreational facilities. These developments were to be delivered within a wider regeneration programme for the Plean Village area, with a supporting package of measures to promote and support the regeneration of Plean and revitalisation of the community.

Consultation, based on the 2004 Plean Community Action Plan and ongoing dialogue with Plean residents, exceeded the requirements of the current Planning Advice Note 81 on Community Engagement (Scottish Government 2010 )and Scottish Government guidance on Pre Application Consultation in Circular 4/2009 on Development Management.

The proposed regeneration programme was comprehensive and included an overall investment of up to £6 million for the regeneration of Plean. This would be delivered under a Legal Agreement with Plean Community Development Trust for community elements and through a Section 75 Planning Agreement with Stirling Council for public sector elements.

Contributed by Les Huckfield MRTPI, Leslie Huckfield Research

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