PlanLoCaL: Planning for low-carbon living [OLD VERSION - ARCHIVED]
PlanLoCaL: Planning for low-carbon living [OLD VERSION - ARCHIVED]
Involving communities at the earliest stage of the development process
A wind turbine on this hill? An array of solar panels on that school? What about a combined heat and power plant for this housing estate and leisure centre? And why are so many old buildings so badly insulated?
These kinds of questions are a growing part of every local authority’s planning process.
And the trend is set to continue. Central government increasingly expects local planning decisions to demonstrate a commitment to reducing carbon emissions and to contribute to national renewable energy targets.
We can expect to hear a lot more about low-carbon developments like biomass power stations, heat-mains or ‘eco-villages’.
The model demonstrates the make-up of most British towns, with a modernised centre nestling next to Georgian squares (see photo) with areas of Victorian housing giving way to inter-war housing and newer estates
However, despite the fact that these planning decisions effect virtually everyone, very few of us - as individuals or as part of one of the communities to which we belong - get involved in the consultation process. And when we do it is often very late in the day by which time it may be just a matter of supporting or objecting to a proposed development.
To address this, CSE’s PlanLoCaL project aims to help a range of organisations and communities to become directly involved from the earliest possible opportunity in the planning of their area’s sustainable development.
Starting in mid-2009, this three-year project is funded by the Empowerment Fund - a funding stream from the Department for Communities and Local Government that encourages greater public engagement with the planning process.
PlanLoCaL (which derives from ‘Planning for Low Carbon Living’) seeks to help communities in England “contribute positively to a low carbon future and have the confidence, knowledge and ambition to influence local plans to achieve this”.
The model
To support the process of engaging the public with the planning process we have produced a striking model of a typical British town showing examples of where renewable energy or other low-carbon developments may be introduced. Built to a scale of 1:250 (in which a car could drive into the lid of a fountain pen) the model is four metres in length (equialent to 1km) and features energy infrastructure, a town centre, suburbs, farms and industrial units (see photos).
Facilitators can use the model, and accompanying exhibition material and hand-outs, to describe the options that planners have before them. It has already had a starring role in consultation events in Bath & North East Somerset, and at the Green Communities conference in Liverpool.
The model is also available for other local authorities to borrow and use as part of their own 'core strategy' or similar development process, and acts as a useful aid to engaging communities during consultations.
Click here to download a hand-out designed to accompany and interpret the model.
The work programme: year 1
In Year 1 of the project we initiated four strands of work, each of which acted as a pilot that could be rolled-out or developed (or not) in years 2 and 3 of the project. These were:
- Working with a local authority who are consulting the public on their ‘local development framework’
- Supporting an umbrella group who work directly with communities
- Building the capacity of ‘green’ groups, who are already motivated on the issue of climate change but not engaged with the planning process
- Working with groups who are already knowledgeable about engaging with planning consultations, but who don't necessarily have a focus on sustainability
For strand 1, we worked with Bath & North East Somerset Council, supporting the drawing up of the council's core planning strategy (its 'Local Development Framework' in planning parlance). You can read about the public consultation events we ran here. This work stream also included a successful workshop for young people which is described here.
The model (see above) featured strongly in these consultations, which were considered very successful by council officers and were the inspiration for a major strand of work in year 2.
For strand 2 of the project, we've chosen to work with ACRE (Action for Communities in Rural England), a government-backed ‘umbrella group’ that operates at national, regional and local level in support of rural communities. Among its many activities is supporting parishes and other rural communities as they develop a vision for what they want done in their neighbourhood through ‘community-led planning’.
Our work with ACRE included a series of workshops (see reports here) in which CSE and ACRE staff explored which issues are closest to the hearts of rural community members. Top of the list comes road safety, play areas and dog mess. The challenge for PlanLoCal is to find ways of aligning these interests with the low-carbon agenda. This way, rural communities can make progress on issues they care about by connecting them to the wider efforts to address climate change and a low-carbon future.