Localism and connected neighbourhood planning

Under reforms to the English planning system, new powers are being granted to communities to draw up neighbourhood plans in an attempt to produce the 'Big Society'. These plans will take precedence over development plans drawn up at the level of the local authority and thus represent a highly significant potential shift of power to communities in determining how their neighbourhood should function. Crucially, however, the proposed Neighbourhood Forums and Neighbourhood Development Plans seem to ignore the fact that communities are fragmented and that individuals within them may not have a full appreciation of the range of issues facing different people within the same area. Indeed, different parts of the community may have very different conceptions of the geographical area that comprises their 'neighbourhood'. These local understandings may have little or no overlap with the formal legal boundaries that sit across neighbourhoods, making it difficult to interact with the structures of policymaking.

The Localism and Connected Neighbourhood Planning project seeks to develop a technique to help disconnected communities come together to gather information and devise creative solutions to mutual problems to inform the neighbourhood planning process. A web-based interface will be built that can be accessed through smartphones to allow community members to gather geographical information about their neighbourhood. This information will appear in the form of online maps comprising boundaries, photos, text and ratings of different areas. Two case studies will be undertaken with neighbourhood groups in Birmingham and Bristol who will be loaned smartphones to gather data about their area. Workshops will be held with community members first to train them to use the smartphone interface and second to help them analyse the materials that they collect. This process will not only allow the community to produce robust information about their area, but in bringing different community members together, will facilitate a process of conversations within fragmented communities to find creative solutions to common problems.

The interface will be developed in such a way as to be straightforward enough for communities to use with minimal input from external agencies. This is particularly important as, in the context of public sector funding cuts, third sector organisations that have previously helped communities engage with regeneration and redevelopment are having to scale back their activities. The project will have a longer-term impact through integration with an ongoing undergraduate placement module run in collaboration with Chamberlain Forum, a Birmingham-based umbrella organisation for community groups. Students from the University of Birmingham will be working with neighbourhood groups for the next 3-5 years and will be able to help different communities gather data about themselves to inform neighbourhood plans using the technique developed by this project.

The project will work with MADE (Midlands Architecture the Designed Environment) and the Glass-House (a charity focussed on community-led design) to disseminate the technique within the urban design and community sectors. Members of the communities who have been using the technique will take part in a workshop with urban design professionals to talk about their experiences on the project and suggest how it could be further developed.

This research directly engages community groups in the development and testing of a simple-to-use interface to inform the process of undertaking neighbourhood planning. Community voices are multiple and contradictory and if neighbourhood planning is to be meaningful the process of gathering information about an area must not give undue weight to any one group. The technique that will be developed has the potential to bring fragmented communities together into a creative dialogue about the future of their neighbourhood. By producing a tool which is simple to use and based on technology that is increasingly accessible even in more deprived communities this project will have significant impact. This is particularly timely as communities begin to get to grips with the implications of legal changes to the planning process that will affect their area.

Participants in the study will be seen as co-constructing data, rather than simply being a community being 'studied' by academics. As a result, the process of participating in the research should be empowering. This will be reinforced by inviting community members to the professional workshop at the end of the project to serve as experts giving urban designers and planners the benefits of their experience.

The project will also be linked to an established service learning module operated by the University of Birmingham in collaboration with Chamberlain Forum. This will mean that a wide range of community groups will continue to be involved in using the technique to gather materials about their neighbourhood, working with third year undergraduate students. The approach to neighbourhood planning developed in the project will thus have a long term, sustainable impact on neighbourhood groups around Birmingham.

Working in collaboration with MADE and the Glass-House will ensure that the technique developed will be widely disseminated through the urban design, local government and community planning sectors. The Glass-House will provide expert input to the development of the interface to ensure its maximum value to those working in community planning. MADE have extensive networks in both the private and public sectors and will host the professional workshop at the end of the project to ensure maximum exposure of the technique. An accessible how-to guide will be produced and the web interface will be made freely available to any groups or individuals who wish to use it to help gather data in their area. This will ensure that, at a time of dramatic changes in policy on neighbourhood planning a range of different user groups seeking to improve the quality of life in people's neighbourhoods will know about and be able to access this technique.