Shared Vision Offers Better Quality of Life
Article from Planning magazine – 17 October 2003
www.planning.haynet.com
Closer links with community strategy teams can bring many advantages, say Jeffrey Lee and Clive Harridge.
Closer collaboration between planners and other staff producing community strategies can help improve the quality of life in communities across the country. That was the message from planning minister Keith Hill at the launch of government-sponsored research last week.
The Local Government Act 2000 places a responsibility on local authorities to prepare community strategies, most of which are being drafted under the guidance of local strategic partnerships (LSPs). Under the new plan-making system, due to start next spring, local development frameworks (LDFs) are intended to give spatial expression to those elements of the community strategy that relate to land use and development.
Entec UK Ltd, in association with Alison Millward Associates, was commissioned by the ODPM to consider how planning authorities should develop effective relationships between LDFs and community strategies. The research (Planning, 10 October, p1) comprised:
Community strategies are diverse, arising from the fact that they are drawn up under non-statutory procedures and reflect the different needs and aspirations of local communities. The processes by which they are prepared are still evolving, but formal and informal working links between community strategy and development plan teams are beginning to be established.
At one end of the scale, some community strategies are highly structured. Their focus is changing from vision to implementation and delivery, and they have detailed action plans and sophisticated consultation processes. At the other extreme, some community strategies are relatively simple visionary statements with minimal content. In some authorities other strategies, such as Local Agenda 21 and neighbourhood renewal strategies, are being subsumed within the community strategy.
Effective relationships between community strategies and LDFs can lead to better community planning through a more joined-up approach. They also offer scope for improved delivery by promoting LDFs as a delivery mechanism for all LSP stakeholders. Teams can obtain better use of resources and a better understanding of community needs in LDFs by co-ordinating or combining community involvement, information gathering and monitoring.
The study concludes with a series of good practice "pointers" that show how these benefits can be achieved. The pointers, illustrated by experience drawn from the case studies, aim to ensure that the content of the LDF and the community strategy complement each other and that their preparation processes are combined or linked wherever possible.
In terms of policy content, the guidance recommends a comprehensive evaluation of the community strategy to identify those elements that can be delivered through the LDF and the preparation of a "spatial report" based on the evaluation. Conversely, teams should identify which local development documents (LDDs) within the planning framework can help in delivering community strategies.
This involves reviewing how the LDF can address wider spatial and quality of life issues raised in the community strategy. It also means that planners should have regard to the need for community facilities expressed in the community strategy, examining how these can be reflected in LDF core policies and area action plans.
A shared vision based on sustainable development is the starting point. The vision set out in the community strategy can be adopted in the LDF where appropriate. The sustainable development content and strategic objectives of the community strategy can be followed through into the objectives, principles and processes set out in the LDF. Common targets and indicators should be adopted.
Effective links offer opportunities to compare, link and merge area action plans as part of the community strategy and LDFs, helping to strengthen deliverability and maximise benefits for local communities. They also provide a way of interpreting the spatial implications of community strategy action plans and, through the LDF, a means of integrating themed actions that have a spatial component.
Linkages should also be developed in the preparation process to help develop the community strategy vision and strategic objectives. Development plan teams should engage with the LSP board to seek endorsement of the LDF, get involved in relevant community strategy topic-based and cross-cutting theme groups, be proactive in helping community strategy groups understand how the LDF can help deliver their objectives and seek to resolve potential tensions between community strategy objectives and LDF policies.
Integration with other strategies is another key role. Those responsible for preparing LDFs need to take account of other strategies and accompanying action plans when preparing LDFs. They should consider whether other strategies could be taken forward through or incorporated within LDDs, while bearing in mind that some of these will be subject to formal scrutiny and independent testing.
Development plan teams can become involved in the area action planning process under the community strategy and develop closer working relationships with community planners working in area teams, with strategic partners and with non-governmental organisations. Throughout this process, all involved should seek to combine or link appraisal techniques and appraise strategies against an agreed set of objectives.
Community strategies deal with a range of social, economic and environmental matters and provide a common reference point for many non-land-use strategies that are relevant to development planning. The research concludes that exploring the linkages between LDFs and community strategies touches on issues that lie at the heart of what spatial planning is meant to be. There are potentially real benefits in linking the two to help improve the quality of life in communities across the country.
The Relationships between Community Strategies and Local Development
Frameworks can be viewed via www.planning.haynet.com.
Jeffrey Lee is a principal consultant and Clive Harridge
is a director at Entec UK Limited.
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