Localism and connected neighbourhood planning

在英国规划体系的改革中，新的权力被授予社区，以制定邻里计划，试图建立“大社会”。这些计划将优先于地方当局一级制定的发展计划，因此，在决定社区如何运作方面，这些计划代表着权力向社区的重大潜在转移。然而，至关重要的是，拟议的邻里论坛和邻里发展计划似乎忽视了这样一个事实，即社区是分散的，其中的个人可能无法充分了解同一地区不同人面临的各种问题。事实上，社会的不同部分可能对构成其“邻里”的地理区域有非常不同的概念。这些地方性的理解可能与正式的法律的边界没有重叠，这使得它很难与决策结构互动，地方主义和联系的邻里规划项目试图开发一种技术，帮助不联系的社区聚集在一起，收集信息，并为共同的问题制定创造性的解决方案，为邻里规划过程提供信息。将建立一个可通过智能手机访问的网络界面，使社区成员能够收集有关其社区的地理信息。这些信息将以在线地图的形式出现，包括不同地区的边界、照片、文本和评级。两个案例研究将与伯明翰和布里斯托的社区团体进行，他们将被借给智能手机来收集有关他们所在地区的数据。将与社区成员举行研讨会，首先培训他们使用智能手机界面，其次帮助他们分析他们收集的材料。这一过程不仅使社区能够产生有关其所在地区的强大信息，而且将不同的社区成员聚集在一起，将促进在分散的社区内进行对话，以找到解决共同问题的创造性办法。以一种足够直接的方式供社区使用，而外部机构的投入最少。这一点尤其重要，因为在公共部门资金削减的背景下，以前帮助社区参与再生和重建的第三部门组织不得不缩减其活动。该项目将通过与张伯伦论坛（一个位于伯明翰的社区团体伞式组织）合作运行的正在进行的本科生安置模块整合，产生长期影响。伯明翰大学的学生将在未来3-5年内与社区团体合作，并将能够帮助不同的社区收集关于他们自己的数据，以使用该项目开发的技术为社区规划提供信息。（米德兰建筑设计环境）和玻璃屋（一个专注于社区主导设计的慈善机构），在城市设计和社区部门传播这项技术。一直在使用该技术的社区成员将参加一个与城市设计专业人员的研讨会，讨论他们在该项目上的经验，并建议如何进一步发展。

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.