Shropshire's Rural Toolkit Project - Jon Lord - Planning Aid West Midlands

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Engaging Disadvantaged

Rural Communities

Jon Lord

Manager

Planning Aid West Midlands

Shropshire Shared Learning Event

28th September 2010


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What is Planning Aid?

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Free, independent and professional town planning advice andsupport to communities and individuals who cannot afford to

pay planning consultant fees

Complements work of local planning authorities, but is wholly

independent of them

Started by Town and Country Planning Association in 1973

Part of Royal Town Planning Institute

Funded by Department of Communities and Local Government


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What do we do?

Aim to place community engagement at the heart of theplanning system and to help people help themselves

CASEWORK

Advice line to a qualified and experienced planner dealing withdetailed and complex planning matters

COMMUNITY PLANNING

Training, information and facilitation for groups about howplanning may be affecting their community

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The Team

Manager

Caseworker - a fully qualified planner to give independent

advice and who will sometimes hand cases over to a volunteer

Community Planners - who works alongside communities orgroups in helping to plan their neighbourhood or to participate

in local planning initiatives

Administrator - to support the team and volunteers

Volunteers - A network of dedicated Corporate (fully qualified)and Licentiate Planners

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Planning Aid seek to help people to

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Understand and use the planning system

Participate in Development Plan preparation

Prepare their own plans for the future of their community

Make or Comment on planning applications

Facilitate understanding between LPA and the individual

Apply for planning permission or Appeal against refusal of

permission

Deal with Enforcement Action

Represent themselves at Hearings, Inquiries, and EIPs

Signpost other advice services


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Where we Operate

Regional Regeneration Zones

and areas of Deprivation in:

Herefordshire

Shropshire

Staffordshire

Warwickshire

Worcestershire

West Midlands Conurbation


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Community Planning

Identifying groups excluded from the planning system ordisadvantaged from years of not having a voice

Working with them to develop their ability to understand theiropportunities and rights within the planning system

Helping them find the right channels to communicate theirviews better, and training them to participate at national andlocal levels

Organising educational projects on planning and theenvironment for all age groups

Advising LPAs on structured and meaningful communityinvolvement and in seeing their function in the process fromthe communitys viewpoint.


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Target Groups

People on low incomes

Unemployed people

Black & Minority ethnic communities

Small rural businesses Disabled people and disability groups

Older people

Children and young people

Tenants groups Community groups and voluntary charity organisations


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The Shropshire Project

PAWM Business Plan identifies Rural Shropshire as a key target

area

PAWM has a history of working with rural communities to

produce Parish Plans Shropshires Statement of Community Involvement recognises

PAWMs potential to deliver its objectives

Keen to be involved in Shropshires innovative approach to

engaging communities and share experiences of using The

Rural Tookit.


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PAWMs Involvement

PAWM provided a Part-time Community Planner to work with

disadvantaged communities to support their involvement in

the Rural Toolkit Helped facilitate the main Toolkit sessions.

Vital support of PAWMs volunteers

PAWMs role was to work with disadvantaged communities to

test perceptions of their area based on the information at themain Rural Toolkit events.


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PAWMs approach

PAWMs Community Planner worked with Shropshire Council's

Community Regeneration Officers to develop a community

profile of each parish area

This resulted in a list of communities to target; reinforced bythe analysis of participants at the main events

PAWMs Community Planner would make contact with groups

to arrange subsequent sessions using an adapted version of

The Rural Toolkit

These sessions were usually bolted on to existing community

meetings.


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Adapting the Rural Tookit

Retained the 8 basic headline statements from the Rural

Toolkit to guide discussions

Comments recorded and transcribed by PAWMs CommunityPlanner into a feedback report and submitted to Shropshire for

comparisons to be made against main event

Participants voted on community benefits charts and

suggested one community benefit.


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Lessons learnt

Involving disadvantaged rural communities requires a longertimescale in terms of identifying contacts, buildingrelationships and arranging events and meetings

Its a resource hungry exercise but beneficial for both local

planning authorities and communities themselves

It is a very useful start of the process of enabling communitiesdeliver the localism agenda

The Rural Toolkit is capable of being adapted without losing its

integrity Need to recognise that not all communities will want to have

an active role; they need to be offered adequateopportunities.


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The Shropshire Report


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Documents

Shropshire's Rural Toolkit Project - Jon Lord - Planning Aid West Midlands