Professional Documents
Culture Documents
David Barrie
designs and delivers public projects. He works in the regeneration, property, design and media sectors. Clients include igloo
Regeneration, BioRegional Quintain, Wakefield Council, Middlesbrough Council, One North East, the Design Council and
British Council. At present, David is supporting projects in Moscow, Wales and London. He is developing online media
initiatives linked to urban renewal and creating a new social enterprise that will be the subject of a series of TV programmes
on Channel 4 in 2010.
Abstract There is an emerging new debate going on as to what is the value and
purpose of community involvement in urban renewal. At the moment, different parts of
the urban planning system use ‘consultation’ in different ways. But more often than not,
‘consultation’ and ‘engagement’ are democratic-sounding words for a process of
co-option: appointing members of the community to a given strategy or plan. This
paper outlines two projects which have brought innovation the role and nature of
‘community involvement’, but which push to re-frame policy and practice: take
methodology away from two-dimensional public relations, the procedural fetishism of
local government and the ‘Post-it-itis’ of public workshops — towards the broader idea
of mobilising sustainable networks of local people. Smaller towns and cities have
idiosyncratic characters that can be mobilised to support the social and economic
benefit of a place, but an appropriate strategy needs to be formulated for public
involvement. Community engagement needs to give way to ideas of participation and
customer service. It needs to support long-term values and sustainability that will be
intrinsic to the viability of the regeneration sector after recession. This is a matter of
effective business practice, not just ethics.
䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1752–9638 (2009) Vol. 3, 1, 77–91 Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal 77
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becomes ever more important, as land groups are prepared to work for the
asset values collapse, and the search is on town, as well as themselves. They can
to find more sustainable sources of local see beyond their doorstep.
income against which to amortise risk. In other words, Castleford has a
human architecture of identity and
attitude. It has ‘character’. The question
CASE STUDY 1: THE CASTLEFORD is: can Castleford embrace shrinkage, not
PROJECT as decline but as a framework for
The Castleford Project was a programme creative reinvention?
of renewal of a town in West Yorkshire, In 2003, a team of experts in
England, which started in 2003 and regeneration, design, project management
completed its first phase of work in and community involvement were drawn
2008. In five years, it helped to together with a common purpose to
transform several of the town’s public pioneer a new, local, citizen-oriented
spaces and has been credited with model of renewal for Castleford.
leveraging over £250m of new public The team were supported by Channel
and private investment in the town.5 4 Television. Channel 4 maintains an
Castleford was once an important active programme of corporate
coal-mining town. In the 1990s, the philanthropy, and it wanted to
town fell upon hard times as coal commission a series of television
production in the UK was restructured. programmes that would document the
The economy of the town collapsed, and process of the regeneration of a town
its fabric fell into disrepair. and share it with the viewing public.7
With a population of 40,000, located After evaluating several towns and
within commuting distance of Leeds, cities across the UK, the group of
Castleford is an exemplar of the crop of professionals decided it wanted to work
smaller towns and cities across the world in Castleford, in partnership with
that have suffered at the hands of community groups, Wakefield
de-industrialisation. What was once a Metropolitan Borough Council, regional
bustling centre of industry and commerce development agencies and national
with wealthy patrons committed to civic regeneration organisations.
improvement has given way to a place The aim of the initiative was simple:
that is neither a service centre for its to harness Castleford’s assets, especially
nearest adjacent city nor a sure-fire the commitment of its people, find out
attractor of millions of pounds worth of what physical aspects of the town people
investment. It is neither a village nor a wanted to see improved, and do it.
large city, so the distinctive and vital role In parallel, a programme of social,
it might play in the work of a new economic and cultural activity would add
century is not certain. value to the capital programme, and the
But Castleford has many things going two would act as a larger catalyst to
for it. The town has managed to change.
maintain a distinctive civic pride because The methodology hinged upon
of a powerful, historic culture of building social capital, positioning the
community and heritage.6 community as client, not just end user,
The town has many active citizens’ and using their involvement as the
groups, community organisations and trigger and foundation of a strategic
young and old people committed to vehicle for regeneration. The vehicle had
living and working in the town. These no assets, other than a power to assemble
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Image courtesy of Dott 07 (Designs of the time), Design Council and One North East.
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Image courtesy of Dott 07 (Designs of the time), Design Council and One North East.
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energy supply via third-party providers good customer service, to residents and
such as Energy Services Companies. taxpayers alike.
Projects similar to Castleford and It is also vital that the area in which
Middlesbrough can be achieved the initiative takes place has strategic
elsewhere by local authorities or private ambition and confidence, reflected in a
sector developers by connecting top-level clear understanding on the part of local
strategy and grassroots activity by authorities and regional development of
designing and delivering human the strategic case for larger-scale
resource-rich, mid-level programmes regeneration.
linked to the redevelopment of There are also three key strands of
large-scale sites. thinking that any initiating agent needs to
It is important that there is a understand. First, the agency needs to
commitment to open public planning have a broad, enlightened understanding
and that the project programme is of what constitutes the asset base of an
allowed to grow organically. What is also area and be committed to innovative ways
important is for local government of unlocking and exploiting its value. In
leadership to press for work across 2005, policy thinker Geoff Mulgan wrote
service delivery arms. The new Housing an important paper for the Commission
and Communities Agency and Urban for Architecture and the Built
Regeneration Companies could apply a Environment that drew an analogy
similar methodology to priority schemes between building spaces, trust and the
and areas by enabling initiative that modern financial markets. Mulgan wrote
connects strategy with the grassroots via that derivatives markets ‘Recognise and
area-wide action planning, and cross-silo then organise hidden values and assets in
public participatory initiative. Inspired by ways that allow new value to be
participatory budgeting, local authorities captured’.24 Just as developers such as
could also set in train town-wide public igloo Regeneration and Blueprint have
processes that set priority for their pioneered new forms of public–private
spending. partnership, and local authorities such as
Large-scale private investors in towns Croydon have invented broader-based
and cities could abandon conventional investment vehicles for the regeneration
‘community consultation’ programmes of their centres, Mulgan hints at — and
and seek and capture the power and the projects in Castleford and
return of investment in social Middlesbrough represent — an innovative
infrastructure by ensuring that their platform for renewal and a new
Section 106 payments and other combination of human and land assets.
contributions and levies are used to Second, the agent needs to be inspired
develop networks of local people and by the value of communication and its
organisations. design. In the 1970s, John Gardner
What is important is that words like founded the non-profit, non-partisan
‘consultation’, ‘engagement’, even citizen’s lobbying organisation Common
‘involvement’, are abandoned in favour Cause. He was also the former US
of something else; that marketing plays Secretary of Health, Education, and
second fiddle to establishing and creating Welfare under President Lyndon Johnson.
new alliances of people and organisations; In a book published in 1970, Gardner
that any initiative is seen as an adjunct to wrote: ‘Communication in a healthy
the existing statutory, democratic society must be more than a flow of
functions of government and is seen as messages; it must be a means of conflict
88 Journal of Urban Regeneration and Renewal Vol. 3, 1, 77–91 䉷 Henry Stewart Publications 1752–9638 (2009)
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Regeneration as social innovation
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