Community Engagement Guide
This guide aims to assist designers, developers, authorities and stakeholders in the process of community engagement for projects within the City of Nottingham.
This guide was produced in collaboration with Community Organisers Notts.
“Cities have the capability of providing something for everybody, only because, and only when, they are created by everybody.”
Foreword by Cllr Linda Woodings ...
'Nottingham has an intricate history that forged a culture of compassion, fairness and collectivism, which is now reflected in the City’s social identity. This is perhaps the greatest asset a City can aspire to have. However, over the past decades the planning system has been the realm of professionals, consistently excluding the public from major planning judgments and alienating people from those design decisions that shaped the face of public places and change many people’s lives. The City Council would like to change that and make the planning process more open and available to the public so that everyone has the opportunity to have an equal voice in shaping their city.
Together, the people of Nottingham can build on what already exists, co-operating with others to achieve greater things. The planning system has a major role to play in making this happen because public places are the glue that bring people together. All parties must strive to work together, demonstrating honesty, transparency and integrity to uphold mutual trust. The City Council has already began this process by joining a partnership to open the Urban Room at 38 Carrington Street, a space where everybody can discuss, plan and shape their city. Other changes like training programmes and an in-depth review of how the planning department works, have already taken place, as well as successful and less successful developments. This guide aims to set up the City’s expectations regarding the role of its people in the design and planning process. This document is the biggest step towards a culture change that aims to embrace the Place-making ethos and embed it into the heart of the planning system.'
Introduction
How we work at Nottingham City Council
1. Nottingham City Council is moving from Consultation to Engagement for all schemes going through the planning process.
2. Engagement needs to begin as soon as there is an intention to submit a proposal for pre-application or planning permission, and must continue through the design process, setting up frameworks that allow communities to build upon the learnings of the process.
3. Engagement shall create a culture of collaboration and trust. All parties shall understand their limitations from the outset so that they can contribute according to their capacities and in relation to their roles.
Why we need this guide? ...
Nottingham City Council has recently embraced Place-making as the ethos for design and planning processes in the city. An inclusive city is only achievable if all voices and experiences are heard. The planning system offer a great opportunity to deliver social targets through Place-making and to help individuals and communities to grow, thrive and develop along the process. This guide, developed in partnership with Community Organisers Notts, sets up the threshold of what is acceptable as a minimum level of community engagement in Nottingham City and it provides guidance, tools and strategies to facilitate the engagement process during and beyond the planning stages.
Who is this guide for? ...
Applicants, designers, officers, communities and those making decisions on planning applications shall use this guide as a shared tool to ensure an appropriate level of engagement informed their schemes and adequate tools were used during the process. This guide is a component of the Nottingham Design Quality Framework and aims to:
- Guide designers, applicants, officers and communities through the necessary steps of the community engagement process.
- Set a minimum criteria for community engagement processes for the various stages of design.
- Offer best practice examples and tools for community engagement processes.
Community engagement & the design process
I. Concept Design
The most generic aspects of the scheme are agreed: access, green spaces, amount of development, where the front will be, etc.
Information required as a minimum:
II. Developed Design
The design starts to take shape, car park numbers and location are agreed, shape of the buildings, type of roof, location of services, waste collection, landscape proposals, etc.
Information required as a minimum:
III. Detailed Design
The type of windows and doors, the colour of materials, the construction details of fences, kerbs, signage, illumination etc. are agreed.
Information required as a minimum:
Community engagement criteria
The following appraisal criteria applies for all stages of design:
1. Outreach & inclusion
This refers to how the events, surveys and other forms of engagement are advertised to reach out to all representative groups within the area.
2. Tools & strategies
This refers to how appropriate the communication methods and the running and operation of events are for the population in question, and how adequate tools are to obtain meaningful data that can inform the scheme.
3. Data collection & analysis
This refers to the data collected and its format, and how this is analysed to inform the scheme directly.
4. Community building
This refers to how the engagement process delivers social targets, enhances social networks and builds-up community resilience.
5. Engagement briefs
This section explains what is required from a Community Engagement Brief, what level of information is relevant, how detailed and accurate the supporting documents need to be and how applicants can illustrate the input of meaningful engagement on the design of the scheme.
6. Communication & follow up
This refers to the management of information during the process and once the data has been analysed, and how contact is maintained with the community throughout the project and beyond.
Community Engagement Appraisals
Nottingham City Council will appraise design and planning processes on the basis of the criteria above. Officers will appraise the community engagement proposals to establish how well the principles above were achieved. Feedback will be given to applicants on the basis of this appraisal system.
A simple Appraisal Tool might be used to evaluate the scheme.