Shaping the Future through Participation
Profr Ian Colquhoun

Purpose of the Project

• Raise local people's awareness of problems with the built environment
• Help social inclusion by engaging traditionally disadvantaged and hard to reach people - young people, women with young children, people with disabilities etc.
• Build skills and confidence
• With local people, develop planning proposals to improve quality of life.

The team's experience

• Architect and Town Planner
• Youth, Health and Community Work
• Community Planning
• Graduate skills in Environmental Assistance, particularly environmental appraisal
• Administrative support from Environmental Assistance

Relationship to Community Issues in Planning

• Contributes to experience of community engagement and local plan making now part of Local Development Framework preparation in new planning legislation.
• Exemplar contribution to development of (CABE) Centres and their work involving communities in Planning and Urban Design.
• Concept to develop through Regional Planning Aid.

Why Immingham? Selected as a Pilot project because:

• Deprivation in some parts equivalent to other parts of Humber Sub Region.
• Is dominated environmentally by the port and petro-chemical industry - accepted by residents because of local employment - but little contact or mutual benefit to the Town.
• Residents consider they miss out, yet pay more local taxation than others in N.E.Lincs It is seeking its own image

Priorities determined by residents

• Gateways to improve image (for a quick hit)
• Child Care
• Community Wardens and/or other measures to reduce impact of crime/fear of crime
• Upgrading of shopping centre
• Refurbishment of Town Park
• Improvement to Council Estates.

Achievements of the project

• Local people have produced evidence of need and a vision for the future.
• Local people confident to establish "Immingham Partnership"- independent of Local Authority.
• Private Sector has been encouraged to participate - ABP and Conoco Philips now committed to the Town.

Ongoing resident initiatives

• Strength of active group led to being included in ODPM Liveability Funding for renovating Homestead Park - a first for Immingham
• Parents of children in "Young Voices" have constituted a group and secured local funding to develop further activities.
• Reed Meer residents aware of environmental improvement possibilities from Voluntary Stock Transfer.

Key findings on Participation

• Most, including young, people knew what was wrong and what needed to be done.
• Respond to people's priorities, e.g., disability
• Young people's needs vital to creating community - must be fully engaged.
• Stakeholder participation essential, particularly Local Authority - to gain confidence of the process and community involvement.

Evaluation

• Give time for process of change to happen
• Give of yourself: support not direction.
• Community can do: stand back, do not fix.
• Extreme flexibility essential
• Must be non-judgemental and very neutral
• Be creative with solutions
• Explore difficulties as a positive means of engaging people.

Overcoming barriers

• Apathy: no hope of achieving anything - now large support for Immingham Partnership.
• Town Council inactive - Leader and Town Clerk now greatly involved. Local Councillor (former Town Mayor) is project Champion
• Local Authority subject to Scrutiny - affected availability of promised funding - staff involved left employment but good support from Planning and other Departments.

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