We held an online event on Wednesday the 29th of November to mark the formal end of the project. Many thanks to all of those who attended and generated a lively discussion, particularly our four guest speakers: If you missed out, you can watch a recordingwith AI-transcribed subtitles below.
Category Archives: News & Events
Good Neighbours? Planning for Real in Birkenhead
Whilst researching participatory planning in Birkenhead, the People’s Plans team have uncovered a documentary from the 1980s by Planning for Real pioneer, Tony Gibson. Tony Gibson A key figure in the history of participatory planning, Tony Gibson is best known for developing Planning for Real, a participatory approach that centres resident’s local knowledge of theirContinue reading “Good Neighbours? Planning for Real in Birkenhead”
Women in the Centre: Spaces of Hope Walk
The Women in the Centre Walk, produced by Iris Bertz and Emily Baldwin in collaboration with the AHRC-funded Spaces of Hope research team, took place on August 5th 2023. It was part of a series of participatory events that engaged people from Birmingham in exploring the histories of women’s community-led planning in Birmingham from theContinue reading “Women in the Centre: Spaces of Hope Walk”
Case study: 58 Charles Street, Cardiff
By Jack Dangerfield Description The 1960s and 1970s saw an upturn in the number of housing clearances in Cardiff’s inner-city area. This had the inevitable effect of increasing homelessness in the city. Faced with the threat of eviction, many communities came together to organise campaigns and develop community-led services and projects to support people affectedContinue reading “Case study: 58 Charles Street, Cardiff”
DICNAC Reunion
The People’s Plans project recently invited four members of a community-led planning project in Dundee to a reunion – and to roll back the years. In the 1980s, Laurie Bidwell, Bob Barnham, Steve Gillon and Jimmy Black and were at the forefront of several pioneering community projects in Dundee. On 1st August 2023, they gotContinue reading “DICNAC Reunion”
The People’s Plan for the Westway
Long-time resident and activist, Adam Ritchie, reflects on one of the most significant episodes of community-led planning in London, focussed on the Westway road in North Kensington. The Times Newspaper concluded that every mile of Westway cost the moving or eviction of 5000 families. North Kensington, over which it passed, had 64% of its houses overcrowdedContinue reading “The People’s Plan for the Westway”
The Communityplanning.net journey
by Dr Nick Wates The Community Planning Website, or Communityplanning.net as it is more helpfully called, was born in 1998 at the offices of the Department for International Development (DFID) in Central London. A steering group meeting of a project which produced The Community Planning Handbook; how people can shape their cities, towns & villagesContinue reading “The Communityplanning.net journey“
Black Environmental Justice: From urban studies to radical rurals in England
Debbie Humphry (Oxford Brookes University) interviews Julian Agyeman, founder of the Black Environment Network (9th July 2022)
Insights from a London Community Planner
Michael Parkes has worked as a planner since 1967 in public, private and community sectors in GB, the Middle East, Europe and Africa. Here he reflects on his work (1985 – 2010) in London as an independent Community Planner, both self employed; as Co-ordinator of Planning Aid for London, and then as a member ofContinue reading “Insights from a London Community Planner”
City Farms, not roads!
John Le Corney, a south Londoner who’s kept his accent, moved to the Heeley area of Sheffield in 1975. As he recalled, in an interview for the Spaces of Hope project on 23rd November, he “more or less put a pin in the map”. Almost 50 years later, as John looks out over Heeley CityContinue reading “City Farms, not roads!”