living places newsletter | June 2009
living places newsletter | June 2009 |
June's newsletter keeps you informed of what is happening across the country with regard to the living places programme. It focuses on various activities in relation to place-shaping.
HCA awards
The HCA Awards celebrate the most innovative developments and community-based projects from the public, private and third sectors. They promote organisations, partnerships, individuals and initiatives helping to transform places. In 2009 there are 9 categories for the awards focused upon priority areas in the delivery of sustainable communities. Roy Clare, Chief Executive of MLA and Chair of the living places programme, is one of the judges. Winners will be announced on 9th June.
For more information see www.hcaacademy.co.uk/awards.
Recent publications on place making
Three reports have been published recently on the role of place shaping and the contribution it makes to the creation of successful communities – places where people want to live and work. These reports support the case for use of the Culture and Sport Planning Toolkit (CSPT) and may be useful for your reference.
Lifting People, Lifting Places has been published by DCMS. This report clearly demonstrates the contribution culture and sport makes towards vibrant communities and, in particular, their role in supporting the nation through the recession.
World Class Places has been published by the Department for Communities and Local Government (CLG). World Class Places encourages the integration of good planning, local character and high quality design in development and focuses on the improvement of design and housing. The report refers to case studies from the UK and offers an international perspective.
CLG has also released Transforming Places; Changing Lives which sets out details for a new regeneration framework. All local authority regeneration schemes applying for funding will be assessed against three criteria: improving economic performance, creating conditions for business growth and creating places where people want to live. The third criteria is certainly an opportunity for cultural partners to become integral to regeneration projects.
National partners visit Pennine Lancashire
Members of the living places national partners group met with colleagues in Pennine Lancashire on 20th May. The visit started in Blackburn museum where the group heard presentations from Nathan Lee, Regional Manager North West for MLA & Katy McCormick, Communications Director, Elevate, about the experience of being a priority place. There were also talks from Paul Flintoff, Manager of Blackburn Museum and Art Gallery and Andy McNae from Rossendale Leisure Trust, who outlined the plans for the Adrenaline Gateway. The visit included a walking tour of the town centre and cathedral quarter and a look around the Blackburn Infirmary/ Waterside Housing Market Renewal area, providing partners with an insight into the local housing renewal programme and town centre developments. This visit is planned to be the start of regular visits to each of the priority places by the living places national partners group. The visits are to help facilitate closer working relationships between the national and regional networks.
For more information on the visit please contact helen.cooper@mla.gov.uk.
living places communications
DHA Communications have been appointed to ensure communication support and media coverage for the living places programme and wider dissemination of the Culture & Sport Planning Toolkit. Daniel Harris, Jim Minton and Melissa Milner will be looking after living places’ communication requirements. We look forward to working with them.
DHA's website is www.dhacommunications.co.uk
They can be contacted on daniel@dhacommunications.co.uk, jim@dhacommunications.co.uk and melissa@dhacommunications.co.uk.
living places evaluation
Evaluation of the first year of the 5 priority places programme is underway. The evaluation will concentrate on the first year of the Programme, and will have a particular focus on five the Programme’s five Priority Places – Corby, Pennine Lancashire, PUSH (Partnership for Urban South Hampshire), South West and Thames Gateway. DC Research successfully tendered for this evaluation and will be contacting each of the priority places in the next few weeks to arrange interviews with members from the priority place networks. The final feedback phase of the evaluation is envisaged as a visit to each priority place to discuss the findings from the interim evaluation report and support on evaluating work going forward – this phase is to due to be carried out during August/ September 2009.
Prospect Row are continuing their evaluation of the Culture & Sport Planning Toolkit and will be focusing their work in 2009 on the evaluation of the CSPT regional events. Working with TCPA, they will produce evaluation forms for the event, carry out email surveys with the participants and give reports to each regional network on the event to help support any stakeholder engagement plans.
DC Research can be contacted through Jonathan Durnin: jon@dcresearch.co.uk
Prospect Row can be contacted via David Ousby: mailto:jon@dcresearch.co.uk or Bill Miller: bill@creatingsuccess.org.uk.
If you would like to include any information in the newsletter then send your contributions, by the second week of each month, to the living places Programme Support Officer, Helen Cooper.
We are looking in particular for updates on activity, information on events and training in your area that other members might be interested in attending and the sharing of best practice. This could take the form of a case study, for example. This newsletter is for you and we would like to make it as interesting and relevant as it can be.
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