LIVE Park:
Taking a people-centred
approach to planning
Community and Place workshop
Scottish Young Planners Conference 2016
What we’ll talk through
1. The context
2. The issues we faced
3. Where we started
4. What we set out to achieve
5. Our solution
6. The impact
Setting
the context
The issues we faced
Lack of
wider
awareness
Usual
suspects
involved
Reactive
Divided
communities
on future
Poor partner
buy-in
Ageing
population
Little new
development
How do we engage more
working age families and
young people?
So, the campaign
challenge was…
Where did we
Who else has done this well?
Candy Chang: I wish this was…
‘I Wish This Was’ was inspired by vacant storefronts. There are many where artist Candy
Chang lives in New Orleans. There are also many people who need and want things. Many
of us walk by underutilised areas of our cities and have opinions of what we’d like to see
there.
What if we could easily say what we want, where we want it?
Who else has done this well?
Neighborland
Neighborland sets itself out as “a new way to make your city a better place.” It’s all about sharing ideas
and take action in your neighborhood. The mission is to empower people to take action on local issues,
based on the idea that people who live and work in a neighborhood know what services, infrastructure,
and businesses their community needs: it could be a grocery store, café with Wi-Fi, bike lanes, or a
recreational centre. Neighborland offers residents a friendly yet comprehensive platform to voice their
needs, access local information, and self-organize to make those changes happen.
Who else has done this well?
Census Australia
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rif1698fH2E&nored
irect=1
Who else has done this well?
Snook: Maryhill Movement
An interesting use of very simple maps with lots of flexibility/opportunities for the communities to easily
engage with what’s being suggested in terms of land allocation to tackle the main issues.
Put people
at the
heart
of the
process
So we set out to
achieve three things
1. Awareness
People know the process exists
“I know that the
Local Development
Plan process
exists, and why it is
relevant to me”
2. Engagement
Plenty of ways to have their say
“I felt there was an
appropriate and
convenient way for
me to get involved”
3. Advocacy
Would recommend it to others
“I felt getting
involved was
worthwhile and I‘d
encourage others
to do the same”
We set ourselves a
challenge…
• A means to an end
• having your say in the future of your community
• An end in its own right
• the ‘payback’ for involvement is long-term
• Involvement in the process should feel worthwhile, enjoyable and
should bring its own benefits
• Getting out and meeting people, hearing different/similar
views, feeling listened to/valued etc.
Participation in this process
should be both:
We shared these
core principles with
our Board
1. Simplicity, clarity and
ease of access
Use of plain
English
(no planning
speak!)
Simple
design and
clear layout
of
information
Lots of ways
to get
involved
Taking the
message to
the people,
where they
are
2. We want to genuinely engage
people in the process
This is an
opportunity
for us to
explain why
planning
matters
We want to
leave people
with a
positive
experience
This is
more than
just a means
to an end
The process
itself should
be a
worthwhile
experience
3. We will try new approaches
and we are willing to fail
This is a
learning
experience
for us as an
organisation
We want to
try out
different
approaches
to see what
works
What
learning can
we transfer
to other
consultation
processes?
We want to
share best
practice to
improve
engagement
We recognised that everyone
engages at different levels
We tailored our approach and
targeted our communications
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Text in your thoughts
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Submit a comment on our
blog
Start a discussion with
your friends about the LDPlan
Come and speak to us at our
roadshow events
Leave a video/photo diary
message with your comments
Attend an official consultation
meeting
• Leave a video/photo diary message with your comments
• Or speak up at the meeting if you feel you want to
Become an Engagement
Ambassador in your community
We took a consistent
brand-led approach
Communication was
engaging and
regular
We took our message to
where the people were
We monitored the impact
and adjusted our approach
We relied less on words
We didn’t use jargon
that excludes people
We made our maps
reader-friendly
We used strong imagery to give
a real sense of place
Don’t be afraid to be human!
The impact