Last month the Planning for Real (PFR) Unit hosted a study visit for representatives from the Ministry of Infrastructure and Development in Wroclaw, Poland and The City of Reykjavik. We were asked to arrange this visit after Margaret Wilkinson, Head of the PFR Unit travelled to Poland in September this year to deliver a keynote speech at the DiverCITY conference
The focus of the study tour was community involvement in the shaping of urban space and we put together an itinerary which showcased different scales of projects and different approaches to community participation.
As part of the visit the group visited:
- Telford Millennium Community – where Mike Vout from Telford and Wrekin Council and Jon Rowland from Jon Rowland Urban Design led a walking tour and talked about the urban planning, participation, placemaking and the special Stewardship arrangements as well as touching on the lessons learnt.
- Lawley urban extension in Telford – where Lisa Richards from Telford and Wrekin Council showed the group around and explained the context and background.
- MADE’s offices and central Birmingham – where chief executive David Tittle talked to the Group about regeneration, showed some of the visual methods MADE has used on a recent estate redesign project in London (The Wendling Estate) and led a walking tour of revitalisation / urban renewal schemes in Birmingham city centre.
- Balsall Heath in Birmingham where the Group were introduced to the work of the Neighbourhood Forum and the community of Balsall Heath. Peter Helly, Ashram Community Development Manager, introduced his Micro-Neighbourhood Development project which includes the Planning for Real process and Joe Holyoak, Architect and Urban Planner, talked about the development by the community of the Balsall Heath Neighbourhood Plan.
The study visit concluded with an explanation and demonstration of the Planning for Real process led by Margaret Wilkinson. The Group learnt in detail about the process through a hands-on and participative workshop which gave them the opportunity to “try out” a number of elements of the process for themselves.
Funding for this study tour was from the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 and EEA Financial Mechanism 2009-2014.
We hope that our colleagues from Poland and Iceland enjoyed their visit and we look forward to hearing more about the community involvement projects they are working on.