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Community Focussed Sustainable Development Tool

Background

PLANED is a community led integrated rural development initiative, covering the County of Pembrokeshire in West Wales. We work with local people to help them play a greater role in improving the quality of life in their area: - socially, environmentally, economically and culturally.

PLANED’s aim is to develop strong, local communities. Community Forums provide a structure and mechanism for opportunities to be built on and maintained by local people. Local Action Plans developed and endorsed by the community present a vision for their future and a structure with which to move forward.

PLANED has pioneered in Wales the use of participation tools to encourage local communities to plan for their future e.g. “Future Search” or “Plugging the Leaks”. In 2005 PLANED wished to build on this experience, and develop new processes to encourage communities to strengthen community understanding and enthusiasm for sustainable living and local sustainable development.

With funding from a wide range of organisations – the Welsh Assembly Government, the Countryside Council for Wales, the Welsh Development Agency, the Carnegie Trust, and the European Union, PLANED set out, to develop an easy to use process “tool” to help communities to understand sustainable development and build this into their planning and development of community projects.

By increasing the capacity of local people to participate in the development of solutions for sustainable development and sustainable living, over time they will gain confidence to network, undertake and manage projects and maintain the momentum generated. Therefore, the overarching aim of the project was to help to build the capacity of individuals/groups within communities to participate in and take responsibility for the long-term development of the area

The idea was also to enable key funding partners to use the tool to assess the sustainability of community projects when examining funding bids. It was hoped that in the long term the process could be built into scheme and funding criteria.

The tool/process was to be piloted with a range of communities in Pembrokeshire who had already or were about to participate in community participation activities leading to the production of Local Community Action Plan.

A range of funding and support partners were invited to sit on an advisory panel including Countryside Council for Wales (CCW), Environment Wales (EW), Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority (PCNPA), Pembrokeshire County Council (PCC).

The advisory panel has met four times to discuss progress and assess the effectiveness of the criteria for selection of projects.


Progress to date
Development of Sustainability Tool

PLANED commissioned The New Economics Foundation (NEF) to assist with the design of the tool which would meet the following objectives:-

The Toolkit has been developed and in essence is a series of bilingual (Welsh & English) cards developed from a concept devised by the New Economics Foundation (NEF). The cards, as part of wider Visioning Workshops enable participants to explore sustainable development, the issues surrounding it and when action planning, develop potential projects in a more sustainable way.

The tool has now been piloted and run in over 20 communities: during the Visioning process or as a stand alone workshop to explore and develop a number of project proposals in their Action Plans. Participants have been asked to give feedback on the workshops and it has become clear that the specific activities using the tool raise a lot of interest, discussion and encourage people to think in a more sustainable way.

Angle Toolkit, October 2007 Lampeter Velfrey, visioning exercise July 07
Angle Toolkit, October 2007 Lampeter Velfrey, visioning exercise July 07

PLANED was invited to run a workshop on the tool as part of a Wales wide Environment Wales conference: Environet. This was well received and gave the opportunity to trial the Toolkit with a wide range of people – attendees came from communities of different backgrounds, situations and environments. This has also informed the development of the Tool. A letter of appreciation of the value of the tool has been received. The Welsh Assembly Government & others have expressed an interest in the tool.

A presentation and demonstration of the Tool was made at the Inaugural Conference of the EU Article 6 project Harnessing Rural Capital attended by delegates from Ireland, Sweden and Wales. The participants considered it to be a very useful tool.

The Toolkit was also presented at a workshop in the Euroacademy Summer School in Crete, here again delegates including from Hungary, Spain, Italy, Finland found the process very innovative and useful.

Following Perry Walker of NEF finishing writing the Sustainability Tool Manual, PLANED is formatting the manual, adding illustrations and it will be translated into Welsh in the next few weeks.

The Tool was publicised on Cynnal Cymru’s website, which has triggered a great deal of interest and as a result CCW, Environment Wales and PLANED are planning a training workshop in the new year. The Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority have requested a workshop for staff and Members in the near future.

The Criteria which are used to assess these sustainable community projects for financial assistance and agreed by the PLANED Board, have been refined by the Steering Committee.

Implementation

The Shaping Our Futures Initiative aims to enable local communities to participate in, undertake and promote local development to ensure their long-term viability, socially, economically, environmentally and culturally. Communities who have undertaken the Sustainability Toolkit, as part of the Visioning process or as a separate exercise and have identified sustainable projects as part of that process will be supported to develop and implement these projects.

Through the establishment of Community Forums, co-ordinating with key partners and local communities, PLANED will encourage the development and implementation of Local Action Plans and Area Strategies. This will be underpinned by training, seminars and visits.


In particular the Shaping Our Futures Initiative will encourage activities which meet the following criteria:

The activity will also need to meet at least one of the following criteria:

Project Support

Under this Initiative, PLANED will support sustainable community projects designed to enhance the quality of life which have been identified through Local Action Plans and promoted by Community Forums. Funding assistance will be available towards:

The selection criteria since used by the Advisory Group at meetings assessing the sustainability of projects in order for them to receive PLANED managed “Shaping our Futures” funding. By October 2007 over thirty projects have been identified as eligible for funding under this initiative.

Further information:

Joan Asby, Co-ordinator
PLANED
The Old School
Station Road
Narberth
Pembrokeshire, SA67 7DU

(0044) (0)1834 860965
Fax: (0044) (0)1834861547

 



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