Community Planning: Case studies: 001
Aylesham Masterplan
intro
Exhibition of the Draft Masterplan
Aylesham 09.jpg
Nick Wates 2004
Theme
Masterplanning using Enquiry by Design
Masterplanning using Enquiry by Design
Location
Aylesham, Kent, UK (6 miles south east of Canterbury)
Aylesham, Kent, UK (6 miles south east of Canterbury)
Project leader:
Aylesham Creating Quality Places Partnership
Aylesham Creating Quality Places Partnership
One of the most successful comprehensive examples of producing a Masterplan for a substantial urban extension with the full and creative involvement of key stakeholders including local residents. Very useful for anyone wishing to use the Enquiry by Design method or involve people in producing a Masterplan.
intro
The Process
key to colour coding
| Intense community planning activity Events, workshops, meetings, open house events, exhibitions. |
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| Moderate community planning activity Surveys, consultation periods. |
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| Low level community planning activity Preparation, revising documents, survey analysis, design work |
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| Key points in community planning process Formation of organizations or partnerships, launch of initiatives, project completion. |
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| Other relevant events and activities Local election, local plan adoption, tendering. |
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| Nothing much happening Waiting, breathing spaces |
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context
Context
- Masterplan prepared by Sir Patrick Abercrombie in 1928 for a town with population of 15,000, but due to recession in the 1930s, the original vision was not realized. Only 1,760 homes built housing 4,200 residents.
- Local Snowdown Colliery (1mile to south) closed in 1986 and since then the village has declined.
- Village identified as a strategic opportunity in Kent County Council Structure Plan 1996 and Dover District Local Plan 2002.
- Partnership formed by regeneration agencies and local authorities to seize initiative and create something of quality.
outcomes
Outcomes -
- Good use of the Enquiry by Design method to engage stakeholders and facilitate creative collaborative working. The process broke down people's suspicion that new development would be poor quality because of previous experience during the 1970s, 80s and 90s. It helped bring about a change in mood; from people seeing development as something that was being foisted upon them to an understanding that it was a way of bringing great benefits to the village which will enable it to take its proper place as a rural centre.
- Good partnership working and project management.
- Creative and robust public consultation process. In particular the face-to-face sample interviews were a valuable complement to the self completion questionnaire and open house exhibition as they gave statistical endorsement to the results. They also identified that the reason for a low level of self-completion returns was because of broad agreement with the proposals.
- Very considerable public support for the end results. The vast majority of Aylesham residents (83%) supported the plans for village development overall.
- Good documentation of the process throughout. (See Documents section)
- Relatively rapid but not rushed timescale.
- Good communication and use of IT.
- Loss of momentum after consultation process.
outcomes
Parties involved
Aylesham Creating Quality Places Partnership
Project direction and management:
- Aylesham Community Development Partnerships
- Aylesham Parish Council
- Dover District Council (DDC)
- English Partnerships (EP)
- Kent County Council (KCC)
- South East England Development Agency (SEEDA)
- The Prince's Foundation (PF)
EDAW
Masterplanning and urban design
www.edaw.co.uk
BBP Regeneration
Development management
www.bbpregeneration.co.uk
Alan Baxter & Associates (ABA)
Transport and planning
www.alanbaxter.co.uk
Donaldsons
Property
www.donaldsons.co.uk
Nick Wates Associates (NWA) and Urbancanda
Public consultation management
www.nickwates.co.uk) and www.urbancanda.co.uk
Accent
Opinion survey
www.accent-mr.com
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Funding and resources
- Funding for masterplanning process and consultation: English Partnership, South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) and Dover District Council.
- Other partners provided staff resources.
- Development to be financed by private sector.
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Face-to-face interview back up
In the public consultation on the Draft Masterplan it was decided to conduct face-to-face interviews with a representative sample of residents to supplement the self-completion, postal questionnaires and test whether they provided a representative view. Although the results were not dramatically different, there were subtle differences between the face-to-face and postal responses. More importantly the process proved to be very useful in giving decision makers confidence to act on the results. It also provided the opportunity to ask people about their reaction to the postal questionnaires. See ‘Aylesham Masterplan Survey Results, Accent, June 2004’ in the Documents section for further details.
photo gallery
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Quotes
"The future of the village is something to look forward to."Male, 65+
"What a wonderful and exciting plan for Aylesham, especially the housing on the open spaces. I strongly support the plan."Male, 35-49
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Reviews
"The Enquiry by Design process changed the way that some local people viewed the village and the issues. It brought forward proposals that are not in the Local Plan. This made for contentious but better proposals."
Mike Ebbs, Forward Planning Manager, Dover District Council, email to Site Editor, 16 May 2006
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Contacts
Michael Ebbs,
Forward Planning Manager
Dover District Council
White Cliffs Business Park
Dover, Kent
CT16 3PJ
Tel: +44 (0)1304 872472
forwardplanning@dover.gov.uk
www.dover.gov.uk/aylesham