Tools and Techniques – The Community Planning Toolkit

Structured Dialogue Method

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

BIRMINGHAM COMMUNITY PLANNING TOOLKIT METHOD SHEET This sheet may be reproduced in paper or electromic or any other form but please mention it was made by Chamberlain Forum Limited for Birmingham City Council supported by Department for Communities and Local Government.

created: 2016-07-25 16:07:23

by: admin

status: a outlined

Gap Analysis

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:06:38

by: admin

status: a outlined

Neighbourhood Profile

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:05:12

by: admin

status: a outlined

Making a Freedom of Information Request

If you can’t get the information you need from a public authority, you may want to consider making a Freedom of Information request…

Most of the information you need from government, the local council and other public bodies is likely to either already be published or available by talking to officials about what you need and why. If you have been unable to get hold of information held by public authorities, a Freedom of Information (FOI) request may help.

The Freedom of Information Act 2000 is based on the principle that people have a right to know about the activities of public authorities unless there is a good reason for them not to. The Act applies to any ‘recorded information’ that is held by a public authority in England. That includes: government departments, local councils, the NHS, state schools and the police. The Act does not necessarily apply to every publicly-funded organisation that receives public money. You cannot request personal information using the FOI Act. (You are entitled to see personal information that is held about you under a separate law - the Data Protection Act). See the link for more detailed background of what is and isn't covered by the Freedom of Information Act.

What you Need

You need a clear idea of what it is you want to find out.

You need some means of communicating with the public authority you believe can help. You can use email or a letter, but Freedom of Information requests should be made in writing.

How to do It

To make a freedom of information request, you should:

contact the relevant authority directly
make the request in writing, for example in a letter or an email
give your real name
give an address to which the authority can reply.

Before you make a request, however, you might want to do the following:

check thoroughly to see whether the information you want or information sufficiently close to it is already published by the authority or somewhere else
check below to see if who you are requesting the information from is actually covered by the Freedom of Information Act and needs to respond (thousands of requests each year are sent to organisations which are not required to respond)
check whether the information you are requesting is likely to be covered or may be exempted; and whether releasing the information in the form you have requested is likely to be considered as being against the public interest (requests may be turned down inthese grounds)
talk to officials within the authority, if you are able to get their advice and assistance - either to get hold of information that might serve your purpose with issuing an FOI request, or to get help to in wording an FOI if you decide you need to.

Examples and Case Studies

You can look at examples of FOI requests and associated documentation online, for example:

this request for information from Bristol City Council about incidents of fly tipping
this request for information from Manchester City Council about empty council houses
this request for information from the Department for Communities and Local Government on disposals of allotment land

on the mySociety Freedom of Information request portal WhatDoTheyKnow.com. This website has been up and running since 2008. About 350,000 FOI requests have been made using the site. That is about 1 in 5, or 1 in 6, of all FOI requests made in the UK.

Checklist

Do Your Research - check what information you really need including how you need it broken down and for what years etc. and check that it is not published somewhere already. Remember the FOI Act applies to 'recorded information'.

Organisation - you should send your request to the right public authority. It doesn't matter if you don't know the name of the person within the authority to write to. Remember, the FOI Act only applies to public authorities and to certain organisations carrying out work on their behalf.

Request in writing - if you send your request as a letter, keep a copy. You can make requests via websites such as What Do They Know which will ensure copies of correspondence are kept.

Name - you should give your real name. If you use an obvious pseudonym, the authority may ignore your request and you will then have difficulties following your request up (because it will be hard to prove you are the 'Mickey Mouse' or 'Doctor Who' in question). You can give a version of your name (a previous surname if you have one, for example) or use the name of an organisation, or get someone else to submit the request for you in their name.

Address - you need to include an address, otherwise the authority will not be able to reply to you. 'Address' includes an email address: you do not need to give your physical street address. If the document you have asked for is very long and only available as a hard copy (that is, in paper form), then it is probably reasonable for the authority to request a physical address to send it to. You can, however, still give an address 'care of' someone else, if you would really rather not give your own personal information.

created: 2016-07-25 16:04:31

by: admin

status: f published

Build a Local Website

Building a website takes less than an hour and you can do it for free using a tool like Wordpress. You can also develop sites to carry out all sorts of functions…

As with all projects, you need to be clear about what you want a website to achieve (and what you might want it to achieve in future); when you need it and how long it will take to build; and what time, money and other resources you are willing to spend on it.

This sheet is based on using WordPress as a tool to develop your website. WordPress is an open source tool which was designed as a blogging platform (it enabled people to keep diaries of events and thoughts online) but has long since developed as a Content Management System (a very flexible approach which lets you develop a wide range of websites with all sorts of purposes. You can use WordPress to develop, for example:

a hyperlocal online neighbourhood forum and news site

an online sales brochure or recruitment form for your organisation

a community planning tool (including for neighbourhood planning)

a project management tool for organising the work of your group between meetings.

What you Need

To make a website, you will need:

Some form of computer connected to the internet. You can make a website using a smartphone or a tablet, but you will need a proper keyboard and, for any website using pictures, you need a large screen such as found on a laptop or desktop computer.

A web browser - preferably more than one out of Google Chrome; Internet Explorer or Microsoft Edge; Mozilla Firefox; Safari; and the Android browser. The last two are mainly found on iPhones and Android smartphones respectively.

An email address.

You can set up a website for free, but a budget of about £50 will help.

How to do It

To set up your first WordPress based site, use wordpress.com and select free options to start with. You don’t have to pay for hosting. If you use a sub-domain you don’t have to pay for a domain name (a sub-domain looks like: www.westascot.wordpress.com rather than www.westascot.org.uk etc). The free version sets limits on functionality which won’t affect you to start with and you will have ads on your site (unless you pay to have them removed). If you want to develop on from the free service, you can in time. Everything you learn whilst setting up a free site will help you run your own paid-for site if you go down that route.

The step-by-step instructions below will enable you to make a website like that at www.westascot.wordpress.com:

Go to wordpress.com and click the ‘get started’ link at the top right of the page
Choose the type of site, for example Education and Organisations, then say Communities and Associations sub-group
Choose from the templates on offer – say Welcome Page and a theme, say Big Brother for example
Choose a sub-domain name, eg westascot. If it’s avialble you can have it. Otherwise you might need to adjust it.
Select the ‘Free’ option – you can always upgrade later or decide to set up a hosted wordpress site somewhere else. And enter your email address, a username and password for WordPress
Click on Settings at the bottom of the page in the left column and choose your site title, tagline and other details. You can check what your site looks at any point by copying the address into your browser.
Click on Pages in the left hand column. Click to edit the Home page and choose the Visual tab towards the right of the screen. Type in words. You can add pictures or videos using the Media button; format your text using the controls as you would in Word etc. and create links using the chain icon. When you have edited the page to say what you want, click Update (you’ll need to have confirmed your email address to do this).
Now you can edit and make new pages on the site and link them including by using the chain icon on page editing window.
Click on Blog to publish Posts to the site (use Pages for content that won’t change and that you need to be easy to find and Blog Posts for timely updates).
That’s it – a WordPress site in somewhere between 30 minutes and an hour depending on how quick you’ve been going. Don’t forget to check out www.westascot.wordpress.com – we put a few example of Neighbourhood Planners using WordPress site on there.

Examples and Case Studies

The site we set up using the instructions above is at www.westascot.wordpress.com If you pay it a visit, why not go to the Contact page and leave us a note to say hello!

See also the useful notes at Website Setup and Learn WordPress.

For alternatives to WordPress see:

Wix - which features good tutorials. There is a free version, but it is limited.

Weebly - again there is a limited free version available.

BT Community Web Kit - which is free

Drupal Gardens - is based on the Drupal Content Management System (which like WordPress is open source). The site is free but offers limited function.

Before you commit to a particular platform (like WordPress, Drupal or Wix) you should be on the lookout to see whether you will need to pay in order to achieve the results you want.

Checklist

WordPress is an open-source tool. Open-source means that it is free to use- because it belongs to the community of people who use and develop it. Most new websites are now set up using WordPress. There are alternatives to using it, however. You can:

Use an alternative open-source system , such as Joomla or Drupal. The advantages of WordPress are that it is easier to learn and that it has the largest community of people developing it and therefore making it easier and more powerful for you to use.
Use social media tools – like Facebook and Twitter – you can use these to get a presence on the web, but they will not look like you own them. You can also integrate these tools with WordPress (or Joomla, Drupal etc). You could look at using Google Apps as an alternative.
Use a tool you have to pay for (note WordPress can cost too). If you can afford ongoing costs, this is fine. But when you end up buying things for lots of applications it gets expensive. Some systems - like Wix – are available in free versions, but you may need premium to make the most of them.
Don’t use digital technology – use old fashioned tried and tested tools: leaflets and letters and notices in windows. There's nothing wrong with using these methods, but at the same time, you can tie them in to having a website. A website isn't an alternative to paper and face to face meetings, it's a way of getting more value out of them.

created: 2016-07-25 16:03:35

by: admin

status: f published

Run Productive Meetings

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:02:50

by: admin

status: a outlined

Managing Projects

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:02:17

by: admin

status: a outlined

Conduct a Survey

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:01:43

by: admin

status: a outlined

Forming a Neighbourhood Forum

What you Need

The ingredients, resources and skills you need to use this method

How to do It

Step by step desciption of the method

Examples and Case Studies

Checklist

created: 2016-07-25 16:01:07

by: admin

status: a outlined

Setting up a Parish Council

A civil parish council is the most local layer in local government in England. It is nothing to do with running the church and they are not restricted to country areas. Although most rural parts of the country have a parish council and most urban places do not, residents can set up a civil parish council wherever they live.

Parish councils (also called town councils or community councils) are made up of elected councilors – like a city or borough council. They have the same basis in law as higher level councils. They have the same requirement to act for the economic, social and environmental well-being of the place they serve.

Unlike city or borough councils, they cover populations of a few hundred to tens of thousands of people. They can give a democratic voice to a town or neighbourhood. Parish councillors are frequently ‘Independents’ rather than members of political parties. Where they exist, parish councils are the natural body to lead community planning and are the designated body to lead neighbourhood planning.

Parish councils can raise a precept (which is a local tax added to council tax) to provide local services. Typically, they provide things like: allotments, litter bins, car parks, community centres, parks and open spaces and festive lights. Parish councils can provide anything that benefits local wellbeing including for example: affordable housing; community safety and crime reduction projects; community transport and traffic calming; economic development and neighbourhood management.

What you Need

As with any project, you need to be clear about your objectives before you start the process of setting up a parish council: is what you want to achieve likely to be possible by having a parish council?

You will need to be able to organise a petition that will be signed by 10% of the voters in the area covered by your proposed parish council. This implies an extensive community network and good links with local businesses and community groups.

You will need lobbying and campaigning skills to promote the argument for a parish council to your city, borough or district council. The support of your local district councillors isn't essential, but will help a great deal. As will good contacts with the council officers who serve your area.

You will need to be able to wage a campaign that will encourage the majority of voters to support the proposed parish council. You will need to work with local newspapers, websites and others; probably able to use social media effectively; and have a budget of at least a few hundred pounds and significant goodwill from local groups and business.

You should make contact with the National Association of Local Councils (NALC supports and networks parish and community councils) to find people in your region who can advise and assist you.

How to do It

Setting up a parish council is a long process which is likely to take several years. The first step, formally, is the announcement of a Community Governance Review (a formal consultation on how decisions are made about public services etc in a locality. In practice, this stage is likely to come after significant local campaigning and debate). The review is done by your city/borough/district council and it can cover all or part of its area. The council can call a Community Governance Review on its own intiative. Or the process can be initiated by the community.

To initiate a Community Governance Review as a community group, you need the support of at least 10% of the voters (a higher proportion in small areas with less than 2500 electors) who live in the area. They must sign a petition asking the local authority to carry out a community governance review to see if a new parish council should be created. The petition must:

state exactly what it proposes, ie creating a parish or town council for a defined area
contain the signatures of at least 10% of local electors, based on the most recent electoral register.

The local authority must complete this review within one year of starting it, or of receiving a valid petition, unless it:

has completed a community governance review on the area in the last 2 years (in this case the council can choose to undertake the review or not)
is already undertaking a community governance review of the area or an area of which it is part (the council can’t undertake two reviews of the same or overlapping areas at the same time).

During the community governance review, the council will consult with local voters and with community groups and residents associations in the area. The review can look at alternatives to a parish council inclcuing things like area committees, neighbourhood forums, tenant managed organisations, neighbourhood management schemes etc.

The council publishes its recommendations after completing the review. It may recommend a public referendum on the proposed new parish council. It may reject the proposal. If the council rejects the proposal, there is no right of appeal but the community may ask the court for a judicial review of the process (which looks at whether the decision has been made in accordance with the rules).

A public referendum - if one is called - is held.

The council can set up a shadow parish council with its own councillors until it is able to organise the first election of councillors to the new parish council.

Examples and Case Studies

Sutton Coldfield Town Council is a new parish council in Birmingham which covers teh area of the Sutton Coldfield parliamentary constituency. It is a very large community council - covering just over 100,000 people. There are details of the stages that were gone through to set it up at the SCTC website (above) which is currently hosted by Birmingham City Council.

Queens Park Community Council was the first community council in London - set up in 2014 and covering the Queens Park area between Kensal Green and Kilburn in NW London. The council serves 12,500 residents. Its website shows what a newly established council can do.

Alwoodley Parish Council in North Leeds covers about 10,000 residents. It was set up in 2008 and is now in the process of making a Neighbourhood Development Plan for the area - details of the process are on the council's website.

Checklist

Read more about the process - including on the National Association of Local Councils website, and, for example:

The NALC case studies including the case study of residents in Holborn (PDF) exploring the potential for a parish council
Part 4 of the Local Government and Public Involvement in Health Act 2007 sets out the process of making a parish council in law.
NALC Notes on Community Governance Reviews (PDF) drawn from recent experience and the Government Guide to Community Governance Reviews
NALC Guidance Notes for Newly Established Councils (PDF)
Your district/borough/city council's policy on parish councils (if it has one)
How to set up a town or parish council on the Government's website
Create Your Own Council (PDF) guide from NALC

Talk to local community groups and local businesses and councillors about the idea. Be clear about common objectives and your answers to some of the drawbacks of having a parish council (including that it will raise local tax).

Engage with local residents in a coherent and positive way. Keep party politics out of your campaign. Stress the benefits which a parish council would bring and be ready to deal with the objections - not everyone will be supportive.

Talk to your city/borough/district council officers. Your aim is to keep a good working relationship with the principal council - they will be responisble for running the community governance review that could lead to the formation of the parish council.

created: 2016-07-25 15:59:54

by: admin

status: f published