Allendale Neighbourhood Development Plan

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20 Jan 2012 – http://www.inorthumberland.org.uk/ (Accessed 17 November 2011). Northumberland County Council, n.d. Neighbourhood Services Litter ...

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• Sport

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• Publié par: Sportif
• Nombre de lectures: 33
• Langue: Français

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Allendale Neighbourhood Development Plan School Consultation Report Date: 20 January 2012  This document is one of three reports prepared by a team of fifth year Post Graduate Planning Diploma students from Newcastle University. The students acted as consultants to the Allendale Neighbourhood Plan Project Steering Group as part of a consultancy module in their final year work programme. Their work helps to form the background evidence base for the Allendale Neighbourhood Plan. Members of the student consultant team were: Lee Crawford Philip Dobinson Richard Holland Hannah Nelson David Wood The School Consultation Report summarises the middle school engagement event that was planned, carried out and analysed by the student consultant team. The engagement event itself took place in November 2011 and used interactive voting technology as well as group discussions to obtain quantitative and qualitative feedback. Following analysis of the children’s feedback, the student consultant team has made a number of recommendations at the back of this report. 1  Contents 1. Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 4 2. Methodology .................... 6 Initial Research ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Consultation Event .............................. 7 Data Presentation and Analysis ....................................................................................................... 9 3. Data Analysis ................................................. 10 Transport to school ........................................................................................... 10 After school transport ....................................................... 13 Bus stop provision ............................................................................................ 13 Cycling .................................................................................. 14 Internet Use ......................................................................... 16 Dog Fouling ......................................................................... 17 Open Space ......................................................................... 19 Sports .................................................................................... 20 Other Leisure ....................................................................... 22 Local Services ..................................................................... 23 Country or city living ......................................................... 24 4. Evaluation ....................................................................................... 28 Introduction ......................................................................... 28 Successes ............................................................................ 28 Limitations ........................................................................... 29 Departure from original methodology ...................... 29 Other constraints ........................................................................................................................... 30 Lessons learned ................................. 31 2  Pre-consultation planning ........................................................................................................... 31 On the day ........................................ 32 Transport .............................................................................................................. 34 Internet .................................................. 36 Dog Fouling ......................................................................................................... 36 Open Space ......................................... 37 Sports .................................................................................................................... 37 Other Leisure ....................................... 37 Local Services ..................................................................................................... 38 Country or City Living ....................................................................................................................... 38 6. Recommendations ........ 40 7. Bibliography ................................................................................................................... 42 Appendix A- Schools Consultation Guide and Detailed Methodology ................................ 44 Appendix B: Allendale Case Study ............................................................................................... 49 3  1. Introduction 1.1 Neighbourhood planning is designed to be a community-led process and representative of local people. Within society, children represent a traditionally ‘hard to reach group’ for plan-makers. It is important that children have their say in the preparation of the Allendale Neighbourhood Plan as they represent the future of the parish and will be impacted by the future development of their area. 1.2 At present, there are many community activities and events in the parish. There are, however, relatively few opportunities for children to actively engage with the planning of their neighbourhood. 1.3 The Allendale Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group decided that it would be useful to undertake a consultation event in a local school, enabling children’s voices to be genuinely heard, considered and constructively used in the preparation of the neighbourhood plan. 1.4 Allendale Middle School was identified as the most appropriate venue for an event to be held due to its size, central location within the parish and willingness of staff thto get involved. An initial meeting, held on 14 October 2011, with the school’s head teacher, revealed that consultation with her students would be welcomed. After visiting the school it was considered that the site had the appropriate facilities for hosting such an event. The school has approximately 130 children, divided into 4 classes ranging from Years 5 to 8. The year groups offer the views and suggestions from children between ages 9 and 13. The school has a significant catchment area, drawing children from across the parish and beyond its boundaries. It was considered that wide geographic pull could provide the views of children from within the boundaries, but also reveal issues from outside the parish which directly impact upon it. 1.5 The Steering Group considered it important that school children were engaged early in the neighbourhood planning process in order to frontload their involvement. This approach moves away from traditional ‘tokenistic’ consultation activities and allows the children’s views and comments to be incorporated into the process while the plan is 4  being developed. The intention of engaging children in the process is to foster a sense of ownership of the neighbourhood plan, mobilising them to become more actively involved in shaping the development of their area. The event was also intended to spark community interest, stimulating children to have conversations with their parents which would raise the profile of the neighbourhood planning process. In terms of wider consultation activities, the event also sought to uncover cross-generation issues as often children express the opinions and follow the lifestyle choices of their elders. 5  2. Methodology Initial Research 2.1 Initial research within the parish was necessary so that the consultation material was relevant and meaningful. We attempted to gain a clear understanding of who lives, works and visits the parish as well as the existing infrastructure prior to any consultation with the school children. 2.2 There was a desktop review of existing information on community consultation to investigate the most appropriate methods to apply. A variety of different tools and approaches were analysed to ensure the consultation informs the study and benefits the school children. We contacted Planning Aid to see what advice or support they could offer from their experience of working with children in such situations. From the initial research we understood that particular considerations are required when consulting with children; however the underlying good practice principles remain the same. 2.3 The consultation was designed to be:  Relevant to infrastructure in Allendale Parish;  Based on innovative and creative techniques to stimulate children;  Tailored to the participants’ age and interests;  Non-technical, avoiding planning jargon;  A stimulus for the children to actively engage in discussion;  A discussion of live local issues with the children to encourage them to discuss in the wider community;  Systematically planned to retain focus, stay on topic and produce useful data;  Flexible in nature to respond to unforeseen events. 6  2.4 Ethical issues were also considered during consultation planning, including the protection of legal rights and safeguarding of any confidential information. Consultation Event 2.5 In order to capture a range of types of data to inform the neighbourhood plan, it was decided that the consultation event would adopt both quantitative and qualitative techniques. The advantage of this approach is that statistical information, which is easily presented and analysed could be collected, but also creative proposals and general comments could be extracted. The approach provides a robust evidence base for the plan by demonstrating direct consultation with the children, helping to ensure that their voices are heard. 2.6 Four separate sessions were held, divided by year group, in