Agenda item

The Panel received a report which set out the new Placemaking approach for Haringey, the Placemaking approach to the emerging new Local Plan, and the rollout of Wood Green Voices and similar exercises to follow elsewhere in the borough. The report was introduced by Cllr Ruth Gordon, Cabinet Member for  Council House Building, Placemaking and Development, as set out in the agenda pack at pages 13-18. Peter O’Brien, AD Regeneration & Economic Development was present for this item, along with Bryce Tudball, Head of Planning Policy, Transport and Infrastructure. The following arose during the discussion of this report:

a.    The Panel sought clarification about what was being done differently in the Placemaking approach, that the authority had not done previously. It was commented that the Placemaking priorities were all well and good but they were the type of things that every authority would strive towards and that nobody would propose the opposite of what Haringey was laying out as priorities.

b.    In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged that to some degree that was true, but emphasised that this was about embedding a new approach into all of its Placemaking activities, incorporating the Haringey deal as part of this process. By way of example, the Broadwater Farm engagement was sited, including the translation of communication materials into several different languages. Central to the Placemaking approach was putting people at the heart of it and considering how they used a particular space and how this could be supported through how those spaces were designed. 

c.    The Panel sought clarification about the Cabinet Member’s suggestion that part of the Placemaking approach was ceding power to the community, given that ultimately Cabinet would still be taking decisions. In response, the Cabinet Member emphasised the importance of co-production and co-design in terms of working with the community. As part of this, one of the key stakeholder groups was young people and ensuring that they were part of the co-design process. As part of Wood Green Voices, a representative group of stakeholders was put together and that this group would be built upon going forwards. This group would continue to be consulted with on future developments. The Cabinet Member acknowledged that certain processes would have to be agreed by Cabinet as that was the legal framework for local government decision making and that areas of technical expertise would still sit with officers.

d.    The Panel sought elaboration on how the Council was learning from its past mistakes through the new Placemaking approach. In response, the Cabinet Member set out that she felt the Council had perhaps not paid sufficient attention to the views of the community in the past and had tended to impose decisions rather than incorporate the views of its residents. The Cabinet Member emphasised that ultimately, it was a change of approach and culture of who the Council was as much as anything else.

e.    In response to a question, the Cabinet Member advised that a huge effort had been made to speak to groups that may not always have been engaged with in the past and that in terms of specific groups, Greek Somali and Alevi communities had been engaged as part of Wood Green Voices. The Cabinet Member commented that she did not think that the authority had done this to the same degree before, even though there had been a number of attempts at consulting and engaging in the past.

f.     The Panel raised concerns about the Council being seen to be participating in gentrification, even unwittingly, and were particular opposed to any historical instances of attempting to design people out of a particular location. The Panel sought reassurances that local people would be at the heart of the Placemaking approach. In response, the Cabinet Member acknowledged those concerns and advised that the process was iterative and that the Council would continue to engage with residents and stakeholders throughout the process. The Council would re-engage with the groups who had come forward as part of Wood Green Voices and would also be looking to expand upon these groups.

g.    The Cabinet Member for Housing Services, Private Renters and Planning advised that a key aspect of Placemaking was around ensuring that the Boroughs planning policies reflected the core values and aspirations set out in the report. Officers advised that, to this end, they were developing a new Local Plan and that this would be a more nuanced, locally specific Local Plan that was broken down into defined geographic areas. The new Local Plan would promote the delivery of genuinely affordable housing and also affordable workspace as part of a Placemaking approach. 

h.    In response to a question, the Cabinet Member advised that they would be adopting a quantitative, as well as qualitative approach to engagement. The 350 people engaged with as part of Wood Green Vices was only the start and the exercise was deliberately done over a truncated timeframe to speed up the process.

i.      In response to a question about engagement with businesses, the Cabinet Member advised that officers had spoken to the Wood Green Business District  and the Cultural Quarter as part of Wood Green Voices. The Cabinet Member also promoted the role of the Council in developing Wood Green through the fact it owned a lot of buildings in Wood Green. Officers emphasised the fact that they would continue to build upon engagement in Wood Green and that it was not a closed pool of consultees. The Council had won an award for its engagement on the new Local Plan, which involved speaking to 2000 people. The Local Plan would be going out to draft consultation in early summer.

j.      The Cabinet Member also gave assurances that the organisation would be adopting a broad based approach and that would include engaging with local ward councillors.

k.    The Panel commented that many of the proposals had been done previously by past administrations and a Panel Member rejected any suggestion that there had been a top-down approach to decision making in the past. Concerns were put forward about any perception that the administration was trying to talk down past achievements. In response, the Cabinet Member advised that there was no attempt to downplay previous successes, rather this was a process of trying to build on the good stuff that had happened in the past. This was as much about the culture of the Council and how it worked with its communities, as anything else.

l.      The Panel ruminated that the key challenge was how could the Council improve the lives of its residents and the places they lived and worked without pushing up prices and pushing people out of the borough. The Cabinet Member set out that the Council’s Housing Strategy would play a key role in this and the building of 3000 Council homes.

RESOLVED

Noted.