AMT Public

Year 2 of the Empowerment Fund is set to begin on 1 April 2010.  AMT is involved in a series of projects and would be keen to hear from anyone who would like more information on how to get involved.  The projects are as below:

1. Co-ordination of national Community Led Planning development best practice advice

Aim: Working in partnership with ACRE, the aim is to develop guidance aimed at local aurhorities explaining how they can mae the most of Community Led Planning.

Summary: The value of the proposed project lies in its capacity to tap into the experience and expertise of a range of different stakeholders to examine how CLP can be better used by local authorities.

The project will provide an invaluable opportunity for everyone involved to learn from each other to find out what works and what does not, with respect to supporting community groups to develop high quality plans and making use of data produced within statutory planning processes.

- Local authorities to have a much better understanding of CLP, and able to draw upon examples of best practice to make better use of it themselves

- Local communities benefit from much more tailored support from their local authorities, giving them the additional confidence and resources to produce high quality plans that have the capacity to feed into broader structures of local decision making

- The two CLP methodologies – Parish Planning and Town Action Planning – are better aligned, drawing on a common framework of support and guidance

- CLP has a stronger national profile, recognised and supported by local, regional and national stakeholders for its capacity to strengthen existing democratic processes.

Get involved: If you would be interested in finding out more about this project, including how to get involved, please contact us

2. Town Action Planning

Aim: To promote the new, updated version of the Market Town Healthcheck

Summary: The work on updating the Market Towns Healthcheck is virtually complete and Town Action Planning is the result.  It will now be promoted to market town partnerships and local councils for use.  The aim will be to disseminate the work, and update with further work being developed as part of the Empowerment Fund programme, for example on environmental awareness.

Town Action Planning will be promoted via both AMT and ACRE under the LEAD framework and will be further developed to incorporate eg. Environmental guidance and public participation guidance.

Get Involved: If you would like to find out more about Town Action Planning, or are interested in using it to both understand your town and develop a strategy, then please contact us.

3. Alignment of CLP with the statutory planning process

Aim: AMT will seek to widen the acceptance and use of CLP by the public sector in different circumstances through engagement with the LGA, IDeA, TCPA, RTPI as part of the Rural Coalition and joint work with the Urban Forum, Community Matters and National Empowerment Partnership on the application of CLP in urban areas.

Summary: This will build on earlier work in Northumberland and Durham to test these findings and their wider application in other parts of the country or circumstances such as areas facing rapid growth and development.  As well as the delivery of successful action learning outcomes, the work will seek to define widely applicable approaches for the involvement and use of CLP to align with the strategic needs of local authorities   The findings will be used to prepare extra guidance within the Town Action Planning Framework about achieving strategic influence.

Get Involved: Would your local authority like to test out some of the findings from the work that has been taking place in Northumberland and Durham?  Or are you interested in testing the application  of CLP in aligning with statutory planning in your authority?  Please get in touch if you want to find out more.

4. Models of Local Leadership

Aim: To develop an AMT Policy Snapshot document on local leadership within market towns, comprising a series of case studies.

Summary: Many of our members have raised queries about local leadership and governance structures in relation to how it plays out in practice against a background of budget cuts, greater community involvement, and the need to reduce inequality.  The work will explore, with a number of communities, current and potential governance structures exploring their effectiveness and the direction of policy and guidance.

Get involved: We’d really like to hear from you if you are interested in telling us your experience of local leadership structures – have you had issues around accountability?  Is your local partnership facing threat to funds and looking for new ways to sustain itself?  Are you looking to work more closely with other organisations or authorities?  Email us to find out more.

5. CLP and the Environment

Aim: AMT will be working with the Centre for Sustainable Energy and others on the development of a resource aimed at community groups to assist them in developing environmental projects within their Community Plans.

Summary: CSE has already been working with ACRE on this project as part of their Yr 1 Empowerment Fund, in particular exploring how the guidance might be developed for rural parishes.  The work with AMT will extend this to include a market town focus, raising awareness of the distinct issues that larger communities bring, and incorporating this in the Town Action Planning methodology.  In addition to this aim, AMT has been in discussion with CSE, the Urban Forum, ACRE and Community Matters in terms of exploring further work regarding the joint approach to community led planning resources.

Get Involved: We are already catagloguing some new case studies of towns who have looked at incorporating environmental practices into their Community Led Plans, and will be releasing these shortly.  If you are interested in reducing the carbon footprint of your town, then please get in touch with us.

6. Development of a Public Participation Best Practice Code

Aim: Contribute to the Environmental Law Foundation’s (ELF) work on producing a best practice guide for public participation.

Summary: ELF is aiming to produce a best practice guide for public participation, in conjunction with a number of partner organisations.  AMT’s involvement in this would be primarily identifying a number of market town partnerships which can act as pilots for the project.

Get Involved: What are the major planning issues facing your town right now?  Do you want to find ways to improve the way the planning system works with your community?  If so, you may be able to help with this project.  Please contact us for more information.