Southwark Council: the 'Choice and Liveability' street improvements project

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Southwark Council's ‘Choice and Liveability' project is an example of how councils can involve residents in street improvements. The project was a pilot that involved just four streets. However, as it worked well, the council has now committed to funding similar neighbourhood consultations for all future street improvements.

Key learnings for other councils

Council staff with experience in community engagement should work closely with those in technical delivery of a project. Many streetscape engineers have never ‘engaged with the public' in their daily work, so those with experience and expertise in this arena need to help.

Community work is not only about the outward-facing side of things. Community engagement staff need to work with everyone that needs to be empowered - in this case, the council's streetscape engineers.

Background

The London Borough of Southwark is a member of the government's Network of Empowering Authorities. The council's aim is to share lessons learned and to learn from other councils' experiences.

Southwark discussed its ideas about community engagement and street improvement with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Communities and Local Government. Both provided Southwark with funds for a project to design new ways of getting people involved in road and footpath improvements.

Who was involved?

Two different sections of the council worked together - those responsible for community engagement and those responsible for streetscape improvements. Southwark also asked Living Streets for their ideas on how to reach residents and hold ‘conversations of equals'. Living Streets brought ideas from their experience of work in other parts of the country, which were also a vital ingredient to success.

The problems and how we tackled them

Southwark had to explain design and engineering issues simply to people but without limiting their choices unnecessarily. The council has a ‘Southwark Streetscape Design Guide'. It covers topics such as the colour of new bins and bollards, prioritising safety while also limiting ‘light pollution', and the types of new surface materials to be used. Often, as in all good design, it is a matter of balancing competing aims and getting more done for the money.

Southwark's solution to explaining design was to bring streetscape designers into direct contact with residents - often and in different ways. Southwark's streetscape designers learned that ‘resident walkabouts', talking and debating at design workshops, and considering the arguments of individual residents is time well spent. For example, one resident suggested putting new street lights in existing trees. The designers thought this was a great idea and this is soon to happen in Camberwell's Southampton Way.

A series of designer-resident discussions in Peckham resulted in a new tree planting policy. Trees are planted close to the homes of people who like trees, and away from homes of people without this enthusiasm. The council tried as much as it could to accommodate different views and that effort was appreciated.

Outcomes and impacts

The biggest impact has been on the way the council works. From now on, in every street improved Southwark will make sure that engineers and residents work together. The council wants to make sure work is relevant and that, from the most senior level down, the council engages with local people on equal terms. If council engineers can do it, everyone can!

Southwark describes its way of working as ‘participatory budgeting'. It intends to take part in national discussions about broadening the way budget allocations are made. However, each area of local government spending needs a tailored solution.

Nonetheless, a capital budget of £3 million, which was once allocated without input from people whose streets needed improvement, is now the subject of a lot of discussion. At very least, people now know why council decisions are made.

Next steps

The next step will be to create a clearer system of decision making. This will not be exactly voting but a new way to give more power to residents. Local democracy has been improved by more people having a say on decisions taken in their streets.

Ward councillors were always supportive of the department's efforts to explain and engage. However, care must be taken never to cut across democratic accountabilities.

When taking the next steps, Southwark will need to carefully consider how to create more participation in budget decision making, while supporting councillors' roles as elected representatives.

Once the capital work is completed, the council will help people from pilot streets to continue talking about improvements in day-to-day life. This could include, for example, problem parking, noisy neighbours or concerns about the friendliness of neighbourhoods.

Later in 2008, Southwark will go back to the same streets and organise community events. These will focus on neighbourliness, better street services, such as cleaning and policing, and how people can help each other.

Southwark hopes residents will also talk about how pleasant it is to live in these streets, especially as they now look beautiful!

Contact

Kevin Dykes

Community Development Manager

London Borough of Southwark Council

telephone: 020 75255601

email: [email protected]

Article published November 2008