5.3.1 Providing neighbourhood infrastructure
5.3.2 Encouraging community management
5.3.3 Keeping places safe
Good places facilitate social interaction. This can be encouraged and supported by providing neighbourhood infrastructure to empower the community to become autonomous and take responsibility for their environment.
How effective this support will be will depend on how it is provided. Consideration needs to be given to how local people can interact with management companies and be encouraged to maintain the place’s quality. Care should be taken to ensure that the legacy left behind can foster opportunities for local people to live, work and socialise in a safe and attractive place.
5.3.1 Providing neighbourhood infrastructure
There are many ways in which developments can encourage communities to function better and engender the growth of a community. Generally, every development of an appropriate scale should encourage a mix of uses and users. Schools, shops, community facilities and homes should support each other. Infrastructure to support this can be provided through a range of measures:
Funding
Providing communities with the finance to buy land or buildings to establish amenities and facilities such as health care provision and schools, or to support community initiatives such as a market, a car-share scheme or waste recycling. This can be done through developer contributions or pre-planning section 106 agreements.
Subsidies
Subsidising the rental of properties, businesses or community initiatives such as crèche facilities, to
encourage a diverse range of uses from the early stages of development, when these would normally be sustained only by a larger population.
Providing buildings
Providing physical assets for local use at the start of a development can help to build and develop a community by focusing its activities. It can also provide a base for the local community to establish links with wider communities.
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Establishing a central point of information to encourage communities to interact through management initiatives, to learn about their environment and, in the case of a long- term project, to remain aware of how a development is evolving. This could be in the form of a community intranet, community radio or information centre. Information packs provided by developers on the sale of properties may also be useful, although their application is limited for the private rented market where it can not be guaranteed that these will be provided to tenants.
It can be useful to locate an office of the management company on site. This can promote a sense of ownership by providing people with an easy way to raise issues, increasing local accountability. It can benefit the
management company by highlighting issues before they become a problem and helping to develop good working relations with the community.
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Where specific objectives for a project have been set, it may be appropriate to consider employing an individual to facilitate activities within a neighbourhood and to encourage interest in certain initiatives, raise awareness and promote aspirations. An example of where this might be appropriate could be setting up a recycling centre and raising
Ladera Life Community Intranet www.laderalife.com was set up using fees generated from the sale of development. It hosts community links to local businesses, information on the development and messaging facilities.
Ladera Life, an intranet site for the community living at Ladera Ranch, California, offers a range of services and opportunities to the residents and is a key source of interaction between neighbours, organisations and local businesses.
The site hosts community services, links to local businesses, information on the development and its environs and direct contact with the development’s management. The site also contains details for clubs, message boards and online booking for community events, restaurants, sports facilities and medical appointments.
The site is today managed and operated by the Ladera Ranch Community Services (LARCS). LARCS is a non-profit public benefit corporation that coordinates activities, events, formation of clubs, and facilitates distribution of community information to the residents. LARCS is funded by Community Enhancement Fees collected at the original sale and resale of homes (at 0.125% of the house prices) within Ladera Ranch, and business sponsorships.
MANAGING QUALITY PLACES 5.3
Since its inception in 1999, the Kendray Initiative has addressed problems of increased unemployment, poverty, drugs, rising crime, anti-social behaviour and difficult financial circumstances for local councils. Today, Kendray is not only a place where people want to live but also where they play an active role in the running of their neighbourhood.
Set up by local residents, the Council and other organisations, the initiative has produced an estate redevelopment plan in consultation with residents and appointed a housing association and private housing company to build new homes.
The Initiative supports local people seeking employment, organisation of sports and holiday activities for over 1,000 Kendray children, development of the community website and delivery of appropriate training and learning facilities. They have established two service level agreements that set out the service standards expected from the different agencies. This is then monitored by the Neighbourhood Champions who provide feedback to the service providers on a monthly basis. The Initiative focuses on five key areas of work:
• Supporting young people and vulnerable families with children • Lifelong learning, training
and jobs
• Improving health and emotional well-being
• Estate management, environment and community safety • Promoting Kendray