“It is not fair to ask of others what you are not prepared to do yourself.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
It is easy to preach the many benefits of a community-focused place. But facilitating them requires hard work and a transparent process involving thousands of conversations and meetings. Their outcomes will, inevitably, require adaptability and agility on our part.
A great example is taking place in Stamford, where, from our very first conversations, the landowners were clear that they only wanted to work with partners who were prepared to work around the very real and pressing needs of local people.
This was music to our ears. Our approach to any new place is that our initial drawings only have one fixed feature – the thick red line setting-out the site’s boundary. Everything within it is simply a starting point for a rigorous consultation process.
That first design at Stamford North incorporated many of the elements that we hoped would appeal to the local community. We were aware of the need for more accessible open spaces, affordable housing and a new health centre. These were included within a design using the contours of the valley, the natural flow of water and existing transport links.
But for all the hard work and precision involved, that design was just a stepping stone. Because it’s one thing to create something that draws upon all that insight and imagination and quite another to assume that it will be received with unanimous approval by residents and community groups.
And that’s a good thing.
Community-led projects need to be responsive to feedback throughout the design phase. Perspectives change as the blank page is filled with everything involved in a future place.
Take the numerous groups who requested new sports facilities. They sound great in theory, but less so for the residents who fear that the floodlights will be visible from their bedroom. Or the hundreds of people who were delighted with the promise of a new cycle path, some of whom are less delighted that it would run within shouting distance of their garden.
These are all perfectly good reasons for concern. Because the best laid plans will create many practical implications for many residents, clubs and businesses.
This is why we champion the art of listening: openly, objectively, and constructively. It’s why we keep chatting and consulting, doing all we can to make the changes that ensure everyone involved in the site has played its part in the final design.
The community in Stamford has asked us to adapt our plans and, wherever possible, we’ve done just that. Here are some examples:
We were asked to include more shops and amenities in the community centre we are creating as the beating heart of the new community.
We listened and adapted our plans by moving the ‘hub’ to a site bordering the existing Borderville Sports Centre. It can now integrate a wide range of shops, amenities and sports facilities into a connected community hub.
We were asked to build on our plans for communal gardens, orchards, parks, play areas, exercise routes and an amphitheatre to create even more useable open spaces for children.
We listened and have added more, including more play spaces suitable for children and teens of all ages and needs.
We were asked to include an area specifically for allotments.
We listened and have created a dedicated space of 6,300 sqm alongside orchards and community gardens.
We were asked to invest even further in local sport.
We listened and are creating new grass pitches away from the valley (where there are few large, suitable flat surfaces, investing in the Borderville Sports Centre and making financial contributions that the council can grant to specific groups and clubs.
This list is by no means comprehensive. We are currently adapting our transport plans on the back of Lincolnshire County Council’s latest traffic modelling. We have added a number of Almshouses that we expect to be held in trust by Lord Burghley’s Hospital Charity. And we have made a number of guarantees on net gains in biodiversity.
For many developers this would have been a step-too-far. For us, it is just the start. When we (hopefully) receive planning consent, we will continue to consult and listen.
This is what we believe is needed in a community-focused project. And it’s a benchmark for every place we develop.