Communities and neighbourhoods

Big Society vanguards

The Prime Minister described the Big Society vanguards as "the great training grounds of change". They are led by local communities and people - not central government. The vanguard areas announced by the Prime Minister have been invaluable training grounds and have demonstrated where barriers, both cultural and practical, should be removed through deregulation, direct support or measures in the Localism Bill.

Government support for the vanguard areas has seen departments completely removing barriers where they can, or looking at new approaches to help community groups turn their local plans into reality, such as the installation of rural broadband or giving people a greater say on local development and budgeting.

It has been a change in the way government operates. Instead of only being focused upwards on providing advice to Ministers, Whitehall is now putting those resources at the service of communities - not only in the vanguards, but nationwide through the localism agenda and new barrier busting service.

Eden Valley

The Eden valley vanguard is led by Rory Stewart MP and the communities of Upper Eden, Heart of Eden and Lyvennet. The three communities, which cover around 50 parishes, identified affordable housing, neighbourhood planning, superfast broadband, renewable energy and transport as their main priorities. Successes include:

The Crosby Ravensworth parishes have purchased land and received planning permission to purchase and build affordable homes on the edge of the village and builders are all lined up to start work in June. David Graham and his colleagues at the Lyvennet Community Trust wanted to provide affordable housing proportionate to the community's needs and wishes. The residents effectively set up their own housing association, and with the support of DCLG, Homes and Communities Agency and Eden District Council have successfully busted bureaucratic barriers that were stopping them from making progress. The lessons will prove valuable for other rural communities across Britain.
The residents of Crosby Ravensworth have set up a co-operative - Lyvennet Community Pub Ltd (external link) - to save their 'local' after almost 90 per cent of residents endorsed the idea. They want to buy, refurbish and reopen the Butcher's Arms as a traditional Cumbrian pub selling local ales and providing a venue for local sports and pastimes, events and celebrations. They also have plans to set up a not-for-profit shop from the premises for selling local produce. The villagers need £255,000 to buy the pub. By 17 May they were up to £235,000, so almost there.
Parishes across the Eden Valley are to be amongst the first rural communities in England to benefit from superfast broadband thanks to work led by local residents in partnership with Broadband Delivery UK, DCLG and Cumbria County Council. Work is due to start this summer on the three 'community hub' pilots that combine the hard work and ideas of local people with the commitment from commercial operators and financial and technical support from Government to deliver superfast broadband speeds to some of the most remote corners of England. Broadband Delivery UK and DCLG are using the Eden pilots to develop a community toolkit that will provide a model approach for other rural communities. For more information see: Northern Fells Broadband, fire Garden, Leith-Lyvennet Broadband (external links).
Parishes in Upper Eden have now started work on the development of a neighbourhood plan for their communities to set out how they see their parishes growing over the next five years. Alongside the other Neighbourhood Planning frontrunners, Upper Eden residents have a DCLG planner to offer guidance and an assurance that the lessons from their project will inform the Localism Bill as it goes through Parliament.
Parishes in the Heart of Eden have worked with local councils and the Environment Agency to develop environmental projects to provide sustainable income for their community. This includes a community hydro scheme for Bongate Weir on the river Eden, which had continually fallen down at the hurdle of environmental statutes. The Environment Agency has been brought in to help Heart of Eden through the development and planning process and to use this as a test bed to help them to being a more customer focused enabling organisation. The community has made considerable progress over recent months so that they are now in a position to apply for planning permission. See Sustainable Energy for Eden (external link) for further information.

Windsor and Maidenhead

Ten projects are up and running, or in full development, under the Big Society vanguard banner in Windsor and Maidenhead. Successes so far include:

Following initial discussion at the Parish Conference in March, a full devolution to parishes 'menu' is now being finalised and cleared for sharing with parishes so that they can select from it in line with local demand.
Adopt a Street is expanding to include new kinds of participants (e.g. schools) and a wider range of activities (e.g. open spaces). Windsor and Maidenhead are also in touch with the Green Deal project to investigate whether an 'adopted' street could be linked to the domestic energy reduction pilots.
A borough wide participatory budgeting scheme was launched on 16 May with a neighbourhood scheme to follow.
The specification for social enterprises interested in taking on Project Carebank (external link) is to be issued this month. The full launch will be in September.
The Guildhall museum space (external link) opened to the public on 12 March with a volunteer rota that is now 45 strong.

Sutton

Sutton has identified three main projects on which to focus its vanguard work: Smarter Travel, creating a more sustainable suburb in Hackbridge, and improving youth engagement.

DCLG officials have been working with the London Borough of Sutton, the Department for Transport and Transport for London, to remove over prescription of the highways such as the bureaucracy around street signs, to reduce street clutter, and give residents a stronger voice in transport issues. The Department for Transport has agreed to improve openness and transparency of traffic signs authorisation process and will provide information on its website.
Sutton and residents of Hackbridge suburb have progressed plans for piping heat to sites in the suburb from a local landfill plant which currently produces electricity by burning waste but releases the heat to the atmosphere. They have been developing options with support from DCLG and the Department of Energy and Climate Change in navigating the multiple and complex planning and procurement issues involved.
On 5 April 2011 it was announced that Hackbridge would be piloting the Neighbourhood Planning Front Runner scheme introduced in the Localism Bill. This includes the development of more than 1,000 new homes, a new district shopping centre along with new schooling and healthcare facilities. A new transport infrastructure is also proposed with better access to the rail station, local roads and pedestrian and cycle networks.
Sutton and DCLG officials have developed a programme of events, to engage directly with local young people. In March a Question Time style debate for young people attended by Communities Minister Andrew Stunell developed young people's views on and understanding of new Community Rights and National Citizens Service. It discussed young people creating the conditions to enable communities and the role of the Sutton Youth Parliament.
DCLG officials are working with Sutton to help local young people produce a film about how they are supporting the Big Society and raise awareness of Sutton Youth Parliament elections in November. This is in response to barriers identified by young people in Sutton.
Sutton are working with the Charity the Young Foundation to pilot the first U, a Citizens' University in Sutton. The U has been developed as a novel way of providing citizens with the skills and confidence they need to help others. The U will prioritise skills which can be learned relatively easily by the majority of people in small, bite-sized modules that don't require a significant commitment of time from the individual. Its aim is to reduce unnecessary deaths, reduce the risk of violence, and strengthen communities' capacity to act for themselves. Its medium term aim is to reach, at relatively low cost, at least 1 per cent of the population.