Planning for BME Communities

Jargon and long, complex processes have dealt minority communities a poor hand within the planning system - but an innovative project has helped them find a voice.

People from black and minority ethnic backgrounds are less likely to participate in the planning process and more likely to have planning permission refused than long-term white residents.

Research by Sheffield City Council found 18 per cent of planning applications from BME residents were turned down, compared with 8 per cent from the white population. There were various reasons: the types of development tended to be contentious, such as fast food takeaways, restaurants, bars and home extensions; the quality of planning submissions could be poor; and understanding of planning issues tended to be low.

But that could change, as delegates to a Leeds conference heard. The event marked the culmination of a two-year project to increase awareness of planning, improve planning applications and boost participation among BME communities in Yorkshire. The project - Planning for BME Communities - was run by Yorkshire Planning Aid and funded by Integreat Yorkshire, the regional centre of excellence in regeneration, renaissance and placemaking skills.

‘Navigating communities through the labyrinthine planning system is no mean feat. BME communities need a more tailored approach to ensure they are involved in decision-making,’ freelance training consultant Parminder Singh Garcha told delegates. He stressed the importance of ‘understanding the mindset of where different ethnic groups are coming from’ and said cohesion was ‘a bottom up process built locally’.

The Planning for BME Communities project featured training, consultation events, workshops, activities to build local capacity, and opportunities for residents to engage with the planning system in six council areas. All activities were tailored to particular target groups. In total, 570 people attended 35 consultation events, and 16 training events were delivered including interactive planning education sessions for 3 secondary schools.

The project aimed to break down complex planning documents, communicate their contents clearly and develop techniques and resources to connect with ‘hard to reach’ groups. It also sought to increase understanding among professionals of ways to engage people from BME communities, as well as to improve networks between planning departments, equality and diversity officers and community and voluntary sector bodies.

Project workers Debbie Holland and Lynsey Brownnutt told the conference that tapping into community organisations, festivals, schools, colleges, youth groups, daycare centres and advertising events at local meeting points were all effective ways of making links with BME communities.

They spoke of the importance of practical issues such as food, translation, childcare, and timing and location of events. The input of 35 volunteers, whose training included issues such as faith awareness, had been invaluable. ‘This project showed the value of going deep into the community, taking time and building up trust,’ said Mrs Brownnutt.

An example of the activities undertaken by the project was a development control training exercise at the Al-Hikmah Centre in Batley, where residents and representatives of small businesses came together to debate an application to change the use of a building from a shop to a takeaway.

In another activity at Greenhead High School in Keighley, where 77 per cent of pupils are from BME backgrounds, students had the opportunity to come up with innovative ideas for their ‘ideal sustainable town’, and examine plans for a new school building.

A total of 163 people also took part in nine group workshops at local community centres and youth clubs as part of the consultation on Bradford’s Core Strategy and City Centre Area Action Plan.

Bradford – where 18 per cent of residents are from BME backgrounds and which has the fastest growing population outside London – was singled out for praise by the project workers, who commended the council’s willingness to be flexible about deadlines to allow maximum involvement in consultation. The council also ran a ‘consultation log’ to show people how their views had been responded to.

Bhupinder Singh Dev, team leader at City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council, said: ‘The project has enabled us to form bonds at grassroots, helped build the capacity of neighbourhood support officers to engage, and enabled people to get things off their chests. It has left a legacy and I want it to continue in some form in the future.’

He pointed out that BME residents raised the same issues as the majority population, with housing and associated community facilities the major concerns, although Muslim residents also identified provision of burial grounds as a particular issue.

Shahed Mayet, community centre manager at Milen Care, a centre for Asian elders in Batley, told delegates of the centre’s experience of awareness-raising sessions related to the Kirklees Core Strategy. ‘The sessions provided an understanding of the issues planners face, which forges links and reduces a “them and us” culture between planners and lay people,’ he said.

Mr Mayet said 98 per cent of participants in the sessions had had no previous involvement in planning. In his opinion, greater involvement of BME communities would result in better decisions. He highlighted the potential barriers caused by language, especially jargon, and stressed the importance of providing culturally and religiously sensitive services. Feedback to community members on consultations should also be improved, in his view, so people could see where they had influenced plans.

The project workers were supported by an advisory group that included Jacqui Baines, Yorkshire Planning Aid’s regional manager, and Stacey Jobson, learning programmes manager at Integreat Yorkshire, which invested £150,000 in the programme.

Integreat’s programme director, Richard Motley, said: ‘Involving more people in the planning process and reflecting their views will mean better places are developed and awareness of wider democratic processes is fostered.’

Lessons from the project will be disseminated regionally and nationally and are distilled in the report Planning for BME Communities, which was launched at the conference.

Its recommendations include:
• engage at the most local level
• use consultation materials that make the impact of plans on communities clear
• use a variety of methods of communication
• run capacity building events prior to formal consultation.

Specific recommendations for local authorities include:
• improve joint working between council departments
• take a more flexible approach to timeframes for consultation
• improve planning training for local councillors and agents.

Geoff Dibb, head of planning for Government Office Yorkshire and Humber, congratulated Integreat for funding the project and said joint working between local authorities was important to help share knowledge and resources.

Ken Burley, chair of Yorkshire Planning Aid, rounded off the conference by summarising feedback from group workshops. Suggestions included encouraging local authority departments to work together more, and promoting the business case that better engagement means better value for money. Other tips included taking time to really get to know target communities; keeping communications simple; and ensuring consultation has a genuine long-term legacy.

For a summary of key points made at end of project conference, click here.