An Example from Weston-Super-Mare
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How Heritage can underpin Placemaking – an example from Weston-super-Mare (or......The Slow Drip Feed and The Wild Splashy Fountain....................) What’s that It’s a good idea to do both of these things then? Hello! This is who we are Our official name is the North Somerset Council Placemaking & Growth Development Team This is where Not exactly a snappy title is it – most people just know us as “the Weston team”, or the “ask Rachel/Chris/Cara/Samantha/Edward, we work - they will know” team! Rachel (Development and Regeneration Programme Manager) Chris (Principal Project Officer) Cara (Heritage Action Zone Project Officer) Samantha (Communications Officer) Edward (Programme Support Officer) Sadly, Samantha and Edward have had to stay in Weston to hold the fort – but the rest of us are here. Our Journey How did we get here? There was a lack of recognition that Weston had any architectural and historic merit – let alone what we could use it for. Overall ingrained perceptions – “Heritage is boring” “Heritage will stop us doing stuff” “Heritage is a waste of money – it doesn’t do anything” “No point – it’s only Weston. Not like its Bath or anything” It all started with an Urban Panel visit – we had to get other people to tell us Weston was architecturally and historically a great place! Tactics – five What worked for us key themes 1. Heritage, Arts & Culture are usually all mixed together and are hard to separate – so don’t try to 2. Bring your key stakeholders on board 3. Start to empower the local community 4. Working with your Councillors 5. Embedded and consistent communications Tactic 1 – We learnt a simple but valuable lesson very early it is a waste of on - Heritage, Arts and Culture mean different things time and effort to everyone. People don’t separate them out trying to separate and sometimes mean one when talking about out Heritage, Arts another. & Culture. So SO Focus on creating an overarching strategy that don’t try to. facilitates not defines. Otherwise you’ll spend all your time arguing exactly what heritage, arts and culture mean................................................ .........and no one will ever agree with you anyway Tactic 2 Bring Your Key Stakeholders On Board Focus on different Town centre stakeholders group groups We’ve developed a group that includes all key stakeholders including No one size fits all – • Town Council different approach • Civic society for each group • BID • Federation of Small Businesses • Chamber of commerce We include them in all our work – even when they don't like what we are doing We integrated them into our decision making process and consistently messaged the value of their contributions Result = from ignorant nay sayers to active promoters Tactic 2 Bring Your Key Stakeholders On Board Weston Civic Society Focus on different groups No one size fits all – different approach for each group We include them in all our work – even when they don’t like what we are doing We held sessions to find out what it was they didn’t like and asked what would they like We asked them to be our ‘Critical Friends’ We integrated them into our decision making process and consistently messaged the value of their contributions We found them a bit of £ money to do a street sign project Result = from enemy to ally Tactic 3 – Actually go outside and engage empowering • Heritage Open Days and other events • Insisting community buy in is critical when selecting Placemaking the locals consultants • Be open, transparent and willing to work for a compromise – different people and groups will want you to restore that building and knock down that building at the same time • Let them do what they do best – many community groups have been around longer than you Most importantly – • It takes time and work to build up trust. People have long memories about what “The Council” has done or not done in the past l The message that heritage/arts/culture = £cash & prestige Tactic 4 – use One to one briefings before starting key projects and at key stages throughout your Work to gain national recognition for your council We make sure that every councillor knows about our Councillors external funding bids and why we are making them We include our Cllrs when we celebrate a successful bid Probably more importantly, we meet with our Cllrs when we don’t succeed with a funding bid Have confidence in your case and gain buy in to keep trying. This pays off in the longer term Cllrs meet any visiting VIPs from NLHF, Historic England & Arts Council England. = Buy in is seen by funding bodies and Cllrs demonstrate informed awareness Tactic 4 – use The Heritage Champion We focused on developing the role of North Somerset Council’s Heritage Champion your The role had existed before but was seen as a ‘nice to have’ not ‘an essential’. Today, the role is seen as a prestige appointment Councillors with status. The role has right of audience & standing agenda items at all Planning, Executive and Full Council meetings. You need someone who is able to cross party work, is passionate and knowledgeable about their town, can be fair minded and practical, is an excellent communicator and enjoys a close working partnership with officers. It helps if they are a bit of a character as well! Proactive not reactive - comms is not a ‘bolt on’ Tactic 5 – afterthought embedded and This is Samantha – consistent communications She’s our fabulous Communications Officer and a dedicated member of our team. She is involved in every project, funding bid and strategy from the start, and ensures we are always effectively and consistently messaged! We got these results Tactics into action – what • A proxy for quality happened • Heritage/arts/culture considered together • Embedded into wider policy next? • Hard £ cash • Embedded dedicated communications resource • The Placemaking Strategy fed into our work and gave it additional credibility and influence Be consistently ‘on message’ AND make the Getting the most of one off opportunities to promote message out there – remember the Slow Drip Feed & Wild Splashy Fountain? Over to you What works for you? Your thoughts and ideas...... ....and finally THERE IS A PRIZE! One of you is sitting in the lucky seat! (We know it’s the book you’ve always wanted!) Thank You Contact us Rachel Lewis Please visit us/invite us/work with us/meet with us/exchange ideas with Development and Regeneration Programme Manager us.................. [email protected] Chris Ward Principal Project Officer [email protected] Cara MacMahon Heritage Action Zone Project Officer cara@[email protected] Be persistent If you build it they will come............. but different 1. Be persistent Do things at Midnight – people notice! but different 2. People engage if it means something to Be persistent them.......... but different 3. Things can appear overnight! This is our Pinwheel Be persistent – with love from Banksy! but different 4. Thank You Contact us Rachel Lewis Please visit us/invite us/work with us/meet with us/exchange ideas with Development and Regeneration Programme Manager us.................. [email protected] Chris Ward Principal Project Officer [email protected] Cara MacMahon Heritage Action Zone Project Officer cara@[email protected].