“I genuinely think if we continue doing what we’re doing we’re going to promote continued failure and we’re going to continue to have high statistics of addiction, mental health, unemployment and poverty, and we need a new way of going forward to empower local community to have hope for themselves, if we continue doing what we’re doing we’re continuing that cycle of generational unemployment, mental health, disability and addiction”
West Armagh resident and community leader
“I’d like decision makers to come out first of all… to the land… to what they are going to decide on… Listen to us. We’ve lived here all our lives. It does affect us greatly.
Just do not decide from afar without coming and seeing what you are deciding on.”
Billy Collins, Local resident and campaigner
Conisbrough and Denaby Main, Doncaster
Hear more from Billy here:
“More people on the streets giving more confidence in people in charge would deal with a lot of the root causes”
Chris Bloomfield, TYCP Youth Development Worker
North Ormesby, Middlesbrough
Hear more from Chris here:
“When we plan projects and want to achieve success in whatever we do it is very important that we use coproduction, communities need to take part from inception… it is very important that leaders of local authorities they come down to where the communities are. It is so frustrating when leaders are over there dictating what to do without coming down to get involved and talk to people. It is very important to have that relationship with the local residents”
Cllr John Kabuye, community leader
Newport, Middlesbrough
Hear what else John has to say here:
“If one’s [energy project] being forced upon us, we want to make sure there’s proper community benefits coming back from that project… There’s no guarantee if we’re going to get community benefits and how much they’ll be and who will administer them, the whole thing… We need to agree what the figure is and it needs to be set in stone… It needs to come to the local community because we’re the ones that are putting up with the loss of the land, the eyesore, all of that”
Charlotte Copeland, Secretary of Benarty Community Council
Benarty, Fife, Scotland
Hear more from Charlotte here:
“Key points that could solve problems straight away and improve quality of life was a new model of tackling low-level crime. Designated addiction services and health villages in our communities, investment in community hubs, having services running through them. Partnership working with volunteers. Compulsory community events in each community. Enabling the community to come up with their own solutions and investment in green spaces and nature…. We need to do something. We are the second most deprived in the country. If we get the smaller things right, we can help the community to engage and activate them to find the solutions themselves to address the issues they face.”
Cheryl Dixon, local resident and community leader
North Ormesby, Middlesbrough
Hear more from Cheryl here:
“The Colin area is a vibrant community that still needs considerable physical and financial investment from the public and private sectors as the potential has yet to be realised because the location is, by and large, designated by government to be socially deprived. The area desperately needs coordinated policy and resources to tackle the underlying problems that continue to exist”
Bernard, Colin Neighbourhood Partnership director
As the Just Neighbourhoods? project moves into its final phase, we’re preparing to bring together practitioners, policymakers, and academics a dedicated conversation about what our research has revealed.
Across the past two years, we have been working with neighbourhoods in the UK and Northern Ireland to understand why community-led planning remains unevenly taken up, what supports or hinders involvement, and how communities experience justice, voice and value as they engage with planning systems.
What is becoming increasingly clear is that community-led planning (in its broadest sense) does far more than shape local environments, it exposes the deep relationships between place, power, opportunity, and (in)justice. It shows us what communities strive for, what they struggle against, and what conditions help people feel able to influence the future of their neighbourhoods.
To support reflection on these questions, we’re hosting a small, invite-only policy symposium. This gathering will allow us to:
share our findings and tentative conclusions,
explore their implications for planning practice and policy,
consider what more equitable participation could look like, and
connect with others committed to creating fairer, more inclusive neighbourhoods.
Although the event itself has limited capacity, we are keen to ensure that the learning reaches as widely as possible.
Over the coming months, we will be sharing insights, resources, and reflections from the project here on our website.
If you are interested in the themes of the symposium or would like to hear more about our work, please feel free to get in touch:
tessa.lynn@henley.reading.ac.uk
