The document discusses building new communities and learning from past mistakes. It summarizes Social Life's work in community development and applying a social sustainability framework. It then details a workshop in Bicester where residents expressed a wish for meaningful consultation on new housing developments, as infrastructure has not kept pace with growth. The document raises questions on better understanding community dynamics and building support for developments when faced with opposition.

1. Building new communities
Presentation to Cherwell District
Council LSP Reference Day
18th June 2012

2. Social Life is a new venture set up by the Young Foundation

3. Social Life has been established as a centre of
expertise in social sustainability. It takes
forwards the Young Foundation’s 50 year
heritage of work on community dynamics,
including the work of Michael Young, and Peter
Hall, both former Directors of the Institute of
Community Studies.
The Young Foundation brings together
insights, innovation and entrepreneurship to
meet social needs. The Young Foundation
works across the UK and internationally –
through research, influencing policy, and
creating new organisations, often with
imaginative uses of new technology.

4. We continue to build neighbourhoods that fail to thrive as
flourishing communities

5. This is an urban and a rural issue: more in common than
often believed

6. Success and failure are both complex and subjective.

7. Where are the people?

8. 200 years+ of planned new communities

9. We believe we can learn from both the mistakes, and the
hopes, of the past.

10. Putting people at the heart of
placemaking

11. • Our
Our organisational heritage

13. Future communities consortium: learning from past mistakes

14. The first question: what is a
community?

15. An alternative view: what
makes a community?
• Physical boundaries to promote geographical
identity
• Local myths & stories
• Visible leadership
• Strong social relationships, networks & bonds
• Opportunities for informal, spontaneous social
encounters
• Rituals and rhythms
• Shared belief systems, garden cities, new towns,
eco-cities

16. Working in Bicester: with Cherwell council and the developer of exemplar
stage – A2Dominion - to build social sustainability into the ambitious new
development, 20,000 homes over 20 years.

17. Two workshops plus
many conversations
Our findings…
Legacy of past and Importance of
history
Acceptance of inevitability of further
development
Wish for meaningful consultation and
dialogue
Strong perceptions that infrastructure
had not kept pace with growth
Wish for ‘one Bicester’ and to get away
from ‘Tesco Town’ label.

18. Bicester: locations of growth

20. Bicester Community Asset Assets located in Bicester Assets located outside Bicester
or non-physical assets
1 Bicester Link Point (Cherwell DC) 1 Langford Village Community Centre 1 Bicester Village
2 Bicester Town Council Community 2 West Bicester Community Centre 2 Bicester Farmers Market
Places of
Centres Interest
3 Bicester Resource & Wellbeing Centre 3 Bicester Market
3 Bicester East Community Centre
Statutory Bicester Vision 4 Southwold Community Centre 4 Chesterton Golf Club
Organisations
Cherwell Crime Partnership: Bicester 5 Garth Park
Bicester Chamber of Commerce (Banbury) 1 Bicester Local History Society
Banburyshire Community Transport Assoc. 2 Bicester Rotary Club
1 St Edburg’s C of E Church
Cherwell Volunteer Bureau (Cherwell DC) Community 3 Bicester Round Table
Organisations Religious 2 Emmanuel Church
Cherwell District Council (Banbury) 4 Langford Women’s Institute Organisations
3 Bicester Methodist Church
Grassroots Bicester
4 Parish of the Immaculate Conception
1 Langford Village RA Oxfordshire Community & Voluntary Action
Residents 2 Bicester Parkland RA
Associations
Heyford Park RA (Upper Heyford) 1 Bicester Leisure Centre
1 Brookside Primary School
Bure Park RA 2 Stagecoach Bicester (Theatrical arts)
Sport & 2 Bure Park Primary School
Leisure 3 Bicester Concert Band
3 St Mary’s RC Primary School
Organisations
4 Bicester Choral & Operative Society
1 Langford Medical Practice 4 Longfields Primary School
5 Bicester Green Gym 5 Kings Meadow Primary School
2 North Bicester Surgery
Schools 6 Bicester Community College
3 Montgomery House Surgery
Community 7 Glory Farm Primary School
4 Bicester North Rail 1 1st Bicester Scout Group
Facillities 8 Langford Village Primary School
5 Bicester Town Rail 2 2507 (Bicester) Squadon ATC
9 The Cooper Secondary School
6 Bicester Library Youth 3 Bicester Courtyard Youth Arts Centre
10 Bardwell Community Special School
Organisations
7 Child First (Day Care) 7th Bicester Scout Group 11 St Edburgs C of E Primary School
Bicester Hive (Bicester Garrison) Bicester Youth Council 12 Southwold County Primary School
March 2012

23. What can be done?

24. Reviewing the evidence
“… where these facilities were already in place when people began to
arrive, the community came together and networks were formed more
easily” CLG New Towns Review
“ … most mixing across social groups takes places between children. It
is these contacts … that provide opportunities to meet and form
relationships.” CIH/JRF 2005
“ … planning for hard infrastructure alone would never build a
community … it would only be done by a matrix of formal and informal
opportunities or supported activities.” Cambridgeshire PCT (2007)

25. A framework for social sustainability
The Young Foundation/Social Life Social Sustainability Framework, 2011

26. Plaque to commemorate the site of
former Arkwright Town
New Arkwright, Derbyshire

27. • HafenCity, Hamburg
Hafen City, Hamburg: sociologist appointed as “go-between”
- intermediary for early residents and developer
•

28. What does this mean for Cherwell?

29. Locations of growth in Banbury

30. My questions for you
1. How can you understand community dynamics better
and work with them?
2. If residents don’t want consultation meetings and
leaflets, what are the other options?
3. If consulting communities reveals profound opposition
to housebuilding, what can you do to build support for
new developments?

31. social-life.co
nicola.bacon@social-life.co
saffron.woodcraft@social-life.co