Weeknotes S4, Eps 5 Participation and Climate

Full on but enjoyable week.

Need to try and get back to writing as its really helpful in assembling my thoughts. I have the uppermost respect for those weeknoters who through rain and shine still get their Friday thoughts to the world….

Ogni modo….. short and sweet but something…

Head down in consultation this week as week two of our First Proposals consultation for the GCLocal Plan.

One

We held a great introductory webinar last week which you can see here. It was really a bit of an explainer of where we are at, what plans are all about and how best to participate. We have really thought hard about the structures of these webinars so as they really pick up specific topic areas in greater detail but with the running theme of getting people to think about how they can provide their thoughts )both good and bad in the most constructive way. This is really important because in the words of Hana these are consultations rather than referendums and the richness of the why? is far more powerful in ensuring peoples views can be considered and where possible incorporated into the iteration of the plan making process.

We have run another two sessions this week ;

These were picking up probably the most sensitive and emotive topics and we had a really good panel to try and explain the details around some of the difficult decisions and checks and balances we have to consider when creating such a crucial land use plan. The session are below and recording will be up in due course at the same links.

Jobs and homes

Strategy and sites

Two

I chaired a great session with the Institute of Economic Development (IED) on climate and growth. This was a really strong discussion and built in some of the content of webinars that we’ve been doing with Greater Cambridge. I introduced Mentimeter to the audience. We’ve started to test different ways of generating discussion and making sessions more interactive when running online engagement and discourse. It’s a really good way of breaking up webinars and getting thoughts from people who may not be always be up for asking questions in the chat. It’s really important that accelerate action on climate change rather than just talking about it (although it is still important to maintain productive and progressive discourse). I’m not convinced the cop 26 was all it needed to be at an international level but certainly the legacy of the activity and energy that’s gone on in and around it will be really important and the role of local government will be fundamental in driving change and insuring that we can really move as quickly and as coherently as we need to.

Three

Finally, it was good to pick up with colleagues on digitisation of planning ‘ both DLUC and FutureGov. Good to see how the work with the initial local plan #PropTech funding has been progressing and where the thinking so far has got too. Even though we’re not officially part of the first cohort I have been involved from a user research perspective and get involved in this sort of stuff even in my spare time (he says jokingly) as it’s really a massive area of opportunity and interest as digital is equally important to place in a in a way that meets 21st-century needs as traditional subject areas. You can see how some of the work is going on the digital land blog. There is a growing diversity of great people now working in that team and one of my big reflections in the last 18 months has been the improvement of working relationships today between those at the coalface in central government and those the coalface in local government. This is a definitely a way of working that has to be embedded for our future challenges.

Also big shout out to my team especially Nissa as we have also managed to be successful in the next round of #PlanTech funding official (see my tweet) and this week we sent our tender to bring a platform together to start delivering the pilot get involved.

Phone down for the weekend now, got a party tonight which I’m looking forward to. A bit of let my hair down time and some of you may have noticed that I’ve shaved my beard and dyed my hair black. This is full commitment to the Tony Montana fancy dress cause….