A conversation with Dave Richards, from The Tindall Foundation

These days, Dave Richards is a proud resident of New Zealand. He first arrived in NZ in 2002, initially working as Coordinator for a youth network collective in Nelson and Project Manager of a strategic partnership for community safety in Queenstown Lakes District. However, he comes originally from the UK, where he was involved in a wonderful example of community-led development and urban regeneration: Hartcliffe and Withywood, neighbourhoods on the outskirts of Bristol.

The Withywood and Hartcliffe community – a classic story of "council builds proposed utopia, which promptly descends into dystopia" – became a wonderful example of the synergies possible when local communities and Government are able to devise, fund and carry out a clear plan of urban renewal.

While much of the early Government urban regeneration funding in the UK has been channelled through local regional development agencies and city councils, many of the early 'local partnerships' were top-down driven and not inclusive of local resident voices or involvement.

Learning from this experience, the next round of urban regeneration projects began with a more 'grounded' approach. In Bristol for example, local government brought together meetings of representatives from key organisations and deprived communities who spent two days discussing and deciding which local areas in the City should be prioritised to receive regeneration funding. From this process, a city agreement was developed with certain neighbourhoods.

One of these was Withywood and Hartcliffe – a huge post-war housing estate built on the edge of south Bristol to accommodate people, many of whom had previously been living in slums in the City Centre. It was supposed to have been a visionary new community on the city’s edge.

What resulted, however, was an estate that became home to 19,000 people, serviced by only a few shops and not much else. The recession of the 1980s, few local jobs and poor public transport links led to high rates of unemployment and crime. The few shops that were there became sparser over time and boarded up after a series of riots. The library, nursery and health centre had barbed wire around them and across their roofs too.

In 1998, Withywood and Hartcliffe was seleted for regeneration funding.  It was given resourcing to clarify local needs and issues, taking care to involve as many local residents as possible. A local board to support the Hartcliffe and Withywood Community Partnership (HWCP) was established to develop and approve a local neighbourhood plan. Over the 1999-2007 period, implementation of the plan was funded to the tune of £13 m (NZ$33m).

Initially, those participating were really just those who were interested, but after a few years there were local elections for Board places – with voter turnout rates of 30%, comparable to local body elections. While the majority on the Board were local residents, the Police, local schools and some community organisations were also represented.

The HWCP has been widely recognised for its resident-led approach and collaborative teams, which worked together to create a 'safe, healthy, learning, working, locally owned, balanced and inclusive community'. Key achievements included:

• A planning framework that supported 102 projects, with around 7 staff employed to support the collaborative action around a number of key themes, including safe, healthy learning amongst others
• Community projects that involved lots of people and built up local pride and identity, for example festivals and newsletters, new community buildings, community gardens, etc.
• Supporting some of the most vulnerable people in their community, such as the very young and older adults
• Upskilling residents and local community organisations – while there was more local social service delivery, it was led by local residents
• An urban makeover, with houses painted and repaired and streets cleaned up and beautified. This impacted on crime rates, with 236 community safety initiatives also contributing
• Fewer people wanted to move out of the area – in 2000, 22% of people stated they were likely to move out in the next two years. By 2006, this had fallen to 17%.

For other achievements recorded over 1999-2007 period see "Celebrating Success" on HWCP's website.

Megan Courtney and Dave Richards