Team Catford scoops award for community engagement
We’re so proud to be part of award-winning Team Catford. It was our first major project at Filigree when we started out in 2017.
Alongside the Council’s project team and Commonplace, Filigree was recognised for our role in creating Team Catford as we won Best Community Engagement in the Planning Process at London First’s Building London Planning Awards 2020.
Industry recognition is important, but the real test of success is whether we have the trust and respect of local people.
Community involvement is now, thankfully, a given with any proposed changes to an area. Whether it’s public consultation on a planning application or a programme of engagement to support the long-term regeneration of an area bringing local people into the decision-making process is recognised as a crucial first step.
Having worked in this field for the best part of 20 years, I’ve seen a lot of change, but one of the things that continues to surprise me is that we don’t see more creativity in how development plans are shared with local people and how we encourage participation.
The public exhibition is still considered pivotal to the whole process, despite it often being a fairly intimidating space. The language of development and regeneration used on display materials and handouts can be technical which often adds to the commonly held view that consultation is deliberately opaque.
I don’t believe that developers set out to be anything other than up front and honest with an engagement process - certainly not the ones we work with, but unfortunately the techniques haven’t caught up.
All too often the expectation is that local people will come to the table by their own accord. Some do, but this leaves a huge section of the community who either don’t know about, or haven’t been engaged, about crucial decisions being taken in their area.
Stakeholder engagement should address this through innovative methods that work hard to not only bring people to the table, but actively go out to the community and bring the plans to local people who would otherwise not participate.
When we started working with Lewisham Council, we met a team that was up for doing things differently. Having a forward-thinking client, gives us the licence to suggest innovative approaches, which has proved effective and has now landed Team Catford an award.
As Team Catford, we’ve worked hard to break down the negative perceptions of the regeneration process. We don’t expect people to come to us. We take the #CatfordConversation out to the community, attending meetings of community groups, school fetes and local festivals.
Setting up Catford Cornucopia, a pop-up shop and engagement space, was a pivotal decision by Team Catford in breaking down the barriers that often discourage people from participating in engagement programmes. The ‘social rules’ of a shop are widely understood and people feel at ease in this environment so as we sell t-shirts and mugs, we can strike up a conversation about living in Catford and the changes that have - and will - take place over the years.
We love working with Commonplace as we share the very important value of transparency. The heatmap for Catford was established in early 2017 and since then we’ve collated over 2,000 comments from the local community which has been instrumental in shaping the plans for the town centre. A further 725 have been shared on the emerging proposals as designed by the architects, Studio Egret West and Turner Works. Here’s almost 3,000 views and ideas - all visible to the community - demonstrating the honesty that the Council wanted to bring to the process of regenerating Catford town centre.
Through Team Catford, we lead the community engagement on the regeneration of Catford town centre on behalf of Lewisham Council. Since 2017, we have held thousands of conversations with local people to gather over 2,500 views and ideas which are helping to shape the emerging framework plan, a blueprint to guide development over the next 10-15 years.
Team Catford plays an important role in strengthening the community spirit and celebrating everything that is great about Catford running the monthly Catford Food Market, Catford Cornucopia – a not-for-profit pop-up shop stocking Catford merchandise and locally produced crafts and goodies where all surplus income is donated to the Sickle Cell Society and Deptford’s 999 Club.
The group hosts free cinema screenings, children’s arts & craft activities and the Catford Vegan Festival as well as supporting the meanwhile-use programme which has introduced to the shopping centre Yoga House and Catford Mews, a three-screen cinema to the shopping centre. Team Catford supports the Catford Beer Festival, local street art projects, Catford Arts Trail and the Catford Free Film Festival.
Read more about our work for Team Catford here.
Sam Holgate, Founder and Director of Filigree.