Community Engagement
Creating new places and regenerating old ones changes the physical, social, and cultural nature of local communities – and while for some these changes are welcome and offer hope for their future, for others they generate feelings of fear, alienation and exclusion. Too often these feelings are ignored by planning authorities and landowners, creating divisions and undermining trust between stakeholders in communities facing change.
A pragmatic optimist, I’m continually seeking ways to prevent and overcome these divisions through active community engagement.
Introduction
Welcome to Listen to Locals, where I curate, consolidate, and comment on the evidence and opportunities for local communities to fully participate in the decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods.
_edited.jpg)
Healthy Places
I’m particularly interested in how the process of designing, developing, managing and governing the places we inhabit impacts our health and wellbeing. Everyone wants to stay healthy, and improving our individual and collective health can be a unifying platform for local residents to engage with each other and with the developers of homes and places in their communities to create positive change.
Join Me
Listen to Locals is a resource for those who are facing change in their communities; those concerned about the impact of the built environment on their health; and those seeking ways to build dialogue with the owners and operators of homes and places in their communities.
All content is intended to be shared and to give voice to these issues in public forums, planning discourse, and amongst community groups.
Most importantly it is intended to provoke dialogue. Please reach out and tell me what you think and how I can help in your community’s journey.
About Me
I trained and practiced as an urban planner in the USA (MIT) before coming to the UK to work in public/private finance for over a decade, eventually focusing on the healthcare sector as a developer of PFI hospitals in the NHS.
I currently help lead a healthcare business that provides innovative diagnostics and treatments to men with prostate disease. London is a centre of world-class innovation in imaging-led diagnostics and treatments for prostate cancer, and my organisation provides access to these innovations so that all men can achieve improved health outcomes.
My interests in planning and health converged a few years ago when I relocated to an area of London undergoing a major regeneration scheme. I was dismayed at the poor communication and engagement between the local community and both landowner and planning authority. Distrust, fear and anger amongst local residents was palpable. As this was happening during the pandemic, I was particularly struck by how poor the health impact assessment supporting the planning application was – and the missed opportunity to build trust with locals around the very thing that was of paramount concern to them – their health.
