ClimateYouChange co-design with council and resident stakeholders on Working Group-led CIL funding bids

ClimateYouChange have been successful in co-designing further funding bids for Newham’s Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL)*, after a fortuitous turn of events.

* CIL funding comes from a levy payable by developers. This money must be spent on community infrastructure which directly benefits local people. Newham Mayor Rokhsana Fiaz is allocating CIL funds (£100k per neighbourhood area; £800k across the borough) to create, citizen-led projects to be voted on and chosen by Newham residents.

Several members of ClimateYouChange (Shiraz, Lewis, Tariq and Celia) are involved in the Green Street (Neighbourhood) Working Group, and these CYC Working Group members are able to advance sustainability issues through their involvement within the wider group.

Newham Council’s definition of Working Groups is as follows:

• ‘The Working Group demonstrates a model in which residents, councillors, council officers and local stakeholders all work together to improve the quality of life in the Community Neighbourhood area.

• Working Group members review project applications submitted after the first round of Community Assemblies and use their local knowledge of the whole neighbourhood area to decide which projects go through to the final round of voting.

• The Working Group monitors the chosen projects to check they are developing as promised and provides support through monitoring visits.’
  

The four CYC members that are part of the 11 resident members of the Green Street Working Group are helping to support the Community Assembly processes involved in CIL applications, starting with their contribution to choosing the eight project proposal priorities from which residents can vote.

The priorities which will need to be used by residents and community groups applying for Community Assembly CIL funding for Green Street are as follows in order of numbers of votes received by local residents:

1. Invest in Parks and Green Spaces

2. Community Safety

3. Cleaner Environment.
   

ClimateYouChange members are able to use their involvement in the Green Street Working Group to look at the sustainability of the project proposals. Whilst they cannot officially vet the community group and resident led projects on merit of their sustainability credentials, they are able factor this into the scoring process. They will be involved in the roll-out of the successful projects, further helping to embed sustainability into the process and outcomes.

Having received all the project proposals for the Green Street Neighbourhood area, Newham Council officers decided that there were insufficient projects to allow enough variety for the public voting process. Green Street Working Group members were subsequently asked to put forward their ideas for Working Group projects to be included, as per the Community Assembly CIL neighbourhood priorities.

Included within the working group proposals were several climate change mitigatory and sustainability themed potential projects, suggested by the CYC members. These were discussed during Green Street Working Group meetings.

All decisions were made together with Zakir Adam, Community Neighbourhood Manager for Green Street, other working group members (not part of in ClimateYouChange) and local councillors.

ClimateYouChange members within the Green Street Working Group proposed project elements which they were particularly keen to:

• encourage a rethink of attitudes to driving (a reduction of) and increased uptake of active travel, by organising an enjoyable, immersive, car-free high street day: engaging business owners via increased foot traffic and the community through processions (involving local schools), fun recreational activities, pop-up shops and street food

• improve the provision of cycle storage, to work towards reducing barriers to cycling

• increase in-ground trees planted in the neighbourhood’s high street (Green Street), to draw down carbon, provide urban cooling through the provision of shade and reduce surface rainwater flood risk

• help residents lower their food miles (transport C02 emissions) by teaching them how to organically grow some of their own food in raised beds, involving them in choosing and helping to plant a selection of fruit trees and bushes. The suggestions for a community garden and orchard are proposed for Priory Park.

• increase biodiversity, providing help for dangerously dwindling pollinator and beneficial insect numbers, through the creation of micro pockets of wildflower meadowland in Priory Park and by installing planters containing wildflowers in the high street

• connect residents with nature through the above at Priory Park, to encourage them to want to protect the natural world and give them greater agency in this endeavour.
  

It is worth noting here, that to stand a good chance of success with having our food growing and wildflower planting ideas voted for by local people, that a wider project idea has been created for Priory Park. This includes other lower-cost elements which add enhanced utility.

On the 24^th of June, Zakir Adam emailed Green Street Working Group members with a list of five project proposals to be taken to the public voting stage (provided they achieve sign off from the relevant council officers), four of them comprised of (or including) CYC members’ suggestions for climate change mitigatory measures, plus two additionally providing benefits to the natural world:

1. Green St Community Neighbourhoods Car Free Day 

2. Revamp of Multi Sports area at Priory Park – paint, new basketball hoops,

3. Cycle Hangers 

4. Improvement to Priory Park – (Community Growing project, Table Tennis, Picnic Benches, Notice Boards)

5. More Trees & Planters in the neighbourhood.

We wait to hear from Zakir with the final decision on the Working Group project suggestions from CYC Working Group members. With any luck we will be given permission to add the above-mentioned sustainability featured proposals.