Look St Albans IS the Community, it is nothing without you!
What has Look! St Albans achieved in this last year:
What has Look! St Albans achieved in this last year:
The community’s work and that of our partners up in lights at both a national awards ceremony in London and regionally.
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Shortlisted both nationally and regionally by the Royal Town Planning Institute Planning in Excellence 2017.
Had our work recognised locally by being shortlisted at the St Albans Chamber Community Business Awards. (One judge told me at the interview she had been ‘blown away’ by what we had achieved, unfortunately though we did not meet all of the judging criteria).
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Seen the outcome of our first design charrette actually being built and
had to opportunity to have several site visits to see the progress. We will hear more on this later.
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Teamed up with our new local music festival Meraki Festival in 2017 as one of a handful of community partners. Excellent publicity especially reaching the younger generation.
Had an article published in Urban Design, a second professional journal to want to hear about our work.
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Have presented at three professional conferences, for planners, urban designers, councillors, architects and other planning professionals, including last week at a Royal Town Planning Institute conference. Back in the day I hear these conferences were seen by some as ‘jollies’, usually filled with speakers trying to sell you something. Well not anymore, when the delegate fees range from £75 to £144 and accrue CPD (Continuing Professional Development) points they want pertinent and informative presentations. I have to say through the delegates reaction, comments and questions asked, they really have found what we have achieved together remarkable and inspiring.
Hosted a field trip by University of Hertfordshire Master of Science students in Sustainable Planning and Environmental Management together with their tutors to hear about our two design charrettes and walk around both sites.
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Teamed up with BRE for Sustainable St Albans week
Forthcoming planed event
Host our first Placemaking event planned for the early autumn. I am delighted to announce Dr Susan Parham, Head of Urbanism and Planning at The University of Hertfordshire will be our first speaker. Her work is known locally in Hertfordshire but also nationally and internationally.
Host our first Placemaking event planned for the early autumn. I am delighted to announce Dr Susan Parham, Head of Urbanism and Planning at The University of Hertfordshire will be our first speaker. Her work is known locally in Hertfordshire but also nationally and internationally.
Our reputation through what we have done together could not be higher. On the somewhat rare occasions I get out locally for some downtime I am really amazed how many people of influence in different areas of life in St Albans know us and admire what we are doing. They have heard about us through word of mouth or have seen something about us in the local press or indeed have taken part in one or more of our events.
Therefore if you know of people locally who don’t know about us, our design codes co created by the community and endorsed by the community, we are all ambassadors of Look! engage with them, tell them what we collectively do and how we do it. Offer them a warm welcome.
Therefore if you know of people locally who don’t know about us, our design codes co created by the community and endorsed by the community, we are all ambassadors of Look! engage with them, tell them what we collectively do and how we do it. Offer them a warm welcome.
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I must admit though I do grit my teeth, and you may have had said to you, ‘keep up the good work’, because many believe I and probably others are paid by Look! St Albans because Look! just cannot be just a community group because of what we are doing, how we go about it and have achieved thus far.
I do carefully explain Team Look! are all unpaid volunteers, a number work full time with families and yet still find the time to keep Look! running.
However with our growing reputation and now beginning seriously to fulfil our remit of learning and sharing, together with our readiness to host design charrettes, the workload on a few shoulders has become unsustainable. Hence our recent posting on our website ‘Love St Albans? can you give commit up to four hours of your time a month to join Team Look!’.
Thankfully within a couple of hours of Tweeting this request Efa (who is taking the minutes tonight) means they will be available sooner than before. As many hands make lighter work.
I refer often to our reputation and further to reinforce the importance to us of that reputation during the year we have produced our Ethical Collaboration Policy to be found on our website and of course as required have our Privacy Policy. These two documents were in the main part thanks to Dan Fletcher, who is quite irreplaceable on the Team.
As you heard earlier Chris has stepped down as Treasurer due to health issues which required his full attention. Thankfully he is remaining on The Reps Group as I greatly value his knowledge and understand of the workings of Look! his wit and encouragement. In fact I would like to thank the entire Reps Group for their support and encouragement shown to me in the last year.
Turning to funds to keep our work going, we are entirely reliant on grants and donations, as we don’t have any membership fees. We do not have any grants from the council as this would compromise our independence as we continue to work with them. We are always most grateful to County Councillors grants from their locality budgets and most recently to former county councillor Charlotte Hogg.
We are helping locally and nationally to put local design and placemaking on the map.
Locality now offer those who are producing a neighbourhood plan £8,000 extra funding if they include design codes for new homes in their neighbourhood.
I do carefully explain Team Look! are all unpaid volunteers, a number work full time with families and yet still find the time to keep Look! running.
However with our growing reputation and now beginning seriously to fulfil our remit of learning and sharing, together with our readiness to host design charrettes, the workload on a few shoulders has become unsustainable. Hence our recent posting on our website ‘Love St Albans? can you give commit up to four hours of your time a month to join Team Look!’.
Thankfully within a couple of hours of Tweeting this request Efa (who is taking the minutes tonight) means they will be available sooner than before. As many hands make lighter work.
I refer often to our reputation and further to reinforce the importance to us of that reputation during the year we have produced our Ethical Collaboration Policy to be found on our website and of course as required have our Privacy Policy. These two documents were in the main part thanks to Dan Fletcher, who is quite irreplaceable on the Team.
As you heard earlier Chris has stepped down as Treasurer due to health issues which required his full attention. Thankfully he is remaining on The Reps Group as I greatly value his knowledge and understand of the workings of Look! his wit and encouragement. In fact I would like to thank the entire Reps Group for their support and encouragement shown to me in the last year.
Turning to funds to keep our work going, we are entirely reliant on grants and donations, as we don’t have any membership fees. We do not have any grants from the council as this would compromise our independence as we continue to work with them. We are always most grateful to County Councillors grants from their locality budgets and most recently to former county councillor Charlotte Hogg.
We are helping locally and nationally to put local design and placemaking on the map.
Locality now offer those who are producing a neighbourhood plan £8,000 extra funding if they include design codes for new homes in their neighbourhood.
Only last week Policy Exchange issued their new paper called ‘Building More, Building Beautiful’ https://policyexchange.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Building-More-Building-Beautiful.pdf in it they have found out what we already know. “People don’t want excitement or drama from their design of their home. They want a sense of community, comfort and togetherness. The phrase fittingness has been used in previous research and perfectly sums up the desires of most people. They don’t want identikit soulless developments for alienating expansive glass towers. They want homes that fit in with those already there they want a sense of belonging and happiness to radiate from their properties and they want to feel proud of their home.”
When I am asked to speak about Look! St Albans I always start by saying I am not the story I am the messenger. Which is the truth, without you, the community in the district and beyond who care about our city a few members on a Reps Group would be meaningless. Look St Albans IS the Community, it is nothing without you!
Thank you.
When I am asked to speak about Look! St Albans I always start by saying I am not the story I am the messenger. Which is the truth, without you, the community in the district and beyond who care about our city a few members on a Reps Group would be meaningless. Look St Albans IS the Community, it is nothing without you!
Thank you.
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