This is the first in a series of chats over lunch with key figures in the world of community-led planning and activism to explore their stories and motivations for getting involved in local planning.
It’s a glorious early afternoon in the remote west Oxfordshire Cotswolds. Having resisted the temptation to drop by and say hello to Mr Clarkson and Caleb at nearby Diddly Squat, ONH’s first guest arrives for lunch.
Richard Carrow has led Burghclere Parish Council in Hampshire through its two neighbourhood plan projects and some other planning battles over the last few years. He’s always a jolly, well-dressed fellow and good company. Like many ONH clients over the years, he has an interesting back story that partially explains why he would want to be involved with local planning and politics.
This week's interviewer/lunch date is Neil, ONH's Managing Director. We get comfortable at the lunch venue; ONH is blessed to be based in a rural location, with a range of farm shops and cafes within 15 minutes drive. On this occasion the Old Spot Café at the Daylesford Organic Farm wins out - a busy spot well known locally for cheese (and sometimes celebrity spotting).
Keen to understand a little more of Richard’s career in the military, it quickly becomes clear why Richard ended up leading successful projects. “I went straight into the army from school. I had a year off working in Germany for a glider company. I had been brought up as a young boy on an airfield because my father was a glider pilot.” Anticipating the next question, he says, “It would be too easy for me to draw a correlation between a background in military and neighbourhood planning and parish council work. But I'm going to make that correlation anyway. Of battles and wars.”
Richard started with Parish Council in 2017, “just because I thought it would be nice to get involved in something local”. The Neighbourhood Plan was an obvious project to get involved with a couple of years later, with a clear policy prompt from the planning authority.
“I think (a military) mindset is helpful because planning is what military is all about”, he says. “Fundamental policy work leads to plans being developed, plans being used. And there's a particular way that you use the military to develop a plan. You go through various factors and so on and so forth. Not dissimilar to neighbourhood planning.”
“The understanding of the opportunities and constraints on policy implementation must influence the policy itself. And if you don't think of how you're going to implement it, it's probably not worth a paper clip.”
“So with the Neighbourhood Plan, we had a clear objective. We were going to produce what we were asked to produce. It wasn't going to go overboard, basically. And we were going to focus on that.” You certainly knew what it didn't want it to look like in 10 years, even if you weren't quite sure what you would like it to look like.
Decisions about food are made: Richard orders the crab and Neil orders risotto.
Neil asks about understanding and leading community opinion. “I think it's a very good question because whatever you do”, he says, “you're going to run into local fears and perceptions. But one encounter gave him confidence: “One thing that happened was a conversation I had with a very old woman walking across the road. We talked about housing and she said: ‘the problem is my kids can't live here and my grandkids can't afford to live in the village’. I was really encouraged by that discussion because it proved to me that there was an appetite in people's minds.”
Lunch soon arrives and after a brief diversion. Richard returns to the theme: “When we started off, we had the phrase, you know, what is your ambition for Burghclere? And secondly, making it look into the future, ambition.” With that in mind, Neil asks about the planning authority. Richard remembers, “The key officer had come and talked to the parish council at the very first meeting I had attended. He really knew his stuff, and you could have a sensible conversation with him.”
He goes on, “and the fundamental point was that he was supportive. If you don't have a local authority that's supportive, I think you have an uphill battle. You've got to make sure that that relationship is nurtured so that at the end you’re able to shake hands and say, well done.”
The lunch is delicious. We leave and return to the office so that Richard can say farewell to the team and head home, possibly via Diddly Squat (he wouldn’t say!).
Richard is typical of the vast majority of ONH clients. He cares about his community, listens and absorbs what they say, challenges them if necessary, and ensures the likely perspectives of those, generally younger, people not sitting at the project team table are factored in. His background means he also has the confidence and skills to lead a team and to know when and how to obtain the practical expertise from the likes of ONH and from the Local Planning Authority officers.
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