Communities - for the people, by the people

摘要

Readers of 'Making Places' will recall that I have spent much of the last few years working with central government (in the form of the Department for Communities and Local Government), local government (Newcastle uponTyne City Council) and, especially, the local community in order to establish and validate a model for the future development and management of the Byker Estate. Much of the activity in Byker was built upon the inheritance of over 40 years of working with the local community. However, much has changed in Byker (and elsewhere) since the pioneering days of designer and architect Ralph Erskine, especially the increasingly constrained nature of public funding and the claimed desire of government at all levels to enhance the influence and control that local communities can exert over their own affairs.