Castleford Regeneration Regenerate Your Town

Date Published:

11/08/2008

Use the media. One of the most effective ways of feeding information back to everyone in the community, keeping your group’s profile high and the campaign fired up is through the media. 'Get publicity for your idea, get a profile for your group and make it relevant and newsworthy,' says Deborah Saunt. You’ll need to prepare regular press releases and establish contacts with the local TV, radio and newspaper.

When things start hotting up, remember to keep your message positive. 'I’ve seen projects get drawn into battles on the letters page and it is really destructive. Keep a sense of integrity,' says Linda Mycroft from the Northern College.

Finding a designer

Something that is quite hard for the campaigners on the ground to do is get an overview of their project. This is something architects and urban designers are very good at. 'A professional designer can bring strategic dimension to the project in a way the community group can’t,' says Deborah Saunt.

Don’t assume you need a TV crew on your shoulder to get top creative talent. Good architects and designers are on the look-out for good clients all the time. 'The best people want to be stimulated and challenged to do new work. You’ll never know whether Norman Foster or, in the case of Castleford, Ted Cullinan will want to re-design your park until you ask,' says Hugo Smith.

To find architects and urban designers in your area, contact the RIBA. Interview as many as you can. 'You need to know they have the same interest as the group with a track record in the kind of projects you are interested in,' says Deborah Saunt, 'but also look at fresh talent who may work in a more community focused way.' If you’ve got your vision, you may be able to get an architect/ designer to give advice on a pro bono basis. Your local authority may give feed funding – i.e. enough money for you as a group to get urban designer to work with you and do a feasibility study.