Community / university conference

Just Space has been working for 9 months towards producing a Community-led Plan for London, or at least key elements of it, to be ready in the early weeks of the new Mayor and Assembly.

Very good progress was made following discussions at community conferences in July 2015 and on 4 February this year. The tabloid publication produced for the February conference plus write-ups of workshops and videos of sessions are all available here. —specially valuable for those who could not attend in February and want to get up to speed. There was a further conference at UCL on Thursday 28 April to bring together community groups, students and academics with the following aims:
1. To share the results of the February conference workshops
2. To discuss further work that has been done on the Private Rented Sector, Opportunity Areas, Participation and Inclusion.
3. To focus on the following key economic issues:
– Policies to support balanced economic development between London and other regions
– Policies to support a green economy
– The economic evidence base: an analysis of meetings between Just Space Economy and Planning group (JSEP) and GLA Economics

4.To mobilise further academic support for the final stages of the work which needs to be completed during May/June.
5. To reflect further on the potential of University students and staff to support community based policy development at a London wide level.

This page contains video and other records of 28 April event. Thanks to Spectacle Media for the videography.

Opening Plenary: Re-thinking the economy of London

Introduction to the work of Just Space and the aims of today’s event (M.Edwards)

Notes on this plenary and on an economy workshop later in the day are here JS Conference notes econ Apr 28
Prof John Tomaney (Bartlett UCL) on alternatives to London’s endless growth and implications for the North East and other regions

Just Space at UCL – Morning session 1 from Just Space on Vimeo.

David Fell (Brook Lyndhurst) on Greening the economy of London

Just Space at UCL – Morning session 2 from Just Space on Vimeo.

Patria Roman (Latin Elephant) on Ethnic and Migrant Businesses

Just Space at UCL – Morning session 3 from Just Space on Vimeo.

Breakout groups held in the middle of the day are not available on video. Other material will be posted as it becomes available:
Workshop on Economic Evidence Base are the later part of JS Conference notes econ Apr 28
Workshop on Old Kent Road opportunity area
Workshop on private rented sector
Workshop on Opportunity Areas and Participation
Workshop on student housing
Workshop on mapping

Closing plenary: university contributions to a community-led London Plan

Robin Brown (JS) on experience with UCL masters module g007 Community Participation in Metropolitan Planning; then Nicolas Fonty (one of the participants) reports on work done by a group this year, mapping the actual economy of Harlesden, adjoining Old Oak Common [report here]; finally Eileen Conn (Peckham Vision) reflects on working with student groups.

Just Space at UCL – Closing Session 1 from Just Space on Vimeo.

Richard Lee, coordinator of JustSpace, introduces the Protocol we wrote 4 years ago to try and get more from community / university collaborations and avoid the pitfalls. He introduces reflections from Barbara Lipietz (DPU) and Sarah Bell (UCL Engineering Exchange).