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Plans and Strategy Projects
BDOR's long term work on the Kennet Local Plan Review was a
leading-edge project at the time and is now quoted in government guidance
as model of good practice. Similar work was undertaken with other
planning authorities under the old planning system. Under the new
Local Development Framework system Jeff Bishop has been working with
Forest of Dean, Wokingham and Havant Councils.
Our consultation work on the Warwickshire Transport
Strategy is another BDOR example quoted in government guidance.
The work has now been followed up by regular support for Warwickshire's
Local Transport Plan and events on spending priorities
and sped management
Starting in the northern part of Norfolk and then moving on
to Kent and Surrey Hills, BDOR initiated innovative
approaches to community involvement in the development of Quiet Lanes,
a Countryside Agency initiative. The Norfolk work won BDOR a Commendation
in a national participation award scheme.
One of our most dramatic projects involved designing and managing
a process to produce a Management Plan for the Thanet Coast in
Kent. The coastline is of international environmental significance
and the area is subject to Objective 2 funding
because of serious economic decline; a sure-fire recipe for conflict.
The example is now quoted regularly by English Nature as a model of
good practice.
The same is true of our work on the Management Plan for the Blackdown
Hills AONB. This was an intense participation
process over many months, again quoted in recent government agency
guidance. BDOR have also recently completed the main part of a substantial
consultation programme for the Cotswold Area of Outstanding
Natural Beauty team, helping them to formulate their new
Management Plan. We will soon be working with them again on the Review.
One of several BDOR's projects in Bath involved helping to
resolve serious conflict and set up future management structures over
solutions to possible serious subsidence problems to houses directly
above the Combe Down Stone Mines. The project took
a real turn for the better and has now secured significant government
funding to infill the old mines. Another equally challenging project
in Bath focused on the future of 'The Rec' - the
recreation ground in the city centre that is best known internationally
as the home of Bath Rugby. There were, and still are, fundamental
questions over whether uses such as professional rugby can continue
there; BDOR managed the consultation process to seek local views on
the best future approach.
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