Research and Development Projects

In the last couple of years, after extensive background work, much of BDOR's commitment to encouraging better participation in environmental change has come of age. Common ideas and principles, drawing from our own work and that of others, are now being embedded in policy and guidance at central government and local government levels.

An early example was the national guidance on Consultation in Air Quality Management. The second was the inclusion of our approach to transport planning in guidance as a model of good practice (based on work in Warwickshire).

Most importantly, BDOR's early research work for government on participation in planning, and our chapter in the ODPM publication ‘Making Plans' (main authors Baker Associates), were fundamental drivers towards the major planning reforms and a better and stronger system for enabling community involvement. Jeff Bishop has been described by government officials as 'the architect' of these changes.

Linked to this work on broader planning issues is our 2008 work on Community Plans (Parish Plans and Market Town Initiatives) undertaken across the South West. The resulting report - 'An Exciting Future for Community Plans' - is already creating great interest all round the country and we are moving on to implementing some of its conclusions.

BDOR was instrumental in framing up and then supporting the three year national Community Renewables Initiative, led by the Countryside Agency. Also linked to renewable energy, Jeff Bishop was part of a team (led by the Centre for Sustainable Energy) to move onto a national canvas the 'Protocols for Community Engagement in Wind Projects' that BDOR helped to advance across the South West. This includes adapting the approach across England and into Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

On a very different tack, Jeff Bishop was part of a widely experienced team brought together to evaluate, over the last five years, the National Lottery ‘fair share' initiative. Fair share aimed to get better quality support to those disadvantaged communities that had not so far received their ‘fair share' of Lottery funding – something the evaluation will tested, in a very interactive and innovative manner.