Although councils and businesses have a role to play, local people can do a lot to transform their town or village into a community paradise. Giving your town or village a beauty makeover not only makes it a nicer place to live and work, but encourages (the right kind of) tourists, and also helps to do everything from improve mental health to reduce crime (which tends to reduce, in areas full of community spirit).
Often councils may mean well, but have not read the right kind of town planning books to know that it’s more lack of vision than lack of money, which is why towns are often ugly. But they can easily be transformed, quickly, with little legal hoops.
David Engwicht (a former window washer and son of a gospel singer) is known worldwide for his inspiring ideas to re-imagine towns and reduce traffic (he helped to create the ‘walking shool bus’, and now has created a new website with a book to help makeover your town in 7 weeks. The book has 140 diagrams and 36 steps to work through, most are free or low-cost.
Use no-dig gardening to protect wildlife. Use fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create gardens safe for pets (use humane slug/snail deterrents). Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Creative Communities also offers a program where you download materials and support to makeover your community ine just one week. You can also download a free sponsor’s guide to help you find funding for materials. Join up and ‘launch your town’ in just 12 weeks from visiting the website, to when you cut the ribbon!
This will benefit not just local people, but also pets (more walkable communities and parks) and native birds and wildlife. And also help to support local independent shops, as people tend to get behind local people, when they take pride in a community (it’s called ‘placemaking’). Making over your town or village also will make the place more pleasant to visit, so will help to bring in extra income from tourism. The process involves:
- Deciding an action plan (and seeking funding)
- Creating an information meeting (in a local community centre)
- Recruiting volunteers and experts
- Having media interviews
- Creating a safety plan (sharps boxes, safety vests etc)
- Getting to work!
- Balancing the books
- Launch party!
There was a time when people could build a building wherever they liked, which resulted in classic French villages and Italian hill towns, whose streets have an organic feel. Now we rely on one or two planners. Cities define residents as ‘customers’ so the resident says ‘You provide the roads, remove the rubbish and fix the conflicts I have with my neighbours. I pay the money, you give me the product’.
At the same time, residents are saying ‘I no longer belong to a vibrant community, I no longer have a connection to my neighbours’. Cities need to hand back that responsibility to residents. David Engwicht
One fan of this inspiring man is US organisation Project for Public Spaces, where you can find lots more help and ideas. Its book How to Turn a Place Around is a ‘recipe book’ for town planners and volunteers to makeover their towns and cities, from boring sterile places to become ‘places for people’.
Conduct a Community Survey
The best way to start, is to gather feedback from residents. This lets people voice their opinions. Ask them about their town. Create a simple questionnaire (both online and on paper) to reach everyone locally. Do they want more walkable places, and more parks? Are they concerned about litter or chain stores destroying local independent shops? Do they want more places for older people and young parents to gather? Are there eyesore buildings that need addressing?
Create a Vision – and a Plan!
Once you know waht needs to be done, make a big plan with lots of to-do points to check off. You can do of these alone, some with volunteers, some with skilled volunteers (say giving local animal shelters and homeless shelters a makeover to improve the lives of those within them). Other solutions may need help from businesses and councils. All are sure to get on board, for the end result benefits.
Be sure to make this inclusive. For instance, if local people want a quiet park over noisy skateboard parks, don’t just ignore the fact that local teenagers may want the opposite. Either place a skateboard park in another area. Or better yet – ask locals what they would wish for. Perhaps they don’t want a skateboard park – maybe they would prefer a local community centre with free facilities? Listen to everyone, and changes will be quicker and more lasting.
Get the Council Involved
Things like wildlife-friendly lighting and providing sharps boxes and hi-vis jackets for litter clean-ups, will need council involvement. So will improving public transport, like offering community buses or designing more walking/cycling paths. Send them copies of your detailed plan to makeover your town. Most councillors are interested in helping communities (that’s why they do what they do). So will love to get on board, to help out.
