HRH The Prince of Wales sees online toolkit for community-led regeneration

HRH The Prince of Wales today (22nd February 2016) saw first-hand the results of an innovative online tool that supports communities to influence the quality of new development.

The BIMBY (Beauty in My Back Yard) online toolkit reflects The Prince of Wales's longstanding belief that people need to play a key part in the planning of their community.

Local residents in Norwich are the first community group to fully try out the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community’s new ‘BIMBY’ Housing Toolkit www.bimby.org.uk to say what they would see as ‘Beauty In My Back Yard’. Other groups across the country are also evaluating the relevance of the toolkit, and were present on the day, including communities from Cambridge to Malvern.

NALC is one of the many national organisations supporting this BIMBY online (www.bimby.org.uk) toolkit.

Cllr Ken Browse, chair of NALC, who attended the launch in Norwich, commented: “The National Association of Local Councils (NALC) is pleased to be a partner of the Prince’s Foundation for Building Community BIMBY (Beauty in My Back Yard) toolkit.

“We think it is right for us to do this as it is perfectly in line with our planning aims around offering communities and parishes a chance to positively engage and influence the planning process through community-led planning or parish planning or neighbourhood planning. The toolkit acts as an excellent interface between developers, local planning authorities, parish councils and communities.”

Ben Bolgar, Senior Director Princes Foundation for Building Community, said:

“BIMBY is all about supporting people to create beautiful and resilient communities that improve the quality of life of everyone involved. This is a central value of the Foundation so seeing it in action in Norwich is very exciting.”

“BIMBY will have a big impact on planning in this country because it helps empower people on the ground to get involved positively in the planning process. It fits right into the National Planning Policy Framework and will help address high profile issues around development and housing targets.”