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Barnes – A village community transformed!

By February 16, 2024No Comments

By Barnes Town Team

Over the last 10 years or so the Barnes Town Team has worked with the community and businesses to transform Barnes. This blog is an adaption of a recent award submission and comes at a time when Barnes is in the spotlight with the re-opening of Hammersmith Bridge to cyclists on 12 February 2024.

Barnes Town Team has been running a community led process for over ten years taking Barnes from a place that, post banking crash, was struggling and lacking direction to one that is now a vibrant, supportive and resilient community taking control of its destiny and powering ahead with new initiatives through ongoing community and business engagement. Placemaking lies at the heart of the transformation benefitting the whole community and bringing in visitors to enjoy what is now on offer year round.

In 2011 Barnes was struggling with empty shops, low footfall and a community that spent more online per head than anywhere in the country. An action group was set up which, through a £10,000 grant from Portas Pilot, became the Barnes Town Team. A community Charrette was then held to co-create a Vision using a focus on place to free up discussion away from the usual “we need more parking” comments. Over 300 people attended Big Barnes Ponder in October 2013 aided pro bono by facilitators from JTP. The Vision was reported back a few weeks later to a full house, with a call for volunteers to form project teams. The Town Team worked with businesses and Council to deliver projects. Scores of project team meetings were held, with pop up events and newsletters to help residents track the progress of various projects.

At the first Barnes Ponder over 300 residents took part in a brainstorming post-it session and topic based co-design tables. Projects were pulled together into a 10 year Vision which was shared with residents at a Report Back and a call was put out for volunteers to form teams to take the projects forward.

“We had to learn about the placemaking agenda which has helped us crystalize our thinking about the way we look at the village: the shops, the traffic, quality of space and how we use it as a community.”

Steven Mindel, Trustee and former Chair, Barnes Community Association

Ten years on we celebrated our achievements and refreshed the vision. Ponder 2 (October 2023) was in-person at Castelnau Centre, and Barnes Green Centre and online with a Create Communities platform – over 1000 residents took part. We joined forces with Barnes Common charity who manage the common, Vine Road Rec and a £6m flood resilience project with Richmond Council. The Ponder 2 Vision was reported back in mid-January 2024 to a packed hall with over 100 people. Participants signed up to six new Action Teams inc One Barnes, Green Barnes, High Street Barnes, and the first Action Team meeting will take place on 28 February 2024 and a Youth Ponder is being held in Jully 2024.

Ensuring broad, representative participation in our diverse community is a key challenge. We engaged with partners to share communication networks and targeted “hard-to-reach groups”, including deprived areas in North Barnes and young people, to shape the process and outcomes. Learning from the original Ponder, for Ponder 2 we ran separate in-person sessions in harder to reach areas. We did the same with youth targeting faith groups, youth centres and working with stakeholders on projects for example a new adventure playground and a skate park at Vine Road Rec.

The design of the Ponder process was shaped by the community to express the community’s needs and aspirations at the outset with the broad concept of placemaking at its heart. The Town Team, fully representative of our community, was fundamental in creating the right process. The choice of a charrette methodology to create a consensus Vision ensured that community ideas were brought to the fore and prioritised by residents.

The Ponder process of workshops and online consultation ensured that the community could develop thinking around the Vision, and about projects from the outset in an iterative way to build consensus.

The Town Team met regularly to oversee the process and project progress and we ensured that the community was consulted about developing projects through online surveys and consultations. For example, a project team has transformed footfall on our High Street through a new placemaking scheme, consulting with residents initially about how they travel to and through the High Street and using this feedback to shape the new scheme, removing some parking and enhancing pavements and cycling. Another team consulted residents about removing parking bays to trial a “parklet” at Church Road shops, which is now permanent and has transformed the narrow pavements to create a popular gathering place.

Where projects were seen as more contentious, consultations were held and committees set up to ensure fairness, for example with the Suffolk Road playground project to keep dog walkers’ interests as part of the project.

Ten years after it first started on the Ponder conversation continues at full pace. The new refreshed Vision from Ponder 2 focusses more on the community and environment but still with a focus around placemaking. We are a step ahead this time as much groundwork has already been done by our volunteers. In particular, projects eg Men’s Shed, a Banking Hub and a Youth Ponder are already up and running.

New project teams are being formed and will meet for the first time in late February 2024. The teams will build on the knowledge and experience gained over the previous ten years. We understand the importance of sharing our successes and achievements (eg more than doubling footfall on the High Street) with the community, being persistent, and respecting all voices whilst balancing minority views against the interests of the wider community.

The result of all this is that Barnes village is thriving, and our achievements are recognised as an example of successful community activism. The Council brought forward the new Village Plan for Barnes, reflecting the Ponder Vision, and comes to us to pilot schemes, eg a dementia friendly shopping pilot. We share our experience eg our Town Centre Manager has spoken in the House of Commons and to other town centres. We have been finalists in the Academy of Urbanism Great Street Award and highly commended in Great British High Streets Award.

We are in strong position to respond to events and reflect the community view. For example the recent re-opening of Hammersmith Bridge to cycling has been promoted by the Town Team as a positive and we are running a promotional offer with local food and beverage outlets to encourage cyclists from north of the river to visit Barnes and take time to dwell all that we have to offer. Why don’t you visit Barnes? We love to see you!