© DELVE: Richard Sobey & Sarah Spanton 2017 hello@delveassociates.eu Full Report ISBN: 978-1-9997972-0-1

Researching Resi l ience and Prosperity through Culture : Harlow, UK Executive Summary

Section A │ Evidence and Analysis

1.0 Introduction and rationale This report aims to support the development of resilience and prosperity in the neighbourhoods of Harlow New Town and the district as a whole. DELVE believes all places can be both resilient and prosperous and that these characteristics of place are intertwined.

Prosperity DELVE defines a prosperous town as one which is thriving, characterised by its inhabitants’ high levels of well-being

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and access to fulfilling jobs and varied employment opportunity in a high quality environment with many, varied social / communal activities - shifting away from a definition focussed solely on financial success.

Resilience2

A resilient town is one able to respond to opportunity and is ready to withstand unknown challenges that may be around the corner, whether they be environmental, economic or social. It has the means to bounce back from such adversity

3, maintaining its sense of

wellbeing by having strong relationships and interconnections’.

This report presents research undertaken in the town as well as analysis of the evidence gathered and concludes by setting out a series of cross-cutting strategic initiatives addressing the five key themes of:

● health and wellbeing ● education and life-long learning ● green space and the environment ● local economic development ● creative economy

Each of the initiatives uses the power of culture and creativity to deliver significant impact on these agendas while making strategic connections across the five themes in a way that is resource efficient. The portfolio of cross-cutting initiatives and cultural projects is specifically tailored to Harlow’s cultural, heritage, urban planning and local economic development sectors and its communities.

2.1 Methodology: evidence gathering and analysis In order to gather diverse place-based evidence about Harlow, research has been undertaken through:

● direct engagement with a variety of individuals and communities ● in depth conversation with key players and groups ● direct observation of events and activities ● undertaking walking and photographic tours around Harlow’s neighbourhoods ● spatial analysis and urban design assessment techniques ● desk-based research (local and national policy and data; relevant research, journalism and reports)

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This evidence has been analysed with an asset-based approach, including identifying a set of key Harlow assets and undertaking SWOC analyses. This work has focussed on those aspects which can deliver the most benefit for the five key themes, using ideas development and mapping techniques to identify strategic connections across assets and activities.

2.2 Strategic cross-cutting initiatives The full report outlines eight initiatives with one of these fully detailed to demonstrate practical application. Each initiative includes potential Harlow ‘real-world’ partnerships and stakeholders who could develop, co-produce and implement the initiatives as well as making connections to national stakeholders and partners. With a focus on vision and ambition, the initiatives offer new models, processes and approaches for creating enhanced resilience and prosperity in neighbourhoods and across the district as a whole

, by linking the five themes and providing a

signpost to the future direction for the role of culture in action in Harlow. They are intended to offer a strategic approach to positioning Harlow as an exemplar, leading the development of good practice from which others take inspiration and learning.

3.0 Overview of Harlow This overview of Harlow is based on DELVE's research into the district - a series of snapshots seek to capture the essential characteristics and qualities of the town in 15 sections:

3.1 Location and governance 3.2 The heritage of New Town Planning 3.3 Harlow’s neighbourhoods, landscape and green infrastructure 3.4 Housing and homes 3.5 Transport infrastructure 3.6 Demographics/people 3.7 Health and wellbeing 3.8 Education 3.9 Community spirit 3.10 Sport and leisure 3.11 Employment and jobs 3.12 Industry 3.13 Local economy 3.14 Town and district centres 3.15 Creative and cultural landscape

(see full report for details) Figure 1 Context map of Harlow ©DELVE 2016 (Image: Sarah Spanton)

Figure 2 Herts & Essex Community Farm ©DELVE 2016 (Image: Richard Sobey) Figure 3 Housing in Sumners ©DELVE 2016 (Image: Richard Sobey)

3 | P a g e © DELVE: Richard Sobey & Sarah Spanton 2017 hello@delveassociates.eu Full Report ISBN: 978-1-9997972-0-1

Figure 4 Harlow Map © DELVE 2016 (Image: Sarah Spanton, base-map Harlow Cycle Track Map4)

4.0 Action research Harlow Habitats community engagement events: DELVE held a community engagement event over two days at Heart4Harlow’s festival

5 on May 28 and 29, 2016 in the Water Gardens in Harlow town centre.

Observations on Harlow: an in-depth study of Harlow was carried out over a one year period by DELVE Co-Director Richard Sobey. The research was undertaken through: face to face interviews, notated face to face meetings, event attendance, observational tours, desk research and, ideas development and mind-mapping techniques.

5.0 Analysis DELVE’s analysis has been filtered through the five key themes (see 1.0). The analysis has informed the shape and character of the eight cross-cutting strategic initiatives outlined in Section B below.

5.1 Green infrastructure, green technologies and sustainable transport Harlow has a considerable green infrastructure when lesser considered green spaces such as verges and smaller copses of trees are taken into account. This report identifies the idea of CPULS (Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes) as valuable for Harlow. This is the idea that towns and cities can be designed so that they can also be productive food growing spaces with the potential to produce local food in abundance in neighbourhoods and relying less on national and international imports

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Harlow is in an optimum position to develop its green local economy with its strong green assets already in place. Green infrastructure, natural and open spaces and spaces for leisure such as parks are vital for health and wellbeing for residents

7, are highly valued by them and can act a pull for tourism and new business. The town is in a key position with

its background in technology and bioscience industries to innovate around sustainable (green) technologies, providing local jobs and skills within the local economy

8. Additionally, it has strength in this area in relation to its transport

infrastructure (cycle and walking path networks, pedestrian town and district centres). Harlow residents’ interest in green assets places it in a good position to investigate the potential of community energy schemes which ‘…give citizens the power to transform how they buy, use and generate power in their area’

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5.2 Social prescribing There could be a positive and impactful role for social prescribing in Harlow. Taking place within or in partnership with GP practices

10, social prescribing is ‘… a mechanism for linking patients with non-medical sources of support within the

community’11

. Social prescribing projects tackle health and social inequalities using the social model of health12

– a people-centred approach, which facilitates individuals and communities to develop and strengthen self-efficacy, resilience, self-confidence, aspirations, social connections and community pride. The social prescribing methodology addresses individual health and wellbeing issues, including social isolation and poor mental health, and can make strong links to community, volunteering, arts and cultural activities.

5.3 STEAM subjects in education Schools and informal educational settings in Harlow could benefit from developing and embedding the arts/creative subject areas through a focus on STEAM subjects

13. In recent years there has been an emphasis on STEM (science,

technology, engineering and maths), but by adding arts subjects (STEAM), creativity14

leading to innovation and invention (key drivers for new business development) are added to the mix

15.

5.4 Harlow Corporate Plan and Harlow Local Development Plan DELVE’s analysis directly tackles some of the key issues raised in Harlow’s current Local Plan document ‘Harlow Local Development Plan: Emerging Strategy and Further Options, April 2014’, such as a concern that Harlow as a town might decline if improvements are not achieved in education, jobs, health and environment. The analysis also directly takes on four of the five key strategies highlighted in Harlow District Council’s Corporate Plan

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No. 2 Regeneration and a thriving economy

No. 3 Wellbeing and social inclusion

No. 4 A clean and green environment

No. 5 Successful children and young people

In accord with the Harlow Corporate Plan, this report recommends a broad-based partnership approach bringing public, private and social businesses and institutions together to achieve resilience and prosperity for Harlow. This approach avoids overdependence on any one sector and creates mutuality

17 between the sectors. It can lead to major innovations

and the connections and collaborations themselves can have significant value, being more than the sum of their parts18

. Additionally, co-producing to make improvements and develop local services by bringing community groups and local people together with businesses and institutions would be hugely beneficial to the town

19.

5.5 Local Economic Development (LED) Those working in LED are increasingly concerned that local economic development approaches which rely on a ‘trickle down’ of economic wealth from the richest in society to the poorest are increasingly being shown not to work and, in some quarters, those living in poverty are seen as a hindrance to prosperity

20. DELVE’s approach is to consider all people

regardless of their socio-economic position as having value and the ability to contribute positively to their communities. Those pursuing progressive approaches to LED, such as the Centre for Local Economic Strategies (CLES), see places as interconnected systems of people – and identify local authorities as having a key convenor role: able to facilitate, co-ordinate and bring people together. This approach also highlights the role of co-production of services, where the distinction between producers and consumers of services is deliberately blurred – advocating that ‘everyone has something to contribute; reciprocity is important, social relationships matter…’

21. Harlow District Council is in a strong

position to take on this significant convening role to support the development of a ‘good’ local economy22

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5.6 Reviving town and district centres Nationally town centres are undergoing significant decline

23. Research identifies issues for town centres remaining

engaging and lively24

. Trends in town centre use show the development of multi-use spaces where residents can socialise and find entertainment as well as shop

25. There are calls for planning to adopt a more flexible approach to use

classes to catch up with these changes26

. In terms of LED and stronger economic growth, there are calls for Local Authorities to make more effective use of their public sector assets in town centres, such as libraries and galleries, and to act actively as economic stewards, bringing the public, private and social sectors together to collaborate on town centre development

27.

Diverse and distinctive shopping areas support local economic resilience as varied local businesses can trade with each other rather than going out of town; thus it is important to support entrepreneurs and new businesses which are producing local goods and services which can keep money flowing locally

28. Harlow has the potential to revive its town

and district centres by making more of its public sector assets and to enhance local economic resilience by supporting current and new local businesses to keep money circulating locally.

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5.7 Creative economy The government defines the creative industries to include artists across all art forms (dance, drama, music, visual arts, film) as well as design professionals and computer programmers – this group tend to ‘be highly educated, skilled and drivers of innovation’

29. When DELVE talks about the arts and cultural sector, it includes those working in allied

professions and at all levels: part-time, full-time, from self-employed to running a small, medium or large businesses, such as a gallery or museum. The role of the creative industries cannot be underestimated in terms of their value to the economy, being worth £84.1billion in 2014 with music, performance and visual arts, GVA at £5444 million, crafts at £288 million and IT, software and computer services at £36,578 million

30. There is government recognition of the value of culture and the arts

contribution to developing place, to health and wellbeing, to education and to economic growth and jobs31

. However, DELVE highlights that cultural activity has value beyond the purely economic since it ‘deals with concepts like trust, love, friendship and identity’

32. Furthermore DELVE believes that the cultural sector could be playing a stronger role in civic

society33

and identifies considerable potential for the creative economy and the cultural sector in Harlow.

5.8 Five SWOCs DELVE undertook a series of SWOCs, one for each of the five themes; health and wellbeing, education and life-long learning, green space and the environment, local economic development and creative economy (see full report for details).

5.9 Harlow’s key assets DELVE identified eight key assets in Harlow:

● It is the birthplace of fibre optic communications ● The heritage of new town planning ● The number of cycle paths and the cycle museum ● The walkability of the town centre ● The heritage of the public health sector ● The abundance and variety of public green spaces/infrastructure at a range of scales ● Its ambition for innovation and technology development ● Its potential to be an incubator for sustainable living technologies

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1. Upcycling the Cycle Paths

2. Harvesting the Green

3. Green Wedge Learning

4. Playable Town

5. Hospital: Health: Heritage

6. Leading Edge: Technology Futures

7. Untapped Treasures: New Town Legacy

8. Little Ideas; Big Data

Section B │ Initiatives

1.0 Introducing the initiatives DELVE has devised a series of eight cross-cutting initiatives as case study examples, to inform new thinking about ways of approaching activities that support the development of prosperity and resilience in Harlow using culture and heritage. Focussing on vision and ambition, they offer new models, processes and approaches for creating enhanced resilience and prosperity in neighbourhoods and across the district as a whole by linking the five themes. They focus on researching, testing and modelling approaches to programmes of strategic activity to address the themes and issues raised through the research. These initiatives provide a signpost to future directions for the role of culture as action in Harlow. 1.2 Eight Initiatives Each initiative is sub-divided into a number of pathways. These pathways are not offered as prescribed solutions, but are intended as starting points for a professional strategic conversation across Harlow’s stakeholders. Some of the ideas can be treated as a menu; with items complementing and cross-fertilising each other through discussion and development, with the potential to be scaled up or down.

1. Upcycling the Cycle Paths

Family-friendly games Active heritage cycling Cycle path ‘Olympics’ Harlow Festival: creative cycles

2. Harvesting the Green

Harlow food festival Kitchen garden Harlow Cafe convivial Citizen powered science

3. Green Wedge Learning

The wealth of the woods Technological tools Leading on learning

4. Playable Town

Home-grown and meanwhile Playing out Gaming Harlow Harlow hosts Five playable ways to wellbeing

5. Hospital: Health: Heritage

Connecting people Hospital histories; rites of passage Community connections

6. Leading Edge: Technology Futures

Incubation pioneers Innovation Kao At home to ideas

7. Untapped Treasures: New Town Legacy

Zeitgeist resonances Leading on place-making

8. Little Ideas; Big Data

Green citizen data Healthy living data

See full report for details of each of the eight cross-cutting strategic initiatives, including one of the initiatives unpacked in detail with a draft budget, and timeline from development to completion.

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1 ‘Emotional health and wellbeing describes your state of mind / your mental health – meaning how you are feeling and how well you can cope

with day-to-day life, this can also be described as how resilient you are’ from: www.mind.org.uk (2013), ‘How to Improve and Maintain Your Mental Wellbeing’, Mind, London. 2 Meanings of resilience include ‘…resilience: A culture based on its ability to function indefinitely and to live within its limits, and able to thrive for having done so’ from: Hopkins, R. (2008), ‘Transition Handbook; From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience’ Green Books, Cambridge and ‘Resilience is the capacity of people to confront and cope with life’s challenges; to maintain their wellbeing in the face of adversity.’ From: www.mind.org.uk (2013), ‘Building Resilient Communities: Making Every Contact Count for Public Mental Health’, https://www.mind.org.uk/media/343925/Briefing_-_Building_resilient_communities.pdf - accessed 22.1.13 3 McInroy, N. and Longlands, S. (2010), ‘Productive Local Economies: Creating Resilient Places’, Centre for Local Economic Strategies, Manchester. 4 Harlow Cycle Track Map - http://www.harlow.gov.uk/search/site/cycle%20map – accessed 10.3.16 5 Heart4Harlow is a faith-based event, with a theme of health and wellbeing, there were around 20 different stalls over 2 days - www.heart4harlow.org.uk 6 From Rob Hopkins review of ‘CPULs – Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes’ – Andre Viljoen (2006), https://www.transitionculture.org/essential-info/book-reviews/cpuls/ - accessed 7.9.16 7 Identified as ‘the cornerstone of personal wellbeing, strong communities and prolonged economic growth’ CLES 10: Developing a Green Local Economy, CLES, 2015 8 CLES 10: Developing a Green Local Economy, CLES, 2015 9 CLES 10: Developing a Green Local Economy, CLES, 2015 10 http://www.volition.org.uk/briefings/social-prescribing/ - accessed 26.10.16 11 ‘The pursuit of happiness: a new ambition for our mental health’ CentreForum, 2014 http://www.centreforum.org/assets/pubs/the-pursuit-of-happiness.pdf (CentreForum is now the Educational Policy Institute) 12 The Social Model of Health, https://www.reference.com/science/social-model-health-f2981332a302c924 - accessed 22.11.16 13 http://stemtosteam.org/ - 26.10.16 14 ‘Our starting point is to recognise four characteristics of creative processes. First, they always involve thinking or behaving imaginatively. Second, overall this imaginative activity is purposeful: that is, it is directed to achieving an objective. Third, these processes must generate something original. Fourth, the outcome must be of value in relation to the objective. We therefore define creativity as: Imaginative activity fashioned so as to produce outcomes that are both original and of value.’ All Our Futures: Creativity, Culture and Education, p.30, Ken Robinson, 1999 for the UK National Advisory Committee on Creative and Cultural Education 15 https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2016/feb/16/art-education-running-out-of-steam-teachers-art- design - 26.10.16 16 Harlow Council: Working Together for Harlow Corporate Plan 2016/17 - 2018/19 – it excludes the first strategy of ‘1. More and better housing’ 17 McInroy, N. and Longlands, S. (2010), ‘Productive Local Economies: Creating Resilient Places’, Centre for Local Economic Strategies, Manchester. 18 McInroy, N. (2016), ‘Forging a good local society: tackling poverty through local economic reset’, CLES, Manchester. 19 ‘Co-producing in Action: towards realising just cities’ 2016, Mistra Urban Futures, Gothenburg 20 McInroy, N. (2016), ‘Forging a good local society: tackling poverty through local economic reset’, CLES, Manchester. 21 Ibid 22 Characteristics of a good local economy are outlined as being resilient, co-designed with communities, enabling growth of wellbeing and agency and asset-based development (p.15), New Start Magazine and NEF (2016), ‘Creating Good City Economies in the UK’– see p.15 for characteristics of a good local economy – including, being resilient, co-designed with communities, enabling growth of wellbeing and agency and asset-based development. 23 Portas, M. (2011), ‘The Portas Review: An independent review into the future of our high streets’, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/6292/2081646.pdf - accessed 22.6.16 24 Wicks, S. (2016), ‘Planning failing to keep pace with retail change, say experts’, http://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/planning-failing-to-keep-pace-with-retail-change-say-experts?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term - accessed 27.7.16 and CLES (2014), ‘CLES Findings 3: Enhancing the value of local authority assets in town centres’, http://www.cles.org.uk/category/publications/cles-findings/ - accessed 22.6.16 25 Economic and Social Research Council (2016), http://www.esrc.ac.uk/news-events-and-publications/news/news-items/web-shoppers-are-not-killing-the-high-street-poor-council-and-retail-decision-making-does-more-harm/ - accessed 22.6.16 26 Wicks, S. (2016), ‘Planning failing to keep pace with retail change, say experts’, http://www.theplanner.co.uk/news/planning-failing-to-keep-pace-with-retail-change-say-experts?utm_source=Adestra&utm_medium=email&utm_term - accessed 27.7.16 27 CLES (2014), ‘CLES Findings 3: Enhancing the value of local authority assets in town centres’, http://www.cles.org.uk/category/publications/cles-findings/ - accessed 22.6.16 28 NEF (2011), ‘Ten Steps to Save the Cities: The New Economics Agenda for Thriving Local Economies’, ‘http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/entry/ten-steps-to-save-the-cities’ – accessed 28.5.15 29 Bakshi, H. (2016), ‘Is Art Education Running Out of Steam?’, https://www.theguardian.com/culture-professionals-network/2016/feb/16/art-education-running-out-of-steam-teachers-art-design - accessed 26.10.16 30 The government defines creative Industries as: Advertising and marketing; architecture; crafts; design (product, graphic and fashion); film, TV, video, radio, photography; IT, software, computer services; publishing; museums, galleries and libraries; music, performance and visual arts. www.gov.uk (2016), ‘Creative Economies Economic Estimates – January 2016 – Key findings’, https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/creative-industries-economic-estimates-january-2016/creative-industries-economic-estimates-january-2016-key-findings - accessed 23.8.16 31 Department for Culture, Media and Sport (2016), ‘The Culture White Paper’, https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/510798/DCMS_The_Culture_White_Paper__3_.pdf - accessed 1.9.16 32 Cultural economist Dave O’Brien in Timms, C. and Wright, S. (2013), ‘The Invisible Hand: Art in the transition to another economy, https://www.ietm.org/en/system/files/publications/150317_the_invisible_hand_publication_1.pdf – accessed 24.5.13 33 Taylor, M. (2013), ‘Art at the heart of things’, https://www.thersa.org/discover/publications-and-articles/matthew-taylor-blog/2013/10/art-at-the-heart-of-things - accessed 16.10.13