Urban Plan for Community Led Change
Union Street Mistress Plan
Explanation by Nudge Community Builders
‘The mistress plan is about us wanting to keep the area for local residents. As we improve the area, the price of local properties is going up and it’s going to become a hot spot and we want to keep it to a local community... we want jollification, not gentrification.’
Mary Embleton, Chair, Nudge Community Builders
Union Street is a conservation area within Stonehouse, Plymouth, an area that continues to be underdeveloped with parts of it in the 4% most deprived areas of the UK. Issues of children living in poverty, poor living conditions, and poor health outcomes are common. Nudge have been making local impact since 2010 and have demonstrated that they can make long term community change. The plan documents some of this alongside concise reflections bringing together the knowledge Nudge’s team have gained over this time.
Through the course of the strategy development, Incremental Urbanism have held a series of workshops with an incredibly wide range of local stakeholders. These included local groups, social enterprises, residents, public institutions, artists and businesses. The proposed conditions aim to connect local diverse stakeholders and provide a platform to share learning, resources and activities.
In combination they form a cohesive strategy and vision for public spaces and community assets on and around Union Street, with the strategy enabling the local community to get involved as partners alongside Nudge and take responsibility for the ongoing delivery, programming and legacy of future projects.
Location
Union Street, Plymouth, UK
Clients
Nudge Community Builders
Team
Incremental Urbanism, Vacancy Atlas, 51 Studio
Nudge Community Builders re-imagine, own, create and run activity in disused, underused or unusual urban spaces to lead to lasting positive change and community led regeneration.
The Mistress Plan is an area strategy comprising of a catalogue of conditions to guide change on the street and galvanise action. The project aimed to help Nudge formulate their agenda as they take on more spaces, get more buildings into community ownership, and strike the balance between private gain and social need on the street. It is also a tool for others to see what Nudge focusses on to create positive local change.
This is not a Masterplan - it does not assign projects, budgets, or land to various actors, instead it is establishes shared goals and starting steps for collective action.
The catalogue focuses on Stonehouse’s high street: Union Street, and the surrounding buildings. The starting steps vary from the micro to the large-scale, from quick wins to long-term aims for housing and regeneration. The catalogue includes recommendations that range from public realm enhancements to business support, identified investment sites to meanwhile uses. The strategy is soon to be made publicly downloadable as a tool to be used by local residents, community groups, public authorities and other stakeholders to take ownership and co-deliver projects.
The conditions, and linked starting steps have been carefully developed in order to co-ordinate with each other and are suited to an incremental and aggregated approach to delivery. Key ‘catalyst’ projects have already been started by Nudge, including transformations to The Millennium and C103.