Future Scenarios - Canterbury City Council
The Future Foundation and Experian completed a futures study for Canterbury City Council to underpin both its LDF and sustainable community strategy. We identified a range of future scenarios for the district that were arrived at through the assessment of trends and drivers at the local, regional and global level. A programme of consultation with local and regional stakeholders helped to identify a distinctive 20-year vision along with its spatial, economic, social and environmental implications for the district.
The study has provided the Council with a common vision and evidence base for its spatial policy, prior to public examination. The consultation process culminated in commissioning the local arts and design institute to produce visuals of the scenarios which were used to inform a 100-person interactive workshop, held to engage wider district and regional stakeholders in decision making.
We worked with Canterbury City Council in the following ways:
Evidence
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Analysis of data and information on factors including population/households, economy/business, education/health/well-being, community/deprivation, culture/heritage, transport and environment.
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Assessment of global influences including the rising economic power of the East, tourism growth, climate change, economic/employment/education trends, counter-urbanism/second homes, transport infrastructure/planning issues, ageing society, the experience economy, cultural capital, activism/localism, technology, revolution/teleworking.
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Production of 20-year forecasts for people and jobs.
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Assessment of implications of scenarios for housing, employment space (office, industry, retail), leisure facilities, schools/hospitals/surgeries and transport.
Consultation
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Consultation and seminars with council officers/members and wider stakeholders
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Large-scale interactive workshops with local and regional stakeholders to engage people in the process, with visualisation materials.
Vision
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Articulation of the ‘o nothing’ baseline scenario .
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Creation of scenarios of ‘potential outcomes’ based on the future-proofing of the evidence.
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Identification of a common vision to underpin spatial policy – LDF core strategy and sustainable community strategy.
