Planning Bill (3): Community Involvement

This paper looks at the Community Involvement provisions set out in the Planning Bill. It is one of four papers prepared for the Bill, which follow a common format that highlights: the key issues arising in the Bill; summarises the findings of the public consultation and the Government’s response; reviews comparable arrangements in comparable jurisdictions and highlights potential contentious issues that arise.

Predicting IQ of biologically "at risk" children from age 3 to school entry:sensitivity and specificity of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale IV

Predictive validity of the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale Fourth Edition (S-B IV) from age 3 years to ages 4-5 years was evaluated with biologically "at risk" children without major sensory or motor impairments (n = 236). Using the standard scoring, children with full scale IQ <or = 84 on the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence at age 4-5 years were poorly identified (sensitivity 54%) from the composite S-B IV score at age 3. However, sensitivity improved greatly to 78% by including as a predictor the number of subtests the child was actually able to perform at age 3 years. Measures from the Home Screening Questionnaire and ratings of mother-child interaction further improved sensitivity to 83%. The standard method for calculating the composite score on the S-B IV excludes subtests with a raw score of 0, which overestimates cognitive functioning in young biologically high risk children. Accuracy of early identification was improved significantly by considering the number of subtests the child did not perform at age 3 years.

An Examination of the Use of Coercion by Assertive Outreach and Community Mental Health Teams in Northern Ireland.

In mental health services over recent decades, the positive move away from hospital-based care to community-based services has entailed that people with higher levels of need are being supported by community mental health services. This paper begins by reviewing the literature on coercion in the field of community-based mental health care and treatment. It is argued that the lack of a critical understanding of the concept and how it is used by practitioners and agencies can have serious repercussions for the rights of service users. Using a quasi-experimental, longitudinal design, the authors then seek to test some of the ideas about coercion by comparing the activities of assertive outreach and community mental health teams in Northern Ireland, particularly the key ideas of perceived coercion, workers’ strategies and engagement with services. Key findings were that assertive outreach appeared to be more successful at reducing perceived coercion, minimizing the need for coercive strategies, engaging high-risk clients and reducing inpatient bed use. These findings are compared with other studies in this area. The authors also argue that there is a need for greater transparency in the way that practitioners use coercive measures and more explicit guidance is required in this crucial area of mental health practice.

Invasion by the amphipod Gammarus pulex alters community composition of native freshwater macroinvertebrates

Assessing the effects of invading species on native community structure is often confounded by environmental factors and weakened by lack of replicated, long-term pre- and post-invasion monitoring. Here, we uncouple the community effects of a freshwater amphipod invader from environmental differences. In Irish rivers, the introduced Gammarus pulex replaces the native Gammarus duebeni celticus. However, the River Lissan in Northern Ireland is dissected by a weir that has slowed the upstream invasion by G. pulex. This allowed us in 2000 to sample three contiguous 150-m reaches that were (1) G. pulex dominated; (2) mixed Gammarus spp.; and (3) G. duebeni celticus only. In 2003, we resampled these reaches and one additional of mixed Gammarus species and one with only G. duebeni celticus further upstream. In temperature, conductivity, and pH, there were statistically significant but no biologically relevant differences among the five reaches of 2003, and between the three reaches surveyed in both years. Although there was evidence of recovery in macroinvertebrate diversity and richness in invaded reaches between years, continued upstream invasion was associated with sustained reductions in these community metrics as compared to un-invaded sites. Community ordination indicated (1) different associations of community composition attributed to the distribution, abundance, and biomass of the invader; and (2) increasing similarity of invaded communities over time. The impact mechanisms of G. pulex on macroinvertebrate community composition may include predation and competition. The consequences of the observed community changes for ecosystem functioning require further investigation.

Changing Attitudes of Community Through the Design Charrette Process

The traditional planning process in the UK and elsewhere takes too long to develop, are demanding on resources that are scarce and most times tend to be unrelated to the needs and demands of society. It segregates the plan making from the decision making process with the consultants planning, the politicians deciding and the community receiving without being integrated into the planning and decision making process. The Scottish Planning system is undergoing radical changes as evidenced by the publication of the Planning Advice Note, PAN by the Scottish Executive in July 2006 with the aim of enabling Community Engagement that allow for openness and accountability in the decision making process. The Public Engagement is a process that is driven by the physical, social and economic systems research aimed at improving the process at the level of community through problem solving and of the city region through strategic planning. There are several methods available to engage the community in large scale projects. The two well known ones are the Enquiry be Design and the Charrette approaches used in the UK and US respectively. This paper is an independent and rigorous analysis of the Charrette process as observed in the proposed Tornagrain Settlement in the Highlands area of Scotland. It attempts to gauge and analyse the attitudes, perceptions of the participants the Charrette as well as the mechanics and structure of the Charrette. The study analyzes the Charrette approach as a method future public engagement in and its effectiveness within the Scottish Planning System in view of PAN 2005. The analysis revealed that the Charrette as a method of engagement could be effective in changing attitudes of the community to the design process under certain conditions as discussed in the paper.

Bridging top down and bottom up: Modelling community preferences for a dispersed rural settlement pattern

This paper explores the scope to bridge top-down and bottom-up perspectives on spatial planning by drawing on EU-funded action research in relation to rural settlement planning in Northern Ireland. The empirical work is located within a review of planning theory that exposes a long running tension between the technocratic stances of government planners and the aspirations of engaged citizens. It demonstrates the operation of a large group planning methodology that delivers community preference with environmental responsibility as a participatory input into planning policy formulation. Transferable insights into the dynamics of spatial planning are identified.