From Plans to Pavements: Building inclusive spaces in Newcastle

Before joining the Associate Programme in Autumn 2022, my career very much followed the ‘traditional’ architecture student journey: from my bachelor's to a year in architectural practice, onto my master's, and finally culminating in my qualification as an architect while working in practice again. I’ve always been interested in how the built environment is influenced by social constructs (including ideas around class, gender, race, and sexuality) and how this has often resulted in the voices of marginalised groups being left unheard or underrepresented. The desire for a more equitable and inclusive built environment has been a consistent driving force behind my work, whether in education or practice.

My time in private architectural practice allowed me to work on public projects briefly, but not to the extent that I had hoped. I have always wanted to work directly with local communities, impacting and shaping public places and spaces to ensure that they genuinely represent the communities’ desires and needs. I had hoped that working in the public sector would allow me to do this consistently, and it has.

Since joining Newcastle City Council, I've split my time between the Economic Development and Planning Teams, which has allowed me to experience two very different types of roles within the public sector. Taking on both of these roles has been challenging at times as I try to ensure that I balance the aspirations of each team. However, more than anything, it’s been really positive - I’ve learnt so much from each of the roles, which have, in turn, supported and positively impacted the other. While these are separate workstreams on paper, there’s a lot of cross-over, so it’s important to make sure approaches align!

My role in Planning has seen me focus on policy, helping to develop guidance and research new approaches to neighbourhood development and how these could be integrated into future policies. I’ve been supporting the team with thoughts on ambitions and policies to include in our emerging plan based on early conversations at engagement events and feedback from our residents. We’ve learnt that our communities value their access to open spaces, want a city that’s easy to move around through a sustainable transport network and see us address climate change as well as provide more affordable housing. It’s also evident that we need to do everything we can to reduce social and health inequalities.

My role in Economic Development has been to support the project manager of our high street regeneration project, helping with developing briefs, managing capital projects and working closely with our consultant team.

We have been engaging with local communities through online consultations, local walks and events, creating opportunities for us to hear from local stakeholders, including residents and businesses.

The project focuses on five high streets in the east of the city, and we are working with local communities and businesses to deliver improvements as well as develop a long-term plan for the area. We have been engaging with local communities through a wide range of methods, such as online consultations, walks, workshops and events, to try and ensure we are able to hear from a wide range of people. Some of the work, like our Summer on the Square events programme, has aimed to increase footfall on the high street while other improvements have involved physical changes to the public realm. We have installed a new crossing on one of our high streets and have a rain garden starting on site in September. We also plan to improve safety through underpass projects and want to support re-greening our high streets through soft landscaping.

In both of my roles, I’ve been so fortunate to work alongside incredible people. Despite my lack of public sector experience when I joined, I have never felt out of place, and I truly feel like I’ve been welcomed into the council with open arms. Everyone I work with wants the best for the people living in our local authority boundary, so I feel there has been a true sense of collaboration. Team structures haven’t felt overly hierarchical, and I’ve felt like a valued team member. My roles mean that I often have to reach out to many different colleagues across the council, and they’ve always provided valuable insight and experience. We really do need to have better mechanisms in place to work outside of the silos that so often occur in local authorities, and cross-directorate working groups have proved a really great way to do so.

Having previously worked under a more senior architect or director, it’s been amazing to demonstrate what I have learnt and directly apply it to brief writing, reviewing tender submissions or helping to develop capital projects for our high streets initiative in my economic development role. In some ways, I find it harder to see exactly how my previous skills or experience helped me contribute to my planning role directly. Still, I think that policy is all about approaches and finding ways to express them, albeit through words rather than physical form. It’s been an adjustment, but it is quite incredible that through certain policies, you can influence development at a city scale.

As an architect, you have to work within regulations and policies, so I was familiar with them, but it’s been interesting to experience and contribute to it from the other side.

In July, we published the Pavement Cafés Planning and Design Guidance. This had been a long-term project, impacted throughout by changes to legislation, including the Levelling Up and Regeneration Act 2023, and I was tasked with helping pull together the guidance. While the guidance covers a wide range of topics to do with pavement cafés, we made sure we provided design guidance on layout, referencing National legislation and regulations, including the Equality Act and Inclusive Mobility guidance. As part of our decision-making process at Newcastle City Council, we send documents to a range of representatives from different areas of the Council, including our Equality and Wellbeing Advisor. After submission, she called me to say that it was clear reading through the document that we had embedded considerations for disabled people throughout and she felt that the guidance would have a positive impact, ensuring accessibility in the city. It was a wonderful moment.

Some parts of my roles have allowed me to gain confidence and build on the skills I had begun developing throughout my architectural career. In contrast, other aspects have allowed me to develop new skills and understanding about working in the public sector. I’m learning so much that can only benefit my career moving forward, helping me to hopefully become a better, more well-rounded architect.

The biggest takeaway from my role is the importance of listening to our local communities. This means not only stopping at those initial conversations but also continuing dialogue and demonstrating where their feedback has influenced decisions and impacted real changes. Building trust with our residents is one of the most important things we can do, but it does take time, especially in the wake of years of austerity.

In terms of where I am now, my initial one-year placement was extended, and as a result, I’m still working across both my roles in economic development and planning policy.

My economic development role has seen me continue to work on our high street project, which is due to wrap up in March 2025. The opportunity to continue working on the project has allowed me to see the projects we developed delivered, which is so rewarding.

It’s been incredible to play a part in developing an approach to high street regeneration in Newcastle. There are so many lessons to take away from the experience of our work in the east of the city that can hopefully be applied across other areas of the city where we can put the needs of residents first. We’ve already seen the project expand to another high street in the west of the city, and I would love to continue to help across Newcastle.

I continue to enjoy immersing myself in the world of planning and developing my understanding of how policy can directly influence outcomes. We are now starting early conversations about developing a design code that will sit alongside our local plan, and I hope to embed principles that seek to create a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable built environment wherever possible.