Byker: a study of communication between planners and the public in an area affected by slum clearance

Abstract

This study sets out to examine whether the local community has any political meaning for its residents, in the sense that their relations with the city council are affected by it. On the one hand, it investigates the importance of the community; 1. in supporting certain orientations among residents towards political involvement, and 2. in offering certain organisational means of political communication. On the other hand, it investigates the attitudes of local authority officials and councillors to the involvement of the public in aspects of their decision-making. The study relates an initial analysis of community attachment and political attitudes to an analysis of the attitudes and action of all those involved in a particular decision in the field of town planning. The area of the study (Byker in Newcastle-upon-Tyne) was chosen because it was faced with slum clearance by the council. A questionnaire was applied to 10 per cent of the households in the area to discover and then inter-relate: 1. The degree of residents' attachment to the community in terms of their performance of certain roles, identification of the area and membership of local organisations; 2. Their orientation to local government and to participation in politics; 3. Their response to the demolition plans. By participant observation and the interviewing of local leaders, local organisations were examined to assess their view of their role, and, especially, their role in the demolition situation. The study was here concerned with the potentiality of organisations to act as mediators between the planners and the planned. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with councillors and with officials concerned with planning and rehousing. The object here was to assess the implications of their view of the situation and of their performance for the information andresponse of residents.