Log week 2
This week we have welcomed Ben and Miki, who has become members to the NUTC. We also met with one of our project partners, Ali Lamb, who is the Engagement officer at Newcastle City Council. She talked a bit about her role and the project proposal for Heaton Road, as well as informed us about where it stands today. We then asked a couple of questions regarding the project and got together to identify the main stakeholders and the long-term goals what we want to achieve through a number of objectives.
The main stakeholders
With the help of Alis intel, we have done a mind map that presents the main stakeholders as well as their opposition towards the project proposal. The colour ‘Red’ represents the group that disagrees with the proposal, ‘Green’ represents the group that agrees with it and ‘Yellow’ represents the group who still remains undecided.
The stakeholders that disagree with the project proposal are:
- Residents along Heaton Road
- Services and facilities, such as Heaton medicals and Rugby/Cricket Pitch (University’s Sports ground)
- The Corner House Pub
- The People’s Theatre
- The churches, e.g. St Gabriel, and the mosque
One reason to this has to do with them losing a number of parking spaces they will be facing. The stakeholder that would benefit from this cycle route project, and hence agree are:
- The primary/secondary schools, who look for safe alternatives for their children to get to school, e.g. St Mary’s catholic school
- Freeman Hospital
- The Tax Office HM Revenue & Customs, who has over 10.000 employees
- Cycling groups
- Streets for people
- The elective counselors important stakeholder, who also have the final say on which scheme goes forward, they support this project. Although, they are also heading towards an election so the project will be presented to the public afterwards.
Aims and objectives
Within our last blog we questioned what the actual form of the project would be, the state of the current situation and how connected it will be in the end. These were all answered by Ali and she helped us to understand the objectives of the project more along with the main aims.
Aims:
- Advertising a cycling route for all and not only the existing minority of cyclists today
- Convince the resistant stakeholders of the advantages with this project
Objectives to achieve the aims:
- Site visit
- Read findings report
- Find other alternative transportation/parking options
- Start with the concepts
Next Steps
Based upon the latest lecture we believe our next step is to focus on user research and how it would be more effective towards the outcome of the project if we have a plan for it beforehand. After speaking with Ali Lamb we have concluded that the website common place and the public platform streets for people will be the best way for us to conduct our research and gain a greater understanding of the public’s views on the subject matter.
Another next step we have considered is participating in a site visit to Heaton Road and beginning to survey some of stakeholders within the area, for example the local church, schools and businesses.
Using this diagram we intend to analyse the stakeholders and see their weighting within the project and see how we should act upon their perspectives on the project.
This week helped us to truly understand the main goal of the project and how we will play a role in the final outcome. Besides the research and site visit we now hope to also develop an understanding of what the best approach would be towards our users and how to get the most beneficial outcome from anyone involved in the project.
Hi all, thanks for the entry – the stakeholder map and your method of categorising stakeholders are very helpful — but it mostly relates back to their position with regard to the council’s proposals. Is there perhaps also merit in trying to understand how those groups currently access local proposals and how they wish to feedback on local proposals? You mention the CommonPlace platform and also the organisation Space for Heaton, both seem key ‘ingredients’ to this question. Perhaps finding out more about how this and other tools (council website) and local groups and the council relate to design proposals might be another aim for your project. In terms of the aims of ‘convincing local stakeholders’ this being the best option, as yourself whether that is the aim of your project. I presume the council wants to convince stakeholders of the merits of the proposal, but perhaps the aim in your project might be also about how best could council and publics engage to find understanding of mutually beneficial solutions? Onwards.
Hi team, great blog, well done. You had a very productive chat with Ali and it shows from your reflections. I like how you have thought about the diversity of views held by different stakeholders too and how this has helped you to understand how to navigate the project. One word of caution though – I would be very careful when generalising / stereotyping support and opposition. For example there will be some residents and organisations on Heaton Road who support the changes. I would be very wary of claiming that organisations are completely opposed to it as it may paint them in a certain light (e.g. NIMBYs). Such organisations are very diverse and you would do well to show that you appreciate this. Conversely I know that some at St Teresa’s school have issues with the bus stop and cycle lane (teachers and pupils I have spoken to!) so just because they will stand to benefit does not necessarily mean they will support it. I agree with your objective that ultimately this is going to be as much of a persuasion exercise as anything else, but I would strongly encourage a more nuanced view on stakeholders to come through your work as it emerges.