Community Charters
Conceiving and supporting the creation of the UK's first Community Charters
Community Charters
Community Charters are rights-based documents which set out things in a local area which residents have agreed to be fundamental to the present and future health of their community, and related rights and responsibilities.
In 2013, the Community Chartering Network (CCN) designed and facilitated the processes which birthed the UK’s first Community Charter. This was developed by residents of Falkirk, Scotland, in response to the UK’s first application to commercialise unconventional gas.
The Falkirk Charter has since been adopted by five Community Councils, and half of all Local Authority Councillors.
In 2014 the Scottish Government agreed the Charter could provide the framework for a community impacts session at the public inquiry into the application. This enabled local residents to stand as witnesses on the basis of their own personal experiences of place. Their testimonies and the Charter formed an important part of the QC’s closing submissions for the community.
Since the Falkirk Charter, CCN also assisted in the development of the St Ives Community Charter. This was launched in 2017 with a procession and an unfurling of a Charter scroll before community organisations. CCN is currently providing support for similar initiatives in North Yorkshire, Dartington, and for communities along the river Dart.
The Falkirk Charter will, in my opinion, become a template for community groups across the length and breadth of Scotland. It is the very outcome the Scottish Government sought with the formulation of the Community Empowerment Act
The Charter sets out the things which create pride in our community and respect for ourselves and each other…things which allow growth, harmony, well-being and allow a community to thrive.
We were particularly grateful for the extensive preparatory work and the involvement of the community (in the Charter). The values expressed are completely on all fours with the work we do in shaping and developing our area.
We are more than happy to have a written expression of what residents value for growing a positive vision of community, the dynamic cultural heritage expressed in the Charter featuring positive developments in all walks of life while seeking to negate detrimental influences.
Process
The process which gave rise to the Falkirk Charter began with a series of public meetings. These were based on a World Café model, and well-attended by a diverse mix of local residents.
CCN designed six questions to nurture the sharing of local experiences, values, aspirations and beliefs. At the meetings, questions were allocated to tables together with a roll of paper. Residents volunteered to facilitate the discussion at each.
For 90 minutes, participants moved freely from table to table, noting down key points and ideas on the paper as they went.
Based on the meeting outputs and discussion, CCN proposed 5 principles which might form the foundation of a Charter: stability, peace-of-mind, public and environmental health, and agency. In a further public meeting, consensus was reached that agency was paramount. Residents deemed that without agency, they would be powerless to act upon the others.
Next CCN returned to the outputs to discern things residents held in common to be important to their health and well-being. A final public meeting was then convened to discuss these ‘assets’. Sixteen were agreed, including a clean and safe environment, community resilience and continuity, the sanctuary of the home, and the diversity and stability of the local ecosystem.
Together the assets were termed the ‘cultural heritage’, or the irreducible inseparable fabric of the community. Also agreed at the meeting were local rights and responsibilities to protect and improve the cultural heritage for future generations, and how these might be enacted within the existing planning framework.
CCN then brought all this together into a single Community Charter document. The Charter is intended to be a living document, updated periodically in accordance with changing local circumstances and aspirations. For example, before each new Community Council adopts the Falkirk Charter, they are given the opportunity to include new assets specific to their own cultural heritage.