urbanpollinators.co.uk

Welcome to Urban Pollinators

This site exists as an archive of Urban Pollinators’ work. Julian Dobson, Urban Pollinators’ director until 2022, can now be contacted via the Centre for Regional Economic and Social Research at Sheffield Hallam University.

A risk we have to take

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Few people still seriously believe a wave of new social enterprises and co-ops will step into the many breaches left as spending cuts take effect across the public sector. But when the dust from the current round of budget-setting has settled there will be an unprecedented opportunity to consider how to achieve the best we […]

Inspiration of the week: Holy Island community land trust

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Just 150 people live on Holy Island off the coast of Northumberland but every year around half a million more arrive as tourists. Inevitably, some are so bowled over by the island’s beauty and tranquillity that they seek to make a permanent home there. The result is rocketing prices: at one point, houses were changing […]

A health service for places

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This morning we launched the latest phase of the Regeneration Academy in Bradford. It’s an important one, because this is the stage where council directors move from using external facilitators like me towards doing it themselves. So it’s crucial that there’s a shared vision about what kind of places we want and how we can […]

Priorities in numbers

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Prime minister David Cameron has been touring the English regions this week focusing on jobs and growth. In particular, he’s been promoting the £1.4bn regional growth fund, available for the next three years. We also learned this week that there would be an additional £4m to support the work of local enterprise partnerships, enabling them […]

The urgency of putting your feet up

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This week we’re preparing new material for the placemaking workshops we’re running for the Regeneration Academy at Bradford. The idea of an urban renaissance – of creating great places, or, as we prefer to say, places people love – is one that has rapidly fallen off the political agenda. But for local councils and others […]