ITEN member Martin Lamb has recently collaborated with Amey Consulting to produce a second white paper on ‘Creating Cohesive Communities across the Cardiff Capital Region’.

Setting out Amey’s ambition for creating a cohesive network of thriving Welsh communities the paper “has the vision of bringing about a region of sustainable, interconnected and decarbonised communities that are responsive to the new patterns of living, work and leisure, emerging from the Coronavirus pandemic.”

The recommendations include:

  • Creation of new markets for public transport
  • The development of independent, community hubs
  • Investment in electric vehicle charging infrastructure
  • Embedding the Circular Economy in the Cardiff Capital Region

Amey Consulting argues that success will be to effectively distribute social, economic and environmental value and unlock collaboration between private and public.

Speaking on the launch of the publication, Dr. Gerardo Puente Barragan, Head of Amey Place, Amey Consulting said: 

The opportunities to create thriving and cohesive communities in Wales are significant, but they must be deliverable. While Amey Consulting’s strong presence in Wales means it is well-placed to successfully deliver integrated programmes of social, economic, environmental and transport infrastructure improvement, it cannot do it alone. The key will be to properly engage with the myriad communities, partners and stakeholders to properly understand what is truly needed and how best to deliver it, capturing added value for communities at every stage of the process. This paper starts that conversation, and I hope it will stimulate discussion that leads to real and lasting change.

Martin Lamb, Director, Maple Consulting said:

The pandemic has changed the way people live, work and spend leisure time in the region. These changes, coupled with the climate emergency and pressing need to decarbonise, do however, offer the opportunity to do things differently. This could imply greater use of public transport and placing it at the heart of the communities it serves, where public services, community spaces, retail and leisure offerings can be co-located appropriate to individual community’s needs.

The paper was part funded by the European Regional Development Fund. It is the second to be released and follows the first ‘Creating Cohesive Communities’ white paper that aimed to understand the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on community infrastructure, focusing on the Cardiff Capital Region. For this initial report, 68 local organisations were consulted over the period of October – December 2020 to capture insights from various market sectors, focussing on infrastructure challenges in Wales and the priorities needed to aid recovery in a post-pandemic future.

See the original article from Amey here

Download the paper here