Community land trusts mean everyone can be a winner

There’s a new restaurant in Colchester. Called ‘The Glasshouse Brasserie’, it occupies a modern, light and spacious building on the edge of Colchester’s former Roman port. This part of town is called The Hythe and has for many years been the scene of a running battle between developers, residents, landowners and the local council.

Well perhaps battle is too strong a word, but the tension and discord has been as evident as joined up regeneration has been absent. There was a brave strategy written some 12 years ago, but as with so many ambitious plans, it never quite left the drawing board.

You can understand the frustration, with nearby Ipswich docks having been transformed from dereliction to a delightful development with boutique hotel, restaurants, flats, offices and busy marina. Bristol too has seen a similar riverside renaissance, yet Colchester, just an hour by train from London has somehow so far missed out.

But all that is changing. I was at the Glasshouse with the board of a new community land trust (CLT) called Hythe Forward. This new organisation has been created to connect those frustrated by the lack of progress. It forms a new and independent forum through which deals can be brokered and development can take place.

And the more l reflect on the venue for that meeting, the more appropriate it becomes. You see a Glasshouse is where the nurseryman nurtures his new crop. It’s where vulnerable seedlings can gather strength protected from the harsh reality of the wider world. Hythe Forward is also new and benefiting from incubation.

French restaurateur Patrick was disconcerted when he discovered that, in Colchester at least, The Glasshouse is also the nickname for the local military prison. Of course he wasn’t to know and in my view it adds, rather than detracts, from his restaurant’s sense of place. But it surely also nicely illustrates the journey Hythe Forward stakeholders have taken, from feeling powerless and isolated to flourishing with a great future ahead.

So what brought about this dramatic change? Well surprisingly, it was the local council. I won’t bore you with how I first came to visit The Hythe with representatives from the council, local social landlord Colne Housing and some local residents, but it got people talking, particularly when I wrote about it.

Alistair Heron, Colne’s community development officer, and I did some research and put together a proposal. We challenged the council to find us to bring together these disparate groups, to seek a consensus of opinion and to create a new CLT to lead the regeneration of this thus far neglected part of town.

Initially not everyone saw the opportunity. Some landowners felt they had ‘seen it all before’ and that we would achieve nothing. There were and still remain, some challenges around the river, which being tidal, is for half the time little more than a muddy creek.

What was fascinating for me was the way the group we worked with evolved. Early participants were inevitably very vocal champions of a single cause. But as time went by and a coherent, credible strategy emerged, so too did the serious players. When the board was formed, we had exactly the right people in the room; people with experience and the ear of those able to make their vision a reality.

Perhaps most exciting of all is that from that group meeting in the Glasshouse, new ideas are emerging. These were not introduced by Alistair or myself, but emerged from the group we had formed.

The first chairman, a graduate of the nearby University of Essex, an ambitious  property entrepreneur and not yet 30 years old, is launching a Hythe Business Network, to connect local business people and vitally, support those soon to arrive. Other themes to emerge are modular built work/live units to incubate graduate talent, a canoeing school and green energy generated from the river itself. All are ideas that without the focal point of Hythe Forward would probably never have emerged.

For the forward thinking council, their modest investment has yielded handsome rewards. Where there was conflict, now there is a focus on considered construction. Where there is currently little new enterprise, there will be new ventures, all with the potential to create jobs and pay local taxes. They took a leap of faith and funded a brave idea. Many would see setting up a CLT as ceding control.  In fact it has delivered an enlightened partnership, focused on growth.

Patrick, with The Glasshouse Brasserie, arrived on The Hythe as a pioneer. His restaurant illustrates well what is possible. It was also a smart investment, as surely the business will grow as the area comes back to life. Done correctly, setting up a community land trust means that everyone can be a winner. Isn’t that what the future is going to be all about?