To take action on health inequalities and poor connectivity, Bannau Brycheiniog involved communities to change how they plan and develop their places.

The challenges:

• People cannot access vital services or goods without a car

• Planning development and transport negatively impacting the beautiful landscape

• Poverty and health inequalities being exacerbated by poor connectivity

• Connecting people to the natural environment on their doorsteps

To address these challenges in an integrated way, Bannau Brycheiniog based their revised Local Development Plan (LDP) around the 20-minute neighbourhood concept and involved people in the planning of their local areas through new exercises and methods.

Bannau Brycheiniog worked with voluntary organisations and businesses and considered the views of the community, particularly after the impact of COVID-19, to frame their revisedLDP around neighbourhoods where people have everything they need within 20-minutes of their home.

Ensuring people can access local services and spaces:

• supports the local economy with people spending more time in their communities,

• takes action on transport poverty and carbon emissions through reducing reliance

on cars for access to schools, healthcare, employment and more,

• improves health and well-being through increased active travel and community

connections.

In collaboration with Design Commission for Wales and Shape My Town, Bannau Brycheiniog created the Shape my Brecon Beacons tool with practical tips to help communities create Place Plans for their local areas.

Empowering communities to shape the design of the places they live in, the Place Plans also fed into the wider Local Development Plan for the park.

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Involving children in the development of Hay-on-Wye through a virtual model of the town in Minecraft, supporting the children to envision their ideas for their town through the game. Many of their ideas were considered including a new park which was incorporated into the final plan.