10 10 310 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/4e74302c37a39d43bb3005166dcf9a1a.pdf 0db27bcc9e9497e5747dee8c4e7da13f https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/3ce488786c9eeee1ce9600b49265af4a.pdf 76161a0dd304963e7ed104a699596066 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE - A Public Design Service? Subject The topic of the resource Report of the Public Design Group to the Minister of Housing and Construction into the provision of architectural services to the community (in response to RIBA community architects working group report proposing private firms) Description An account of the resource APUll[ EInERUI[E , • PUBLIC DESIGN GROUP, NEW ARCHI TECTURE MOVEMENT, 9 Poland Street London WI. COMMUNITY ARCH ITECiURE A PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE? Report of the Public Design Group of the New Architecture Movement to the Minister of Housing and Construction into the provision of architectural services to the community. Public Design Group New A rchitecture Movement 9 Poland Street London. W, 1. 29 September, 1978, CONTENTS: INTRODUCT ION SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE A Definition Central and Local Government Recognition . COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE - THROUGH LOCAL COUNCILS7 Resources Accountabil ity Integration Construction Tenant Participation LOCAL COUNCILS - CRITICISMS General Criticisms Criticisms by Tenants and Local Council Architects INTERIM PROPOSALS PROPOSALS OF THE RIBA COMMUNITY WORKING GROUP CONCLUSION INTRODUCTION: This report is submitted by the Publ ic Design Group of the New Architecture Movement to the Minister for Housing and Construction to assist in the investigation he is currently undertaking into the potential of various forms of Community Architecture. It is understood that the Royal Institute of British Architects is submitting its own report, prepared by its Community Architecture Working Group. The New Architecture Movement does not support the RIBA's proposals as described from time to time in the architectural press, and is therefore presenting its own arguments lest the impression be gained that the RIBA's view is accepted by the profession as a whole. The New Architecture Movement (NAM) is a substantial body of mainly salaried architects, working in both the public and private sectors. They share a consensus of views on different aspects of architecture and the profession. In the past these views have differed radically from those advanced by the RIBA. The Publ ic Design Group of NAM was delegated by the movement as a whole to undertake an enquiry into the public architectural service and to put forward proposals to a special conference in May 1978. These interim proposals, which are included in this report, and the analysis on which they were based were endorsed by the conference and the Group is currently engaged in extending their study and on promoting their views in the public sector. This report may be summarised as demonstrating that, since an architectural service cannot be considered in isolation from the provision of resources of land and finance, nor from the subsequent construction programme, and if this service is to be both freely available and accountabl~ to the majority of the public, then it l. must be a local authority service. Accepting that principle, careful consideration is given to the serious criticisms levelled at the present local counci I departments of architecture, and proposals for re-organisation are made which would enable the principle of direct accountability to be fulfi lIed. Finally, the report examines briefly the RIBA proposals for a community architecture as understood from reports in the technical press, and relates these to the current crisis in private architectural practice. Since it is understood that the Minister's terms of reference relate specifically to the ~uestion of architects' services to the community, the report has been confined as far as possible to this subject only. That is not to suggest that the New Architecture Movement bel ieves that the structure and financing of local government, its relationship to central government and the relationships of other counci I departments to the architects are unrelated or unimportant. These have not been included in the proposals because they fall outside the scope of this report. The New Architecture Movement trusts that this report will constructively contribute to the sum of material on which the Minister will formulate his decision, and we would confirm our wi llingness to participate in any further debate which the Minister may wish to pursue. 2. SUMMARY OF RECOMMENDATIONS: * THAT A COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURAL SERVICE SHOULD BE BASED ON THE PUBLIC SECTOR AND NOT ON PRIVATE PRACTICE. To achieve this, certain interim changes are proposed to present structures : .-.. ' -'.. * LOCAL AREA CONTROL OVER RESOURCES ~ * DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE AREA-BASED INSTEAD OF FUNCTION~BASED, * AREA DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE MULTIDISCIPLINARY. * JOB ARCHITECTS SHOULD REPORT DIRECTLYTQ CQMMITTEE, * ABOLISH POSTS BETWEEN GROUP LEADER AND CHIEF ARCHITECT. * ESTABLISH JOINT WORKING GROUPS WITH DLQls. COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE: A Definition: Although the term "community architecture!! has become common currency amongst at least a section of the architectural profession, five or six years ago the expression did not exist. In that short space of time it has also changed in meaning. The present concept of ,lIcommunity architecture'l embodies ideas about designing for poor cl ients. A paper on the subject presented to the Apri I 1978 RIBA Counci I Meeting stated, ....."this kind of architecture (community arch\tectllre) can only be practised with the knowledge and consent of the user. We must be moving towards an architecture for everyone, not just for thosewh.o have the money to pay for it ....• , so a national fund is needed to help the poor to aquire the skills of an architect,ll (cited in Architects Journal 19.4,78) This agreeable sentiment begs the question as to who provides the funds to buy land and pay the builder. The provision of these resources .is necessary before the skills of an architect can even become relevant. Control over land and finance is therefore the primary issue. By discarding this and other features of the community action of the 1960ls and early 1970's, the RIBA have at once depoliticised it and changed its meaning. The concept of the new "community architecture" is one in which the socially-responsible professional attends to the needs of the individual poor, rather in the way that a doctor helps a sick patient. Because of this the RIBA sti 11 find themselves in their perennial difficulty of locating cl ients: liThe emergence of this new client (the poor) is causing some architectural and some non-architectural teething troubles. The first is that of making contact with the new client and informing him of what the profession can offer." (RIBA CAWG Report - cited in Building Design 13.1.78) 4. The Ilcommunity architecture" of the past was quite different. It, and the community action from which it was generated are by now well documented. Discontent over unacceptable environmental and social conditions fol lowing ten years of slum clearance and large scale urban redevelopment were expressed in various forms of direct action, as organisations of tenants and residents demanded a say in the way their surroundings were designed and managed. The students and young salaried architects who were involved in this process w.orked with local residents in the preparatlon and presentation of alternative schemes for their own locality. This became known as IIcommunity architecture". It embodied several ideas * Local control by local people over their own environment. This entai led control over the way resources were al located. * Small scale activity based on a weI I defIned locality. * Architects working directly with and accountable to users, and more precisely to organisations of working class tenants and residents in urban areas. * A collective rather than an individual professional relationship. * It was consequently a pol itical as distinct from a professional matter and it involved at least the potential of conflict with the existing authority i ,e. with the establ ished patrons of architecture. 5. Community architecture so defined was for the architect a part~time, unpaid and temporary assignment. In many cases it resulted in the architect who worked with the tenants being in direct opposition to local authority architects, ~lthough the tenants themselves were the intended beneficiaries of the latter's proposals. Central and Local Government Recognition; Community architecture thus stemmed from a public need to prevent the worsi excesses of urban renewal and in so doing to control the general form of building in the areas in which people 1ived ~nd worked. Eventually the combined force of ten~nts dem~nds together with increasing official concern over the new estates rel~ting largely to vandal ism, lead to changes in government pol icy. The new policies took two main forms changes in built form, and changes in tenant involvement. Changes in Built Form:. Two years after is assumed office the 1964 Labour Government commissioned the Deeplish Study into the possibi litiesof rehabilitation instead of the clearance and high density urban redevelopment approach, established by the previous Conservative administration, and encouraged by means of subsidies. Under subsequent Labour governments the housing policy gradually changed from high rlsel high density to low rise/high density and finally to the current preoccupation with low rise/medium density new build linked to rehabil itation of existing stock. The built form of council housing was consequently transformed In the space of a few years in response to reactions to the problems caused by previous pol icies. These changes, which were intended to take account of the users and residents! wishes were directed by ministerial speeches and government reports and circulars; They were enforced by alterations to the subsidies. 6. The new form of housing however, reflected only the governinents technical solutions to the problems experienced in the past. It answered some of the most vigorous complaints and rectified some of the most obvious mistakes. But tenants' and residentsl views were as yet voiced through sample surveys. That is to say. the potential of a further mls~match between government policies and users~ needs remained. Changes in Tenant Involvement: The seco~d ~harig~tackled this weakness and it is more far reaching in that it sought to extend the democratic process. The 1974 Labour government began to look for ways In which tenants could have more say in the design Clnd mCinagernent of their estates , The government Working Party into Housing Co~operCltlves had included in its terms of reference the following: "(The Working Party is) to report to the Minister,." on ways in which local authority and housing associCjtion tenants. can be enabled by co-operative management schemes to participate collectively in decisions which Clffect them II t,~ and II The need for a degree of local control WCjS thus officiCilly acknowledged. A growing number of local authorities h~ve recognised that this process should be extended. Tenants in these authorities have won the right of veto over council proposals affecting their area;.their representatives have been co-opted with voting powers on to Council Committees; and the tenants co-operativ~ brief the counci I architects on the design of their new estates. The idea of local control over resources hCls therefore begun as a 10gicCjl progression taken in the light of past experience, The recipients of government policy are beginning to have a SCly in how their part of the Where conditions are not 5uitCible for co~operCitivesl tenants should nevertheless be Involved through consultation and participation in the running of their homes 'I" lit,1\ (DOE Circular 8/76) 7. social wage is allotated. It is the contention of this report that these policies are the basis of the way ahead. An accountable and freely avai lable publ ic design service cannot come in the long term from an arthitectural fund for ',.'the poor" serviced by private practitioners on an individual basis. It can only come through an extension of collective local control over resources which are channel led through local government and serviced by local authority architects and building workers . The situation- Is therefore envisaged where representat ives of tenants and ~esidents, together with local counciJlors, and trade unionists control the various components involved in producing the built environment in their area. Initiatives such as ASSIST~( and others have already demonstrated this potential for new f6rms of practice and working relationships. They differ markedly from the current RIBA proposals. But merely to advocate their expansion is to propose a selective programme. Their valuable contribution and conclusions are best general ised and taken forward in a more radical way, It is suggested here that the time has come for their ideas to be implemented within the existing structure of publicly financed design ~ can the experience of a previous community architecture be ext~nded. To suggest otherwise is to avoid the central issue at stake in developing greater community control over services which people aIready pay for. .~ ASSIST Tenant Involvement Project in Glasgow Initiated by University of Strathclyde. Only in thi sway 8. COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE - THROUGH THE LOCAL COUNCILS? The fullest possible democratisation of architectural practice, the development of "community architecture", is an important component of any attempt to give people more control over the environment in which they 1ive. The RIBA bel ieve, and their reasons will be examined later, that small private practices, given public subsidy, are the best way to promote this idea~-' Contrary to this it is argued here that a real publ ic design service should be developed through a restructuring and democratisation of the many local councils and publ ic architects departments already in existence throughout the country. Just as community architecture appeared in the second half of the 20th Century because it was necessary, local government emerged in the early 19th Century only because it was socially and economically necessary for the maintenance and continuation of the newly industrialising society. Similarly the various local government services were added only when society had no other acceptable choice, e.g. Council housing legislation in 1919 was passed becasue 70 years 6f private philanthropic and other ad hoc provision had failed to alleviate the housing problem. On the other hand it is only through the extension of public control that the vast majority of people are able to secure the resources necessary for their health education and housing. Local authority departments of architecture nQw emplqy nearly one third of all registered architects compared to less th.an 20?6 in 1952. Their emergence followed closely after legislation which made housing \., . and schools a statutory local govern~~nt responsibility, While loci31 government architects carry out a variety of work their growth and continued existence is almost wholly dependent on the provision of schools and housing, These two (>·:counted for 8 times th.e value of all other council building ,work in 1976, Thus local authority architects form the "in""'houseH design teams which local government required in its provision of bui ldings for various social services. Many detractors argue that local government provision as a whole, including architects departments, for various reasons will qlwqys be insensitive to public demands and needs. It is argued here thqt this need not be the case. If lessons are learne-d from the recent past and acted upon, the local autho~ity architectural service can become fully responsive to pub1 ic requirements. What has to be acknowledged is that this wi 11cq11 for rqdjcql qnd imaginative new departures and an effort of political will, The arguments for a "community architecture!! through the locql authorities may be summarised ~s fol lows: Resources: It has already been qrgued thqt access to qnd control over resources is central to the development of "community architecture", Local counci 1s are in a position to provide all the necessary resources - land, finance, architectural services and in many cases, with direct labour, bui 1ding services - through their existing, locally based structures. In addition, it is only when these resources are pub1 ic1y owned that their use can be controlled by perip~e through their elected represehtatives. Privately owned land and fina~ce, to which only a minority have access are used simply in the most profitable way for shareholders, regardless of social need. Accountability: Although the internal arrangements of local authorities may need some rigorous re-appra i sa 1, the i r depa rtments are, at least in theory, accountable at an overall pol icy level to the locally elected council . Their architects departments, operating as a service and not for private gain, are already indirectly accountable to the local community, and can become directly accountable. 10. Integration: Community involvement and control relates to more than housing. Social and welfare provision, transportation, industry the environment and other factors also affect the life of the community. A participatory and democratic local authority is the only existing agency able to co-ordinat~ and integrate all these services both within and between localities. Construction: The concept Ilcommunity architecture" suggests a new and dynamic relationship between architects and the locai~eople. This co-operation should be extended into the construction process itself, into the relationship between designers and building workers. - Labour's document "Building Britain's Futurell recognises the mistrust and misunderstanding that at present divides these two groups. It also recognises the value of Direct Works departments and cal Is for their expansion. Through the area-based local authority design and construction teams envisaged by this report, both these objectives could be met, to the advantage of all parties involved architects, building workers and local people, Tenant Participation: The Government has already committed Itself to encouraging the development of tenant Participation and control in housing management, but this type of involvement can only be a part of "enabling tenants to exercise real control over their living conditions" (D.C.E. Circular 8/76 "Housing Co-operatives"). There is obviously an accompanying need for tenants, collectively and individually, .to control provision and design of both rehabilitation and new build housing. With its already substantial involvement in this sector and its abi 1ity to bring together tenants, prospective tenants, resources, and designs and construction workers, the local authority has a central role to play in developing tenant par~icipation at all levels of housing provision. For these reasons it is argued in this report that local counci Is at the lowest tier of local government operate a service which is not motivated primarily by the concern with profitabIlity which is characteristic of the private sector nor with the paternal ism of charitable provision. Consequently, they form the most suitable basis for the development of a democratic and accountable "community architecture". 11. LOCAL COUNCILS - CRITICISMS: In the following section, the main criticisms of local authority departments of architecture wil I be examined briefly and changes proposed. Itis outside the scope of this report to suggest other radical changes to the structure _?f local government or to other counci I departments. However, as Malpass (2) for example pointed out, it is clear that Client as well as Town planning and - Valuation departments form pol icies which already determine land use and, to a large ext~~t, the overal I form of development, before the project architect even becomes involved, Nevertheless, it is bel ieved that the proposals contained here not only are substantial improvements in themselves but also incorporate the potential for future change in the same direction, That is, these are not seen as once and for all prescriptions, but as part of a continuing process of democratisation of local government, General Criticisms: Despite the fact that local authority architects and local government in general provide a socially useful service both are the subject of much criticism. Nor is the problem of explaining thi s persistent viI ification primeri Iy one of pointing to possible causes, Anyone aquainted with either the architectural profession or with tenants organisations could readi ly make suggestions. It appears that these general criticisms are based on two separate arguments. Firstly, because local authority practice is a public and non-profit-making institution it will be regarded in society generally, including within the architectural profession as a threat to the prevailing ideology of individual ism and the market place. 12. The denigration of the local authority architect began with the emergence of modern publ ic practice in the late 19th Century. As Summerson has noted, IIAII the glory and much of the profit was associated with 11 By the early 1920lS ideas which have continued to the present time were firm~y establ ished. "Employment in the staff of a local authority was sought on Iy by those to whom the pay enve ]'ope was a very much more urgent consideration than opportunities 1t The many examples of local authority architecture praised by the publ ic and the profession alike have been, and are still ignored when the image of public practice is being discussed, That Is~ ideas ab6ut public practice are generalised from the worst examples, For private practice the opposite appears to be the case, so that in successive surveys amongst architectural students for example, a large majority consistently put private practice as their first choice of work place. At the same time however, as local authorities themselves became increasingly important as patrons of architecture, the existence of in-house local authority architects wi!] certainly pose an economic threat to private practice. Thus, it may be thought not surprising that a profession which is dominated by the ethos of private practice but,which is dependent on the pub11c sector for work, rather than resolve the contradiction of its own position wi II conduct a continuous campaign of vi I ification against local authority departments of architecture , the private practitioners. (J. Summerson - liThe London Building \~orld of the 18601sll) for the creation of architecture. ( J . Summerson) ••• 13. Criticisms by Tenants and Local Authority Architetts: There is also another and separate concern over local authority departments of architecture. It is to be found amongst the consumers of the service and amongst local authority architects themselves. The tenants' problems have been documented and are still documented in magazines such asllCommunlty Acti.on~'. _Malp_~ss_ (2) has written one of the few serious studies of local authority architects and their problems. Both sources describeauthqrltarlan and hierarchial departments, : insensitive to the needs of user and architect alike. Job architects labouring under many external and internal constraints and the consumers of their work never meet because of the ~boundaries~ which haVe grown up in the local government institution. It is conventional to talk tif local government problems in terms of hierarchies, but these are essentially abstracted from other connections and are thus not very helpful. It Is more con~enient to think of the problem existing between architect and user as one of ~boundaries~~ The boundaries themselves exist because of the origins and social role of local government. Two of these boundaries which insulate producer from consumer are function-based teams and office hierarchies, Tenants and residents in the past have shown that they are able to formulate and achieve their own demands. Local authority architects have not met them halfway. Because of this the proposals contained here will be taken from the point of view of amending structures to increase the accountabil ity of the architect to the user while at the same time increasing democracy within the department. 14 . . INTERIM PROPOSALS: 1. LOCAL AREA CONTROL OVER RESOURCES · Since control over design cannot be separated from control over the resources of land and finance, changes are required in the formal council structure to enable control to be exercised at ..---. .. community level. Although counicllors are elected on an area basis they serve on function-based committees (housing, education) which have control over the expenditure of money on theprovision.of services across the whole local authority area. Real local needs tend to be subordinated to an assumed general interest. The role of a councillor as a committee member therefore may be {n conflict with his or her role asa representative of a local interest, In order that local area interests are safeguarded, it is suggested that a further tier be added below the main functional committees (c.f. neighbourhood counci Is). These would be area committees consisting of representatives of local tenants and residents organisations, local counci llors and trade unionfsts. The size of the area would obviously be a matter for discussion. These committees should deal with all council matters relating to their area and would consequently relate to several or all of the main function-based committees. They should have powers of recommendation and of veto in their relationship to the main committees. They should brief architects and have power of approval over designs and standards. 2. DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE AREA-BASED INSTEAD OF FUNCTION-BASED So that they can relate to local area committees and the requirements of local people. The present arrangement of function-based architectural teams servicing function-based client committees and depdrtments has two major disadvantages. Firstly, in providing a service 0ithin this structure, architects are fsolated from the people who will use their bui ldings. Architects work on a Borough wide basis, and people1s needs and wishes, insofar as they are tak~n 15. into account at all, are averaged out and presen~ed to the architect in briefing guides as criteria to be designed for in much the same way as are site constraints. The total constitutes a design problem and the concept of the a-pol itical ofHcer paid to solve technical problems is thus reinforced. Similarly the professional ideology of individual architects expressing themselves in their designs is sustained. Secondly,this system creates a "closed circuit"· method of .liaison. For the architect: architect-client department~ cl ient committee. It i~ i I logical as well as difficult to break this circle to relate to local residents or even local councillors. The publ ic also find this organisational boundary virtually impregnable, They are vulnerable to official action yet the boundary renders the officers immune to the consequence of that action. It should be noted thClt the term lIarea based team" as distinct from tlfunct ion based team" does not nece.ssa.ri Iy meqn thClt the team is located in an area, It merely means that a team is responsible for the work in Cln area. As such, it would offer the architects a variety of types of project. It would also enable them to initiate action in their area instead of being the recipient of decisions by others. 3. AREA DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE MULTI-DISCIPLINARY AND SHOULD HAVE AROUND TWELVE MEMBERS AS A SUGGESTED OPTIMUM The term multi-disciplinary would in the local authority context include planners and valuers as weI I as the more usual design team members such as quantity surveyors and engineers. 4. JOB ARCHITECTS (and other team members) SHOULD REPORT DIRECTLY TO COMMITTEE Each job architect and teClm member should be responsible directly to the committee for the work he or she carries out. In this way 16. not only will committee members relate to the person actually producing the work, but job architects wi 11 be aware that they work in a pol itical forum as well as a technical one, 5. ABOLISH POSTS BETWEEN GROUP LEADER AND CHIEF ARCHITECT Group leaders should become responsible directly to the are~ committee and thus to the Council for the collective work of the group, The chief architect would then perform a co~ordinating role amongst the groups, similar to the role performed by the elected leader of the council vis-~~vis committees.Occup~nts of redundant posts to be found a more useful role in the new structure. It is envisaged that in the future group leqders should be subject to election by their group and that the chief architect sh.ould be elected from amongst group le~ders, with periodic change built In. It should be noted that the present vertical structuring of the architects departments stemmed from the l~te 19th Century private practice model. That is, from a form of practice comprised. of one principal and a small number of apprentices, The largest practices of that time had one partner and around 25 apprentices. As private practices grew so did the number of partners, each being equally responsible under Partnership Law. ~ common ratio of partner to staff is 1:15}, In publ ic practice the concept of one chief remained so that when the chief architect became responsible to the council for the actions of more than 100 staff, intermediate grades were introduced whose sole function was to control the job architect, Theirs is a non-design function and thei r status is dependent on increasing the proportion of procedural and managerial matters under their control, They form an effective boundary between job architect and chief architect, let alone between job architect and councillor or job architect and user. 17. 6 . EST ABLISH JOINT WORKING GROUPS WITH DLOS To consider how to achieve-better designed, constructed and maintained buildings. In the longer term it is envisaged that separate professional teams should disappear in favour of design and build teams within the service of the local authority rather than within the building contractors' organisation. Summary; It is clear that many if not all, of these proposals could be put into effect_ fairly readily, It may be noted that in at least two London Boroughs, proposals similar to these are being actively discussed as departments of architecture are re-organised. These proposals are seen as p~rt of a continuing process of democratisation of local government, without which a lasting community architecture is not possible. They are not seen as a final solution but are offered as practical proposals appl icable at this stage. The next stage in the development of these ideas is to widen this discussion to include representatives of tenants, local councils, central government and NALGO and other pub] ic sector unions, In advocating these proposals it is recognised that there are other relevant questions which should be considered but which are outside the scope of this report. e,g. * Devolution of power from central to local government, particularly in relation to the control over building finance at present exercised by central government departments. * The relationships between architects and other council departments. 18. * How the RI BA form of building contract dictates the relationship between architect and building worker by separating design and construction, how this is unnecessary in the public sector, and how a new arrangement could be evolved to faci litate the formation of local authority design and bui ld teams. * The role played by architectural education, including further discussion of the labour Party proposals for overcoming the present sectarian and private practice bias. (3). 19. THE PROPOSALS OF THE RIBA COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE WORKING GROUP: It is significant that the RIBA's proposals for "community architecture" have developed now, when architecture, especially in the private sector, faces an unprecedented crisis. Although there are supporters of CAWG who are genuinely seeking new ways of relating to the community, hard economic logic and self-preservation rather than a new humanitarianism appear to lurk behind the present profess(onal-vogue for "community architecture". Figure 1. shows the serious position faced by private architectural practice. This declining workload is largely a result of economic recession in the economy as a whole. The construction industry, as usual, is affected particularly badly. However, this crisis has been compounded by structural changes in the construction in~ustry which threaten the position of the architect over and above the results of thegeneral recession. The RIBA acknowledge this; •• community architecture is not a passing trend. Economic and social pressures wi II ensure that for many architects, the nature of the job will change .....11 (cited in Architects Journal 19.4.78) The most important of these changes is the increasing division of labour, whereby special ists are taking over more and more of- the traditional functions of the architect, and the growth of the package deal and design and build which largely by-pass the architect altogether. The effect of the recession and structural change is made more difficult for the private architect by a fal ling amount of work commissioned from private practice by the public sector. (See Figure 2.). The RIBA are naturally anxious to find areas in which private practice can continue to function, both to help to ride out what after a11, may only be a relatively short-term crisis in the industry as a whole. They also need to adapt to the longer-term structural changes, Figure 3., which shows both the state of the traditional areas of private practice involvement and the comparitively healthy state of repairs and maintenance gives a clear indication of why private practice needs to move into small scale rehabi litation and renovation work. 20. ......... VI Cl) U " D- o r--... 0'\ +J ro c: 0 . E t...,) FIGURE 1. 800 700 600 500 400 300 200 lOa ~---+---4--~--~~~~--+---+---+-~~---r---+--~--~--~~~ 1963 64 65 66, 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 78 Source: The Monopol ies Commission Report and RIBA. NEW COMMISSIONS FOR PRIVATE ARCHITECTS • 45 40 . 35 30 . 25 20 10 Percentage 50 FIGURE 2. 65 66 67 70 71 72 7374 75 76 77 78 Sources: Monopolies Commission Report, A.J. and National Board for Prices and Incomes. PROPORTION OF NEW BUILDING WORK FOR PUBLIC AUTHORITIES CERTIFIED BY PRIVATE PRACTICE. FIGURE 3. ~ource: A . J . 2 8 . 6 , 7 8 1800· . ISOO 1400 .1200 1000 .... '" repairs and lIlai:ltel\.lJ>Ce " ' .I 'j; ... " .;- .. .. ."....-"\.......... ---- \ .'. priYlte industrial "" , , '.. ", ' ....: I>'ivat~ housing .:. ...." ... .... .... " • ,'-'-'- r.,._.... , ......... '. .'...., .. ',, o .' ,;' "., '."" '-'_'_' ~600 - c: ~. ... ' . ----'" ?"".- " 400-: -----r---···~··-·~--·-·i~~i 1968 69 io il 72 73 74 75 i6 n 78 79 1980 public non · housin, ! ' , .... , - ....:-7 ~ ----!-i----~'---;-·--:--~ actual~ · .. .....forecast S I BRITISH CONSTRUCTION OUTPUT, ACTUAL AND FORECAST BY SECTOR. I • ,. The problem they now face is to persuade a justifiably sceptical public, outlook and allegiances. So the new, democratic, humane and caring "community architect" is born . The RIBA's major proposal is for a community aid fund to be established, with finance from the Government, to enable the setting up of small, area-based architectural advice centres. They see these operating alongside and in a similar way to legal advice centres and, more interestingly, doctors ' surgeries. This latter parallel is important as the assumptions underlying it reflect how 1ittle the attitude of the profession has changed. The medical profession is not renowned for its openess. Certainly, a more aware publ ic would undermine the professional role of the doctor. Can the public expect qnything different from architects, or will mystification continue for the sake of the architect's social and economic standing, "Community qrchitectllrel' in the past was a dynamic relationship of co~operation, as equals, between architects and local people. The Community Architecture Working Group's proposals seem to contain a paternql ism and protection of professional interests inimical to this open and active relationship. Notwithstanding these professional and paternalistic qssumptions which seem likely to characterise any development of "community architecture" as envisaged by CAWG, there is a disturbing narrowness in the actual nature of the proposals which tends to 1imit any advantages they might otherwise contain. Firstly, they do not address themselves to the problem of the construction industry and the relationship between design and construction. Within their proposals the mistrust between the two sides will remain. The RIBA's response to this qllestion has been to criticise the Labour Party's proposals and to re-assert the professionql independence of the architect from the builder. Furthermore the proposals refer only to housing. There appears to be 1ittle attempt to see how this wi 11 relate to all the other social I pol itical and economic factors which go to make up the environment, and how these can be democratically integrated at the level of the community. in the concrete jungle and high-rise given the role of the ~rchitect boom of the '60's and early '70's, that they have really changed their 21. IICommunity architecture·· should not only involve democratic and co-operative relationships between architects, local people and building workers, but should also promote internal office democracy for the architects themselves. In private practice there is a growing awareness of the different interests of the salaried architects who produce the work and the partners who own the practice. We await expectantly to hear how the RIBA, dominated as it is by the owners in private practice, proposes to solve this internal confl ict in the new community style, private offices. • CONCLUSION: While the undoubted sincerity of many of the people involved in the Community Architecture \oJorking Group is beyond question, their overal I approach seems to contain more dedication to self-preservation in a period of crisis for the architectural profession than it does to the needs of the community. There is, however, a need to develop ··community architecture'· and democratic accountabi I ity. It has been suggested in this report that this is most Iikely to be achieved through Local Councils, The way forward should be seen not through a narrow professional self-defence but through a positive liaison between users, producers and designers arising from a development of the potential for greater democratic involvement and accountabi I ity within the existing local government structure. 22. oJ " Select Bibl iography: Some of the issues raised in this Brief Report are dealt with in more detaiIin : 1. NAN PDS Group papers on * The Origins, Evolution and Structure of Local Authority Departments of A rchitecture. ,', HoLising A ssociations - A Democratic A lternative, Both in "public Design Service Conference Proceedings May 197811, Available from NAM, 9 Poland Street, W.l Price £1.75.inc1.p&p. * NAM A National Design Service. Papers 2 &3 1976 Price 75p. inc!. p & p. P. Malpass - "Architects, Professional ism and Local Authority Housing", N.A. Thesis - Newcastle University, 1973. 2. 3. Labour Party - 'IBuilding Britain's Future - Labour1s Policy on Construction " . (35p. from Smith Square), Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray with PDS Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray & John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 29 Sept 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/eb93c9c1ed32aaba0ebf0703f5594a6f.pdf 5016b1dcf9ef822758e2c73eb594c293 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Letter to Reg Freeson MP Subject The topic of the resource Letter submitting 'COMMUNITY ARCHITECTURE A Public Design Service?' to Minister Description An account of the resource Dear Sir, Yours faithfully, \ Hane : John Murray for Public Design Group New Architecture Movement. NEW ARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT 9, POLAND St,LONDON. W1V3DG. Telephone: (Work) 01-888.1212 The Right Honourable Reg. Freeson M.P. Minister of Housing and Construction Department of the Environment 2 Marsham Street LONDON. SWIP 3EB. 29th September, 1978. Re: Community Architecture Following reports in the Technical Press that you are inviting proposals from the architectural profession on the future potential of community architecture, we now submit for your consideration, two copies of our report entitled ''Community Architecture - A Public Design Service?". We trust that this report will constructively contribute to the material on which you will make your decision, and we confirm our willingness to participate in any further debate which you may wish to pursue. MINISTER FOR HOUSING AND CONSTRUCTION Dee M. Movay Mr John Murray New Architecture Movement 9 Poland Street LONDON WiV 3DG 5 October 1978 Mr Freeson has asked me to thank you for your letter of 29th September enclosing two copies of the report entitled "Community Architecture - A Public Design Service" which he will read with interest. DEPAORFTHEMENEVIRNONTMENT 2 MARSHAM STREET LONDON SW1P 3EB 01-212 7601 MRS S. DUNCAN Assistant Private Secretary Yous aivec—ey 3.Ounce. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray for PDS Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 29/09/1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/fba19fa85d319dc1a0311176227874d9.pdf e294b5522e1bc2916e83d95982bafe97 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Future Programme Subject The topic of the resource Syllabus of future work (1 page) Description An account of the resource Future Programme RESEARCH: al x al * sk x 3. QUALITY ate nx 5. A THEORY OF PUBLIC DESIGN PDS Group May 1978 % Our future programme has four parts which consist of, work at a local level, work at a policy and educational level with relevant bodies, work at a comparative level with similar groups to N.A.M. - P.D.S., and a research component which will feed into the other three. After launching the N.A.M. --P.D.S. Group, it was soon apparent that there has been little discussion about local authority architects or their role in the economies of local areas. While the Interim Proposals and collective analysis developed in these papers provide the basis for new initiatives, further studies will be key to their development. The specific possibilities listed below will form the basis of an immediate work programme. It is proposed that an extended P.D.S. Group composed of a number of smaller teams will undertake individual parts of the work. Sources and methods will emphasise collecting and contributing case studies linked by a developed theoretical framework. Publicity, including talks; e.g. to schools of architecture, will be a growing feature. 1. DESIGN TEAMS AND DEMOCRATIC STRUCTURES Test Interim Proposal for area-based teams against capital programme and wards in a number of local authorities. Case studies of office hierarchies and office democracy. Examples from other countries e.g. Bologna. Relationship of job architects to committee structures and departmental structure of council as a whole. Case studies of job architects working directly to users. 2. THE FINANCIAL BASIS OF PUBLIC DESIGN Control of resources by central government - finance, standards, etc. Control of local councils; case studies from overseas. * Examples of how L.A. architects mediate/oppose financial constraints which lower standards. Effective tactics for raising quality - by individual ,unions,departments. 4, HISTORICAL ROOTS - AND POLITICAL STRUCTURES History of selected departments; their formation and growth. Impetus behind the radical movement in the 1930's, ABT/Unions. Links with local political structures. Potential of the lowest tier of local government for greater accountability. Elaboration of a theoretical framework in which the relationship of public and private practice and of the profession, can be located. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource PDS Group Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/c0d7439a4065b3b8c678b27cca345642.pdf 2fd047e20c83401dd9e59cf0de86b11c Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Attendance List PDS Conference Subject The topic of the resource 34 Names and addresses of attendees at PDS Conference in Birmingham Description An account of the resource Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 06 May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/f16c9b8d7bf64902e16b21b4f20a74cc.pdf 0859251e4551007953602e8a31916caa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Housing Assoc.s & LA's Subject The topic of the resource Housing Associations - A Democratic Alternative to L.A.'s ?' (5pp) Description An account of the resource BOUS UNG ASSOC IAT POR S AND LOCAE AUR Lr eS DRAFT MAY 1978 3agetantoSaeaOe Ei Series nes ses Perea Te HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS: A DEMOCRATIC ALTERNATIVE TO THE LOCAL AUTHORITY ? Radical and progressive architects have for some time now been argueing for genuine participation of user groups in the design process; that the problems in modern architecture arise from the system of patronage and control in both design and construction, and not from some illusory "crisis of style’. We believe that these problems can best be resolved by the reform and democratisation of local authority departments, since it is only through the local authority and its, albeit limited, democratic functioning that working people have access to land and resources. In recent years there have emerged a.number of alternativest.o local authorities which, it is claimed, are better suited to carry out this transformation than a heavily bureaucratised local authority structure. In housing, the most directly experienced and important area of architectural provision, housing associations form the most significant alternative; so this paper will attempt to show, by looking at their development, structure, financing and projected future role, why housing associations can only play a very peripheral part in bringing about the changes we are advocating. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: The origins of the present day housing association lie in the last century with the charitable trusts, carrying such well known names as Peabody, Rowntree and Guinness, and the 5% philanthropy practiced by some of the more humane, if paternalistic, among the ruling class. The legacy of charity and paternalism established by these forerunners of the modern ‘voluntary’ housing movement still bears heavily on its structure and management. Until the first world war these organisations offered working people virtually their only alternative to the ravages and inhumanity of the private landlord; but from the 1920's they have worked against the changing background of increased local authority provision, a declining private rented sector and, from the '50's, rapidly expanding owner occupation, Most of these trusts continue to function today in one form or another, and since 1945 a number of new charitable trusts have been established. Other types of association in operation prior to 1960 include Government sponsored associations in Scotland and the North-East set up in the late 1930's, and various industrial associations initiated by business concerns primarily to provide accommodation for their own employees. 1961 saw the establishment of cost-—rent housing societies financed by central government, and this scheme was expanded in 1964 when a new body, the Housing Corporation, was - set up to supervise and direct loans. Many of these projects were beset by financial problems, so the Housing Corporation introduced an option mortgage scheme and many cost—rent societies transformed themselves into co—ownership associations. Despite these varied forms of activity, the contribution made by the voluntary housing movement to the country's housing was minimal, such that in 1972 it owned only 1.5% of the housing stock and contributed only 301% of new permanent dwellings. However, changes were about to occur that would make its role far more significant. PRESENT STRUCTURE: The system of finance to housing associations was drastically altered in 1974 with the introduction of the Housing Association Grant. This provided subsidies to housing associations either through the Housing Corporation or the relevent local authority in the form of a capital grant, in principle equal to the net cost of the project, to enable housing associations to run at neither loss nor profit. At present this entails a subsidy of about 75% of a schemes capital cost, available in a lump sum; this compares more than favourably with subsidies to local authorities who receive 60% of loan charges spread over 60 years. This favourable subsidy system has led to a dramatic increase in housing association work such that in 1976 they contributed 27,561 new housing starts ( 10% of the total ) and gained 13,863 improvement approvals ( 11% of the total ). Loans from the Housing Corporation have risen from £38.3 million in 1973/4 to a projected £300 million in 1977, when housing associations were responsible for providing about 100 homes a day. They continue to cater primarily for special minority groups, with significantly more than half their provision in 1976/7 going to the elderly or handicapped. At the end of 1975 there were about 3,500 associations either registered or intending to register with the Housing Corporation; whether this number has grown in order to meet the increased operations is dubious since the tendency is towards more centralisation rather than proliferation. PUTURE ROLE: The future of housing associations under the present government seems quite secure; the Labour Party made this clear in their 1977 Green Paper on housing: "The Government intend to continue their support for registered housing associations. Housing Associationsi,n cooperation with local authorities, can offer an important element of choice in socially owned rented housingeee’. The Conservatives, too, are likely to continue support for housing associations, although under their current far right leadership, associations are likely to become increasingly dependant on private rather than public funding, thus reducing the potential for democratic accountability. Like the Labour Party, the Conservatives also Mal stress the importance of the ‘element of choice!’ in housing provision; what-ws. TL de do they mean by this ? i private rented sector has been declining since the first world oteyutie war; by 1976 it was responsible for only 14.4% of the housing stock, by 1986 it is estimated that it will have declined to 8.3%. While promoting the ideal of home ownership, realists in both parties are aware that it is unlikely to rise significantly beyond its present level of about 50%; housing associations can potentially fill the gap left by the declining private rented sector and thus prevent the unsavoury prospect, for the right, of municipal housing rising to nearly 50% of the total housing stock, The earlier mentioned economic discrimination in favour of housing associations further enhances this ideological role by providing semi-private housing which can be favourably compared with public housing; we can see parallels of this in both medicine and education. DEMOCRATIC POTENTIAL: Given the history, structure and present role of housing associations, what part can they play in the extension of tenant control over the design process that we are advocating ? The management of housing associations remains essentially paternalistic, largely because of their historical development and charitable status. There are a number of commendable exceptions which are to be welcomed both as examples to other housing associations and local authorities of what can be achieved in conditions of democratic participation, and in giving more concrete form to the growing demands of tenants groups, but the majority retain the attitudes of their forerunners. In rehabilitation schemes the problems are often increased by the dispersed nature of the development; : rv, such that in London, only one in ten housing association projects have any kind of tenants association; hardly the basis for thriving tenants participation. In the field of tenant control over design the outlook is even gloomier and not surprisingly so. Many housing associations have been initiated by professionals to channel work and public funds through their own practices, estate agents, solicitors, architects etc., they are unlikely to welcome the longer and more complicated process of user participation in the project. It is true that legislation is being prepared to control this practice, but just how effective it will be remains to be seen. Furthermore since housing associations are only accountable to themselves except in what they are not allowed to do, and often here they are more accountable to central government than they are to local elected bodies, they are sometimes able to thwart and obstruct local authority plans. This is the current structure of the vast majority of housing associations, and obviously we should be doing our best to encourage democratic developments within them, but what is the potential for using existing legislation to establish new and and democratically accountable associations ? There seems to be little hope in this direction since the voluntary housing movement is at present undergoing further centralisation, making the possibility of setting up new associations, sensitive to tenant involvement, still more remote. In the North-East for example, two thirds of new build approvals in 1977/8 went to only four associations, and this is in line with the policy of the Housing Corporation, which is now committed to oppose "proliferation, competition and wasted effort." The virtues of small scale operation, flexibility and compassion by which housing associations are supposedly characterised have apparently been largely lost to the forces of the market and financial self-interest. DESIGN AND CONSTRUCTION: The Public Design Service group of N.AM. conceives of area based design and construction teams with architects working closely mot only with the immediate users and broader local community, but also with construction workers. Housing associations, however, offer little or no possibility of this collaboration between architect and builder; by being forced onto the private market of production for profit, they can only maintain existing hierarchical relationships. Within local authorities, however, de~casualised direct labour departments where construction is for use and not for financial gain, form the potential basis for a fully integrated process of design and construction. In this important area housing associations offer no real alternative to a democratised local authority. CONCLUSION: I have attempted ,to show that housing associations do not have the potential, on a large scale, to produce the type of architectural practice which we argue for in the Public Design Service group of NeAM. Furthermore that the money made available to housing associations from the public purse and then channelled through various organisations for private profit does not make for efficient and democratic housing provision. This is not to detract from existing housing associations which are practicing democratic participation, nor to neglect the attempt to change the management structure of the more conventional associations; these can provide valuable examples of the potential of meaningful participation and popular control in housing. Housing associations have been praised for their ability to provide flexibility and choice; we must show that the local authorities, despite the rigidity, uniformity and bureaucracy which characterise their present structures, are subject to change through mass pressure and are potentially capable of providing more meaningful flexibility and choice by giving working people real democratic control over their environment. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unsigned Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/132f6f9cf3a78251cf5731d7b1c68701.pdf 0d2c242ba52b1cd2f2c423d94f31d4e8 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design - A New Role Subject The topic of the resource Towards a New Public Architecture', Essay by A Purser (9 pp) Description An account of the resource PUBEIt 2pES(oN New he DRAFT MAY 1978 PUBLIC DESIGN GROUP TOWARDS A NEW PUBLIC ARCHITECTURE Introduction This paper represents the conclusions reached by the PDG in its deliberations since its formation at the NAM Congress in Hull on 26th November 1977. The views expressed are either a unanimous or majority view of the :;roup as expressed by the author. The purpose of this essay is to tie together the main points of the other papers, add proposals and spirit and reach a workable path along which to move forward. The present political situation high-lights the difficulties of our task. The public's view of the value of its public servants is very low. Against such a background we must not only develop our beliefs and reasons for public design but we must get these views accepted at large, as it is only with community support that our ideals can be achieved. To gain grass roots support we will have to participate in the community: in tenants' groups, community projects, local politics, trade union branches, Trades Councils and other bodies based in the community. If we believe in the principle of public service, whether from a humanitarian, political or other viewpoint, we must convince the community that we really mean to improve the quality and content of our work together with its effects. The role of the professional in any alternative programme must include an understanding of the educational element. For too Long the myths and obstacles created by traditional professionalism have led to elitist viewpoints or at best paternalistic attitudes. These myths and barriers must be broken down. The interface of architect and public is a problem we need to study carefully, very carefully. ‘Desiring direct client contact may turn out to be unpleasant in actuality. Faced with a raging council tenant swearing about bloady council officials, are we going to blame the tenant for not understanding our problems, or are we going to sympathise with him for revealing the authority's failures ? Remember as part of the council we are going against the “espirit de corps" to criticise one another in public. We will need to take a patent attitude of explanation, listening, explanation, listening and go on explaining and listening. We will need to rebpond positively to hostile criticism, go beyond the surface problems and find ways of attacking the underlying difficulties. But this new interface will only prove mutually educational if the community is given the power to approve or reject design proposals. This shared learning experience will give the architect the new a satisfaction of helping the development of the people he works Or. For me this shared experience of mutual development gives great joy, far more than the creation of monumental edifices to my ecotism. In tackling the role of LAAD's we have seen some aspects of state intervention, the maintenance of the status quo by reproducing itself, as administrators of the gains fought for ‘by the working class and its allies over the centuries, as a bumbling body of mixed up bureaucrats and procedures. Some people fear that if community architecture is a development of existing LA's then state intervention will be its death knoll. Our arguments are based on a detailed understanding of state intervention. We see that within aspects which are genuinely in the interests of the public (i.e. the National Health Service etc.) and these we wish not only to maintain but to improve. On the other hand, we are aware that many aspects of state intervention are re;ressive and these we hope to weaken. Our main belief is in the democratic. improvements caused by decentralisation and will we hope, coupled with our other proposals, produce beneficial results. Intervention in decentralised teams will be caused by financial allocations and in meeting standards, etc. No local community can raise through its own means all the funds it needs to carry out all the diverse functions necessary. Only central government, with its manifold fiscal means, can raise the money and not get completely fooled by the national and multi-national companies. It is interesting to note that Britain has more firms exploying over 40,000 workers than the rest of Europe put together. For these reasons, we acknowledse that to a large dej:ree, central government will fund local architectural projects, however, we wish this resource to be allocated as a lump sum giving the community considerable say in what it spends its money on. We also believe that this lack of funding means that voluntary or charitable community design schemes can only provide a minute minority service. The value of the. present voluntary or charitable project is to show. the need and learnthe pros and cons for starting the real thing. Similar to the example set by charitable housing trusts in the last century. So however devolve the design team and local unit of government is, we are going to have to come to terms with some government intervention as a result of the financial situation. But tackling the worst aspects of government intervention has greater potential at a local level. A local design team working co-operatively with the community will raise the aspir- ations and the collective potential of that community. Increased collective action can challenge the stretched resources of the state and overcome the state's paternalistic and repressive aspects, thus creating a real shift of power to the community. Red tape has grown to conceal and conserve the dual contradict- ory elements of state intervention. Looking at the role of design standards is an illustrative example. National standards have evolved from a conflict of opinions. Take Parker Morris for example: 1 for the working class, Parker Morris ensures a minimum spacial requirement in council housing the role of the state there are 2 for the state and probably the professional too, Parker Morris provides a standard that ensures the working class can recreate itself. 3 for free enterprise, Parker Morris represents the maximum amount of space bought with some of the profits of capitalism. Seen in this way, standards become a political issue and one which as professionals with progressive intentions we have to understand and act upon. If we are to work in the community providing our services for those who can'ttafford us or our products, we must clearly ally ourselves with their interests. For me this means we must not only fight to maintain what standards have been achieved by centuries of collective action but also press for improvements in standards. At the present time some LAs are trying to relax Parker Morris standards in an attempt to house more people. This is totally wrong. Rather than challenge the government on the helpful aspects of standards, the government should be challenged on its inadequate allocation of resources to housing. It is also wrong because councils' response to public pressure for housing is met with demands by the council only for a reduction in standards: the whole community should be aroused to demand greater housing resources. So far I have outlinedfour reasons for decentralisation with grass roots involvement: ir it is at this level that the greatest potential exists to improve society. 2 the role of the professional Weer ngoe eeteT? and educational rather than remote and paternalistic. 3 the greatest benefits and, therefore, satisfaction, can occur here. 4 at this level the state has the least potential for harmful intervention. With this in mind let us develop a suggested outline for the Public Design Service of tomorrow. The Public Design Service working in the interests of the community will be locally based and fully accountable to the community. It will be a multi-disciplinary team working on a collective basis, in the team will be: architects, technicians, planners, builders, together with specialists as required. The team will be account— able to a parish or ward committee consisting of locally elected representatives of the following organisations: tenants' and community groups, trade unions, political parties and team workers. The local committee will have power to dispense resources and allocate land, accept designs and employ staff. The committee will have to relate to higher organs of government. This will only be meaningful if financial control is firmly locally controlled and the decentralisation of local government reverses the effects of local government re-organisation. We suggest the following strategy for decentralising LAADs. a At present architectural teams in LAADs are organised either on a specialist basis or general basis but both operating throughout the whole LA area. b Within the department teams should be allocated to specific areas, wards, parishes etc. and that they should all be general teams capable of calling in specialist advice should they need it. (Up to this point we believe there is a capability of fairly quick achievement and we have, therefore, included it in our interim proposals. The strategy from this point on is much morelong term and only a suggested guide.) c Having established teams with local responsibilities contacts and connections can be gradually increased with that community. d When good local relations have beenstarted it seems silly to have all local teams in 'head office'. The time has come to move the office accommodation into the local team area. Where possible housing should be made available in the area for team members wha wish to live in the community. e The local teams dig in, begin to formalise the democratic links with the community. f With well-established links both formal and informal ways should be developed of increasing the power of the community. Q.E.D. in conclusion a locally based democratically decentralised design team has been formed. How would that model work in your borough ? Examples of this approach are at present being worked through. It is important to realise that from the start this approach is dependent upon co-operation from all involved departments. It is not the sort of idea that can be imposed from above. Similarly, it would be very helpful to groups attempting such a course to have worked examples and plenty of back-up arguments prepared. This is a task in which the PDS believes it'can play an important part. The PDG in its interim proposals has set out the following issues which we believe can be tacked successfully. i The change from specialist architectural teams to area based general design teams, previously mentioned. 2 Job architects to report in person to the client committees. 3 Tenants and users to be included in briefing job architects and the designs, standards etc. to be approved by the tenants and users. further. 1 Internal Democracy a aBe3 aa iv 4 Architects' Departments to be altered so that there are only job architects and the chief architect. As an example we can site the case of building material standards. EJMA windows may provide an easy answer to many problems. But architecturally we can find that the various combinations of side hung, top light pivoting result in an aesthetic nightmare. While from the housing departments! view the quality of timber results in frequent and costly maintenance problems. To the building department the use of such windows is often awkward with problems in installation, lintel sizes, scaffolding etc. and again the continuing volume of maintenance work. If we can get all these knowledgeable elements together to form a design construction team we can begin to put right the separation of builder and designer. This artificial separation only came about with the advent of the industrial revolution (see NAM's "A Short History of the Architectural Profession"). We have seen the value of direct labour organisations to the public and we must add to that our belief in our public role to create a design construction team unsurpassed by the private sector. It is hoped that these proposals will improve internal and external democracy. The PDG has taken these and other issues and begun to develop them What follows are proposals that are not easily or quickly achievable and will, therefore, form part of the future work of the PDG. Design teams of around 12 people locally based would operate co-operatively, the team would include architects, technicians, quantity surveyors, service engineers, builders and secretarial staff. The team would elect annually a team leader. Management Committees - local authorities suffer from a rigid hierarchial pyramid, we believe that policy and management decisions should be made by a departmental committee with representatives of all types of depart- mental workers. In this way the collective wisdom of the department is fully utilised and escapist buck-passing is avoided. The link between teams and departmental committee will be an elected one. Links with other departments will be made at two levels, (a) working teams can be made up of interdepartmental people, i.e. from the housing department, building department , social services etc. and (bd) interdepartmental committees representative of a cross section of department- al staff, i.e. not just the chiefs. 2 External Democracy The advantages that arise from the formation of tenant/user client committees for briefing job architects and approving the work etc. are: a working with tenants/street or;anisations provides a wealth of knowledge of the area, historical background, minute detail, seneral problems, local characters, ambitions etc. A close relationship with the community creates two side effects - (i) the community's increased knowledge enables them to articulate their desires towards the built environ- ment more effectively, (ii) the role of the professional as educator and initial organiser on the environment enables the community to develop its own strength from which demands can be made to increase standards and the allocation of resources. b Trades Councils form the local focus of trade union branches and as such have great potential for action on community affairs. Currently there is a TUC campaign to improve the provision of facilities for the disabled. Trades Councils around the country are pursuing policies to get these provisions realised. The fact that it is often the architects who appear to forget the handicapped has been noticed by the trades unions. But we know as architects that the problem is often one of cost. Clearly the coupling of trades council pressure and architectural knowledge could lead to an increased provision of facilities for the disabled. 5 Theory of Public: Service We believe that civilisation in enhanced by the collective wisdom and actions of the populace. The:-funetion.of pubic service is to provide the community with an instrument that realises collective decisions. We need to not only study and develop the theory of public service but to apply practically these ideals in our day to day work. 4 As previously pointed out, housing provided in a free market society has to be capable of providing the dominant class with a working class that is capable of reproducing itself. We have seen that free enterprise is incapable on its own of providing decent housing for all the population. The reality of these facts will strike anyone who has to spend his days visiting council housing, so clearly designed as a machine for existing in. There is no way that they provide a space for growing mentally and physically. Few people realise that the system that created the need for public housing is still incapable of providing owner occupation for a good half of the population. (Rented accommodation both private and public accounts for 50% of the population but only 47% of the dwellings, depending upon which source of information is used.) As an agent of public service I wish to see public housing built to the highest possible standards. Public housing should embody all the collective ideologies and benefits that do not occur in isolated owner/occupier rip off Wimpey estates. Housing associations are another diversion sent to confuse the issue. Housing associations receive government funding without either the control or the democracy found in local authorities. In essence they provide the government with a back door method of getting housing on the cheap. Central Government Central government is, and will continue to be, the main source of public housing finance. There is such a lot of ground to cover here that already the PDG sees the need to work closely with other more economically orientated alternative organisations. The conference of Socialist Economists Housing Workshop springs to mind in this context. The PDG believes that case studies will have to be made of particular situations ‘and that the values and problems found should be made available to all interested parties. PDG Strategy and Steering Group To co-ordinate the work of all the groups and further’ the development of public design. If. we can only get three or four groups under way as a result of this conference there will be a substantial improvement in our capabilities. Fro m the amount of work the PDG has done already, as well as organise this conference, I know that an enlarged team can make very satisfactory progress. At this point I'd like to tell a little story of how I see the future in a local design team. "Tt was spring time in the office, a bare headed technician was watering down the coffee. No, but seriously, it hadn't been a bad week. The District Council have agreed to convert the old St John's school and the pressure from the residents had ensured that the funds would be made available in the next financial year. At the present time no suitable way has been found of avoiding speculation on land values, and until national asset in the same way as coal, will be found. ao land is treated as a no satisfactory answer I was leaving the office on the way to the Bullfinch for a lunch-time pint when old Jack Scamp came up to me after seeing the new technician, Grace. I thought I was in for the usual round of complaints about drains, windows, pigeons or whatever happened to upset him, but remarkably he was quite affable. Apparently he had been to complain about the draught of cold night air coming into his WC. Grace must have actually got through to him, for he had agreed to have his house modernised. Something to do with piles I think ! "Hey up, Adam" called Mrs Bestwick as Iwalked alony Maple Road. "T've had that leak mended, the man came round not half-an-hour after I told you about ot o" "Well," I said, "that's what comes of having a proper council building department." "Aye, its zood to see our rates being used properly. Thanks anyway." Crossing over New Road I was glad of the shelter provided by the young trees, the wind still having a nip in it, and I shuddered at the thought of wide open tarmac and grass spaces that this fifties council estate used to have as landscaping. ° Over the door of the Bullfinch was the name of the Landlord, Ernie Wigley, never got over that name. Inside Ernie served me my usual while rattling on about old St John's school and how aS a boy he could remember ... " Ahn well, a little dream at present it may be, BUT a major reality it can indeed become. We've stated why we believe in decentralised public design offices and we have shown one possible way of getting there. We know a lot of work has to be done and we believe this work will reveal other ways of gaining our objectives, For too long LAADs have sat back and defenSively resisted any change at all. It is now time that we rekindled our faith in the public service. The kind of fully-committed public service we talk about can be created, and we can create environments in which people are people, where a sense of caring and sharing is dominant. We can create a really happy, first-class public environment. The PDG believes, and we hope you will agree with us, that the ideals of public service are worth fighting for, that the part we play can lead to a better society. If you want to see first class public housing estates, first class inner city environments, first rate public participation, join with us and help create democratic design, a new role for local authority architects that is a real public service. i, This conference endorses the development of the PDG and asks all those interested to either a attend the next PDG meeting on Saturday, May 27th at 11.30 a.m., 118 Mansfield Road, Nottingham, or b inform the PDG of what work they would be interested to participate in. 2 The task of the PDG and its working groups is to further the ambitions of a Public Design Service. a The PDG will report on its progress to the Annual Congress of the New Architecture Movement, provisionally on November llth & 12th at Cheltenhan. 4 This conference expresses its thanks to the New Architecture Movement for its help and assistance. 5 This conference expresses its thanks to the Midland Region of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians for the use of the premises and hopes that this event is the forerunner of other co-operative ventures between building and design workers. Adam Purser, 6th May, 1978. . = as ge ’ : o ie 5 v ~\ é \ t }2 ;: 4 VRoeS é:‘;£ S&S ps fe a 53 - te wy D -\ 1 4 Bb ”f » > ~ Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Adam Purser Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/5fcb220d438e26f101f86c9d924c54a0.pdf 8cdd2691bee0238b369c2d73118d7821 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/0c240674b46af701a79362460fa538be.pdf 345e5d38a9af15bba38961a43380fee2 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Service Conference (Birmingham) Subject The topic of the resource Conference Programme Description An account of the resource CONTENTS s CONFERENCE PROGRAMME INTERIM PROPOSALS BACKGROUND TO CONFERENCE THE PARTY POLITICAL CONTEXT ORIGINS, EVOLUTION AND STRUCTURE OF L. A. DEPTS. OF ARCHITECTURE FUTURE PROGRAMME OF WORK PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE MAY 1978 A UNION BASED INITIATIVE IN HACKNEY HOUSING ASSOCIATIONS AND LOCAL AUTHORITIES A NEW ROLE FOR PUBLIC DESIGN DEMOCRATIC DESIGN A PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE SATURDAY 6 MAY at UCATT House, Gough Street, Birmingham I. I0.00 I0.30 20.35 I0. 50 II.15 II.45 12.15 13.00 T3.00 T4.00 T4.00 T4 30 T4.30 15.00 15.00 15.5 15.45 16.00 16.90 16.30 16.30 LiwlD 17.15 T7230 17.90 RHGISTRATION AND COFFEE. CONFERENCE AIMS OF THE GONFER#NCE - Chairman's DISCUSSION. DISCUSSION« DISCUSSION. CONCLUDING CONFERENCE CLOSHS, OPENH#D BY K. BARLOW, REG. SEC. UCATT, opening comments. REMARKS = Chairman. Conference Programme THE PARTY POLITICAL CONTEXT ~ Howard Smith. Implications following the Local Elections. LUNCH = Food available at the Conference. CURRENT ROLE OF L.A. DEPTS. OF ARCHITHZCTURS - John Murray, Their origins, structure and their relationship to private practice and the profession, DISCUSSION, NaW APPROACHHES IN HACKNEY - Tom Bulley. Some first steps by L.A. Workers, THE D,L.O. #XPERIENCE - Peter Carter. A NEw ROLE FOR PUBLIC DESIGN - Adam Purser. Including Interim Proposals and future strategy. maintained buildings. PDS Group May, 1978. and which create the potential for further change : interim Proposals and while giving each team a varied work load. % + To achieve an effective Public Design Service the NAM Public Design Service Group proposes local authority design and build teams which are area based and which will be accountable to users and tenants. We suggest the following interim proposals which are feasible now * DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE AREA BASED INSTEAD OF FUNCTION BASED. To increase the potential accountability to local people, * JOB ARCHITECTS SHOULD REPORT DIRECTLY TO COMMITTEE. * TENANTS AND USERS SHOULD BE PART OF BRIEFING TEAM, AND SHOULD HAVE POWER OF APPROVAL OVER DESIGNS AND STANDARDS. * ESTABLISH JOINT WORKING GROUPS WITH DLOS. To consider how to achieve better designed, constructed and AREA DESIGN TEAMS SHOULD BE MULTIDISCIPLINARY AND SHOULD HAVE AROUND 12 MEMBERS AS A SUGGESTED OPTIMUM. ABOLISH POSTS BETWEEN GROUP LEADER AND CHIEF ARCHITECT. As a preliminary step towards group leaders having equivalent status to chief architect. i.e. towards a two-tier system. — Plartrn ds epburn _ Coup Ghim Aig ? Background through the public sector. this conference. PDS Group NAM 9 Poland Street LONDON. WI. At its Hull Congress in November 1977, the New Architecture Movement decided to develop further its policies relating to the public sector. NAM's interest in this field had already been established at our first Congress in Harrogate in 1975 when the idea of a National Design Service was put forward. The National Design Service (NDS) proposals, based on a critique of architectural patronage, argued for a locally based design service directly accountable to tenants and users. It was suggested that Local Authority departments of architecture could provide the basis for such a service. Discussions on the NDS were continued initially under the auspices of the former North London Group of NAM, and a small issue group evolved. Further NDS papers stressed the view that any long term advance in architectural service to the public could only come By late 1977, it was considered that a more concentrated programme of research and action was required and following the Hull Congress an enlarged N.D.S. Group were mandated to carry out the work and to arrange Since November, the NDS Group evolved into the Public Design Service (PDS) Group. The Group, in addition to refining its critique of patronage and Local Authority working arrangements, has been studying the origins| and present role of Local Authority departments of architecture and their relationship to the profession and private practice. Work has also been done on the party political context and on an analysis of Housing Associations. The results of this preliminary study are presented here as draft papers, interim proposals, and suggested areas of future work. For further information contact DRAFT MAY 1978 O-fl-G- Nes, ENS Ul ON AND Teer ee Cro LO EAL AT HOR PTY Pere eSO aeaa Re PREFACE: rity architectural practice. The purpose of this first study is to develop a theory which can: within the profession, alike, architecture. This paper is a draft of what is intended to become three separate papers dealing with (a) the origins and role of local authority departments of architecture (b) their relationship to private sract ite and the profession and (c) their internal structure. These issues are closely linked and a major part of this and future studies is to deve- lop a theoretical framework which can describe adequately local autho- show how public and private practice are different in their origins and social role and which can provide material to counter the persistent denigration of the public sector from describe adequately the failings of local authority departments of architecture as experienced by public architects and users indicate the way in which progress can be made in public |NTRODUCTOIN suggestions. and in the private sector because it does not reinforce but is in ceFee Bute .' Hupp The problem of explaining the persistent vilification of local autho- rity departments of architecture is not primarily a difficulty of pointing to possible causes. Anyone acquainted with either the archi- tectural profession or with tenants organisations could readily make others.Inasocietybasedonexchange,buildingsforusearenecessa-pen It will be argued here that criticisms of those departments are based on two major and separate arguments. C onsequently any attempt to under= stand public practice should take account of both. On the one hand it will be said that local authority departments are denigrated by society generally and by the architectural profession in particular for two main reasons. Firstly local authority practice is a public and non profit making institution. Relations within the departments are thus different from those which obtain in the private sector. Secondly local authorities themselves provide collective resources for the social requirements of the public. That is public architects design solely for public use. In each case they are in opposition to the prevailing and dominant ideas in society which support the belief in individual private enterprise. Comparisons between public practice and private practice which in its basis and function supports the prevailing ideology, are likely to by uglann”, esult in the former being regarded in an unfavourable light. It will a. ee be shown that for this reason, a widely held view in the profession of local authority practice appears to be generalised from examples of the worst rather than of the best public architecture. In the private sector the opposite is the case. The image is one which apparently is generalised from a few well designed buildings by a few well known firms. The rest are ignored. Furthermore, it will be seen that there exists within the profession an attitude which defines certain types of buildings as being more worthy of architectural attention than rily ranked low. x Quip lo ; vactil cnen il Nd, Pree Aockice tvs fr 4.Ap .— Thus it will be argued that public practice is denigrated in society opposition to the prevailing system and its associated ideology. contain two main paradoxes: as to alienate both worker and user. those social relations. place in a certain direction. lysed. =9= On the other hand there exists another type of concern over local authority departments of architecture. It is to be found amongst the consumers of the service and amongst local authority architets them- selves. (1) For them local authority departments are authoritarian and unresponsive to the requirements of both users and architects. Local authority provision and public architectural practice therefore Thirdly, the present structure of public design departments will be related to public access and the local authority architect. Firstly, while state welfare provision is for the benefit of the existing social arrangements the means of provision are in opposition to those ideas which stem from and sustain those arrangements. Secondly, although local authorities provide for social use and while their departments are not based on extracting a surplus from their architectural workers yet their arrangements and procedures are such The answer to these paradoxes is to be found in theories which relate to the role of the state in society. In particular it will be argued that it is the states' function to secure the reproduction of the labour force and of the existing social relations. It thus services the private basis of society by providing for the majority of people their education, health and housing requirements. But the states' role in securing the reproduction of the labour force and of the social relations of production can only be carried out at the expense of It is because of these contradictions that change will take place. The interim proposals suggested in another part of the conference papers may be regarded as creating the potential for change to take This paper will be in three main parts. Firstly in order to establish (a) the social role of the local authority and its departments of architecture and (b) the different basis of public and private archi- tectural practice the present position will be considered and the ori- gins of public practice will be traced. Secondly, professional criti- cisms of the local authority departments of architecture will be ana- PUBLIC PRACTICE: second world war. Local authority departments of architecture employ nearly one third of all registered architects. L.A. architects remain in a minority des- pite a steady increase in numbers and a substantial increase in the volume of public building works this century and especially since the In 1952 19.6% of registered architects worked in local government. This had increased to 28.6% in 1964 and to 31.3% in 1977. At the same time 41.6% of registered architects worked in private practice in 1962, 50.1% in 1964 and 45.2% in 1977. (2) In addition the propor- tion of employment in private practice is falling in favour of public practice as various studies have shown. (3) In 1966 nearly half of all public building was still being carried out by private practice. Vrvaccounted-for about one third then compared to 29% now of the total TOTS workload by value carried out by private practice. (4) The growth of local authority departments of architecture followed closely on government legislation which made housing and schools a statutory responsibility. While L.A. departments carry out a variety of work, it will be shown that their origins are almost wholly depen- dent on the provision of schools and housing by the state, and that their subsequent identity as separate departments depend on whether the local authority build mainly schools or mainly housing. (5) The provision of state housing and schools goes back 59 and 76 years respectively and it is the extension of this responsibility for the greater part of post war housing and schools under the 1944 Education Act that accounts for the vast expansion of architectural work and to a larger degree of the architectural staff in local authorities. °9/-9961| Pue 4/-17961 einzipusdxyz pue swodu; |eud! EN + SO!PIAOYINY |ed0| Aq Buip, ing ‘*uojAe7 *°Q) :S904N0g 981€ €8Z1 09 66€ Ort Het Heh 194 264 try ole oe £L—- | (e201 96 a) Gs) Gz Gz Lz 42 Zz iz| iz 0z (31) L-€[e101 681 ol 9H 6 |6 ol l 9 S S lL S 42410 81 6 9 t € € € € € € Z | BIIAASSS4!4 L9 Zz a b L 8 8 lL 8 lL S 4 9110q (€ € € € € Z € € € ( *oJ0 poby jo e4e9 z6 et 92 tc € € €°-€ c € € € ozgz6c.)Gz9) ELE Giy|Lon 00m|EH ily|€t|oS€ Z+JO[e104 96s| sez| ost z [ZI €ol zg tL. zl LZ zg 0s e4edpliyg 4 UuO!}eONpy ZZ2Z Hl S64 SZ 767 10 BLE G9 66€ ZSE 88Z 192 Buy snoy S61 oL61 7961 8561 LS61 9561 S561 4961 €S61 7561 iS61 0561 42]22H (UOLLLEW F) ‘win UL Bulp| ing uo sela}soyjny |e90| Aq einzipuedxg teqideg existence. notes, -3- in fact carried out by private architects". (9) Board began to function. A study of the history of the fluctuating fortunes of public spending on council housing and schools shows that these vary according to whether a Labour or Conservative Government is in office. (6) The growth of these services is dependent on Labour governments. L.A. departments which service these, consequently but indirectly have relied on labour for their continuing workload. L.A. departments of architecture depend on the maintenance of public services for their own The table shows the extent of the other work for which L.A. departments are responsible. Schools and housing however accounted for 15 times the value of all others in 1961 (7) and for 8 times the value in 1976. Since the National Health Service Act, 1946 responsibility for building hospitals was vested in the Regional Hospital Boards whose own architec= tural staff work mainly on research and administration. (8) Asa result of the Act as the 1950 Percy Thomas Report on Private Practice The question of separate departments of architecture is also related to schools and housing. Where the major part of an L.A. department is school work, there has almost invariably been a separate architect s department. Thus in the former counties, whose main work was education buildings (counties provided housing only for county staff, e.g. police) 61 out of the 62 counties had separate departments in 1968. (10) In-house architects have always been the rule rather than the exception as far as school building is concerned. Robson, the first London School Board architect was appointed almost directly after the School engineer and surveyors department, particularly in the smaller towns. Tete Architectural work has in fact ceased to be a responsi- bility of local authority official architects and much of it is In cities and towns, now the district authorities, where the main L.A. architectural work is housing, architects are very often part of the Counties County Boroughs Non County Boroughs (excluding London) Metropolitan Boroughs Urban Districts Rural Districts Total number of 1937 1957 authorities Ah 60 62 14 47 83 1 14 318 1 5 28 1 4 564 1 Z 474 61 132 1529 County Councils District Councils London Boroughs 49 53 123 369 31 32 Source: Metropolitan Year Book 1978 —h Source: E. Layton "Building by Local Authorities" p.136. Number of separate Architects Departments in England and Wales in 1978 Number of departments Number of Authorities 203 454 Number of separate Architects Departments in England and Wales before Reorganisation *. Furthermore as Elizabeth Layton has pointed out, -5- There may be several reasons for this, the most important apparently being that housing since the 19th century and until fairly recently was regarded as a public health and public order matter, not an architec- tural one. (Housing until the 1950s was under the control of the Ministry of Health). Because of these links it was, in the 19th century more closely associated with the domain of the engineer. lt may be noted that due to the anxiety over public health and order, and the resulting need for sewers and new roads, the surveyors’ was the first local authority technical department. Gibson et al (11) argue that since this department already existed, it was expedient for all addi- tional technical and related duties to be automatically passed to it. Any important work was given to private firms. "Many authorities considered the use of architects for dwellings for the working class a quite unnecessary expense and have and in 1953 the Institution for Municipal Engineers circulated a docu- ment arguing that the creation of separate architects departments would "Municipal engineering and architecture have no clear cut dividing line ....... the municipal engineer is trained and experienced to act as head of a comprehensive technical depart- ment. The best, the most logical and in the end the most econo mical practice is therefore to put all technical work under the continued to do so until very recently". (12) The municipal engineers argued strongly for the status quo. In his presidential address to the 1911 Housing and Town Planning Conference the president of the Institution for Municipal Engineers stated, "Expressions of opinion have been given to the idea that municipal engineers and surveyors are not the proper persons to be entrusted with the carrying out of this Act (1909 Housing and Town Planning Act) but that members of other professional bodies are more competent to undertake this work, who after all is better qualified than the local surveyor..... 2 (13) undoubtedly increase the staffing costs of local authorities. municipal surveyor...." (14) AJ 22.1.53 p.1I9. -~6§+ Thus although the social legislation of the 19th and 20th century gave rise to the need for an increasing public building programme, it did not automatically lead to L.A. departments of architecture. Separate departments emerged at different times in different authorities. The LCC architects department one of the first if not the first evolved from the old Metropolitan Board of Works in 1888. In Sheffield the department originated in 1908. Bristol had to wait until 1939 for the architect to be separated from the engineers department, while A.G. Shephard Fidler, Birmingham's first city architect was not appointed until 1952. The reasons for these differences are intriguing, and in the absence of any data at this stage it may be speculated that several factors influenced the decision, including increasing housing programmes, local political views regarding housing and possibly the ability of the architects department to convince the council that housing was indeed an appropriate concern of the architect. In order to consider the origins of these, it is important to take a broader view of the emergence of the two most important services from the L.A. building point of view, housing and schools. They in turn are closely related to the history of local government itself. eT LOCAL GOVERNMENT = BACKGROUND TO SERVICES: were associated concerns. wage worker". (17) Local authority departments of architecture and indeed local govern- ment itself are relatively modern innovations. Writers like Summerson (15) have described how L.A. architecture stemmed froma shift from private to public patronage in the late 18th and 19th centuries. But this hardly gives a full picture. Local authority patronage itself evolved from the needs of 19th century industrial and urbanised society. These needs were i]lustrated by the fears expressed by the Victorian middle class over what they felt to be the breakdown of family life, morality, law and order and health amongst the poor. They The history of the mid-19th century is a story of the unsuccessful attempts of philanthropy and organised religion to alleviate these. Central government was eventually, albeit reluctantly, obliged to intervene to provide these services necessary for the maintenance and perpetuation of the workforce and of the existing social order. It is at this period of transformation that evidence for Althusser's That is, any society must create the conditions for its own perpetua- tion, for the renewal of raw materials, tools and of labour itself. As far as labour is concerned, at one level the reproduction of labour power is ensured by giving labour the material means to reproduce itself outside the firm, namely wages. But this in itself is inade- quate to ensure that each new generation of labour is appropriate to the work which will be required of it. Therefore Althusser maintains that it is the role of the state both central and local to secure the provision of the necessary housing education and health care. Thus it is argued that the primary basis of the governments' involvement in housing is to secure the reproduction of the labour face. Secondly, the social relations of production must be reproduced if the society is to continue in its present form. theories on the role of the state can be most clearly seen. (16) "The capitalist mode of production regarded as a connected whole or as a process of reproduction therefore produces.... and reproduces the capitalist relation itself; produces and reproduces on one side the capitalist and on the other side the crisis of reproduction. governmental control. =6= Hence a mode of production must create the conditions for its own perpetuation, the reproduction of these conditions being as important as production itself. And Althusser has argued that the social rela- tions of production are secured "for the most partTM by the legal, political and ideological superstructure, which are controlled by the state, On the one hand there is the police, army and courts, the "repressive state apparatusses" and on the other, and of greater importance in our society, the “ideological state apparatuses", hous— ing,education,social services etc. These ensure the transmission by various means, including the fact of their existence, the knowledge of society which leads people to identify with the dominant culture. The state therefore attempts to secure the reproduction of the social relations and of the labour force through the same medium. The history of government legislation is clarified by this view. For example far reaching legislation usually followed closely after work- ing class protest and unrest, when society appeared to be in danger of breaking down. In addition and for that reason, legislation controlled more and more precisely activities at local level. The following brief description gives an indication of how housing and education services emerged and how they were dependent on a prior reform of While it is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss this theory in detail it may be noted that Althussers' argument does not fully account for the fact that in the U.K. at least the state achieves these ends by different methods depending on the nature of the government in office. Apparently opposite policies are proposed to achieve, in Althusser's terms, the same ends. Secondly, although the state through various agencies may seek to secure the social relations and although it may do this either by promulgating ideas or having embodied in these agencies ideas which have this effect, such an analysis cannot account for the pervasiveness of ideology. Other writers such as Mepham (18) have produced a much more convincing interpretation. For the purpose of this paper it is taken that the role of the State is to secure the reproduction of the labour force and of the social relations, on behalf of the prevailing economic mode in the society. it is in the 19th century that for the first time, capitalism faced a Local government and the Welfare State: Harris has pointed out, =~ 9 = The emergence of the present system of local government is related to the growth of the welfare state. Before then and up until the 18th century, the slow development of local government was mainly connected with poor relief. (19) It was only when a portion of the taxes collected were returned from the centre for local and social purposes that the first principles of modern local government were established. With the passing of the Reform Bill of 1832 the political predominance of the middle class was substituted for that of the aristocracy and the new rulers began to write their interests and ideas upon the statute book. Allthe middle class received the vote and industrial capital now secured a large share of political power. The legislation which followed was preceded by the last mass protest in English history against rural conditions - The Labourer's Revolt. The rioting, rick burning and machine smashing were confined to those southern counties in which the Speenhamland System of poor relief was best known. The threat to social order was perceived to be a result of the inadequacy of the poor law system in the face of continued economic stress and a commission was set up to inquire into its operation. (20) Two significant pieces of legislation followed. Firstly in 1834 the Poor Law Amendment Act abolished the system of outdoor relief. The last ties keeping the population in one place were thus severed in the interests of industrial capital. Administratively the Act sought to give uniform direction to poor law policy through the introduction of centralised executive control of local government administration. As “For the first time a central government department was authorised to exercise extensive control over the activities of local government and thereby was established an administrative system which continued for over 100 years" (21) Secondly, in 1835, The Municipal Corporations Act fixed the principles of a new system of municipal government, (extended to cover the counties four years later) the principal features of which are still in force; e.g. the country was divided into local government areas, - 10 = councils were elected by local ratepayers, magistrates were to be appointed by the Crown and the Town Clerk and Treasurer were to become obligatory appointments. Equally far reaching was the new doctrine of ultra vires. Central administrative control was introduced to limit the sphere of local. government operations. That is local government was and still is permitted to act only in areas specified by central government. Thus with the Poor Law Amendment Act, central administrative control was established, with the Municipal Corporations Act local democracy was extended while local powers were restricted. These two facts lead the way to a gradual development of a paid loca! government service. Numerous officers were appointed and by 1835 the principle of a paid police force in towns was established. (22) Local government was now in a position to administer these services required by the society as a whole and deemed necessary by central government. Local government departments, including architecture, gradually developed to fulfil the various requirements of providing those services which became known as welfare provision. The local Government Act 1889 which created the London County Council and set up a series of County and County Borough Councils throughout the land com- pleted 19th century local government reform. education of the poor. Housing: The provision of all local government services may be seen in terms of its role in defence of the existing social arrangements. However, only those major services which gave rise directly to L.A. departments of architecture will be considered here. The emergence of the paid local government architect is most closely related to the housing and The question of housing the poor in the 19th century as in the 20th is essentially an urban one. The appearance of epidemics, particularly of cholera in 1832, which spread rapidly amongst the population "without consideration of rank, class or locality" (although it was more viru= lent in the highly populated areas of towns) brought to the attention of the Victorian middle class the potential threat to the maintenance of their society in terms of the ill health of the poor. (24) by Octavia Hill. the physical benefits". impression on the problem". (27) = 11e% Even more pressing was a social problem. The middle class believed that the bringing together of the poor in large numbers in areas like London rookeries where there was little or no access by outsiders created a danger of insurrection as well as of immorality and il] health. (25) Housing, public health morality and the maintenance Stedman Jones (27) has described how attempts to improve working class housing and to abate the chances of social unrest took three other main forms - street clearance, model dwellings and the schemes initiated Street clearance was imbued with “almost magical efficacy" but the of the existing social order were inextricably bound together. The government acted albeit against strong public opinion by intro- ducing first the 1844 London Building Act which for the first time imposed restrictions on the way buildings related to each other (minimum street widths, ventilation of habitable rooms) and the Public Health Act, 1845 which laid the foundation for all subsequent housing legislation. (26) result was to exacerbate the overcrowding problem. Private philanthropists elected to build model dwellings for the working class, the aim being to show that good sanitationand adequate working class housing were compatible with a fair return on capital, plus the fact that they believed that “the moral were almost equal to Butas Tarn has pointed out, the combined efforts of commerce, phi lan- thropy and charity while producing a generic housing type still in existence, in terms of quantity "there was hardly enough to make any Local authorities had initiated slum clearance as a last resort since the mid century. The Artisans and Labourers Dwellings Act 1868 gave power to close or demolish insanitary houses, the cost falling to the slum owner. The Ciross Act of 1875 gave compulsory powers, compensation to owners and gave local authorities the power to rebuild and maintain property and to borrow or levy a rate to finance the work. But in first council estate in London. country's full scale council housing programme. quality houses promised to the returning soldiers. = |9 & government housing programme." (31) Education: The Elementary Education Act 1870 formed the basis of the later local 1878, Dr. G.N. Child was arguing that "the evil (of overcrowding) is increasing rather than diminishing, and that no remedy short of inter- Local authorities did intervene and the country's first council estate designed by the City Engineer, was built in Liverpool in 1875. Seven years later the new LCC obtained permission to build in Limehouse the Although the 1890 Housing of the Working Classes Act gave local Councils the power to acquire land and to build; housing did not become a statutory duty until 1919 when the Addison Act launched the By 1915 the lack of houses for rent had become acute. House rents rose steeply and the resulting demonstrations by aggrieved tenants in Glasgow “came near enough to the appearance of revolution at home while the country was at war in Europe to frighten the government into passing the Rent and Mortgage Restriction Act 1915". (30) Rents were now fixed at such a level that private speculators no longer found it economic to rent to the working class. The government concluded that it could no longer look to private enterprise to provide the good The Hunter Commission itself established following working class agita- tion in 1912 recommended in its Report of 1917 that municipal housing should be provided for the working class. The Salisbury Commission urged that housing for the working class must be a duty carried out by local authorities. Both Reports influenced the passing of the 1919 Act, aided according to Enid Gauldie, by Lloyd George "who used the dangers of Bolshevism as a stick to prod the Cabinet into accepting his vention by the state is at all likely to remove the evil” (29) authority system. It established the principle of attendance at ele- mentary schools, created school districts, provided for the election of -13- School Boards by ratepayers and for the maintenance of schools by a compulsory local rate. It was still however intended as a supplement to voluntary schools. (32) Ten years later the 1880 Education Act made elementary school attendance compulsory, and in 1891 fees were abolished and an exchequer grant. provided 10/- for each child in attendance. The ad hoc School Boards lasted for over 30 years until they were abolished by the 1902 Act which transferred their power to the local education authority. In 1918, one year before the Addison Act made it a duty for L.A.'s to provide housing, an Education Act established a system of national education under 330 local authorities as the primary provider of education. All previous Acts were consoli- dated in 1921, legislation made school attendance compulsory to 14, and provided for education up to 17-18 years. The changes in Victorian Society leading up to free education for all and the way people perceived these makes instructive reading. A picture emerges of on the one hand a rapidly industrialising society which required a disciplined and reasonably educated workforce, and on the other of a working population which had to be inculcated with the values and beliefs of a new form of society. And in the end local government were obliged to perform this function, instructed and Prior to the 1870 Act the church undertook the responsibility for edu- cation in the Sunday School Movement. Day schooling followed in 1808 when the British and Foreign School Society was established, and in 1811 by the National Society for Promoting the Education of the Poor in the Principles of the Established Church. - controlled by the central state. For their first 20 years teaching centred around the scriptures but by the 1830's the system changed to take account of acute economic and social pressures. More emphasis was put on teaching children about the demarcation between rich and poor and the mutual dependence on each other in an harmonious society. “Contentment in the station of life to which God had assigned them was an important precept". (33) But no industrial nation could have gone forward without a workforce which was literate, disciplined and contented. To aid the voluntary schools in their venture the government provided from 1833 a £30,000 grant for school building. Pressure began to be put by the Radicals for example for state controlled secular education. (34) Schools Boards; their civilizing works". (35) order. (36) =14- tt is a measure of the failure of the voluntary system that in 1893 the Rev. T.W. Sharpe, senior Chief HMI could write of the London “The Education Act (of 1870) was not passed a year too soon; London would have been filled with a savage population in the year 1893 if the 480 schools built by the Board had not done But the 1870 and subsequent Acts were not without opposition. Conser- vatives feared that the opening of the horizons of the working class would lay then open to Radical influences and stimulate them to enter- tain ideas above their station and thus prove subversive to the social Liberals and progressives on the other hand echoing more precisely the needs of the age; believed that a well educated working class was not only an end in itself but also an important means of securing eco- nomic advance and stability. Children learned the habits of “tidiness, punctuality, order, truthfulness" in the Board Schools. Stanley who “We want our lower classes to be educated .... We want them to learn the self respect of citizens to feel their responsibility as voters, to have self restraint, the thoughtfulness, the power of judging and of weighing evidence which should discipline them in the exercise of the great power they now wield by their industrial combirations and through their political action", (37) Headlam of the socialist movement in his election address as a (successful) candidate for the London School Board, argued that it was a fundamental purpose of board school education to make children, “discontented with the evil circumstances which surround them. There are those who say that we are educating our children above their station; that is true; and if you return me | shall do my utmost to get them such knowledge and such discipline as will make them thoroughly discontented". (38) dominated the London School Board Progressives wrote; Departments of Architecture: ment. -15- The local authorities role in securing the reproduction of the labour force and of the social order and the resulting contradictions are aptly summed up in these quotations. It is because of the importance of the ideas expressed in the last quotation that the labour movement have traditionally supported the role of the state in controlling aspects of the economy. In the last resort those services are account able to the public through the democratic system. The pressing social need to build housing and schools on a large scale produced a corresponding need for local authority departments of archi- tecture. Depending on the authority, one or other of these services was the critical factor in their establishment. In the case of the LCC for. example housing provided. the. impetus, although its predecessor, the Metropolitan Board of Works appointed its first chief architect in 1855. The Board was abolished by the 1888 Local Government Act and was replaced by the London County Council, A programme of municipalisation followed supported by the Progressives who wished to municipalise public utilities to run services so that profits subsidised the rates. The Fabians on the other hand wanted to municipalise all trading services and abolish profits. (39) The LCC was instrumental in pressurising the government and pass the 1888 Housing of the Working Classes Act which gave it new powers. It decided to expand the old Metropolitan Board of Works‘ architects’ department to cope with the expansion of housing. According to Service, "They received applications for jobs from a stream of young architects attracted by the social idealism of the work. This was a generation born in the 1860's or later and strongly influenced by the political and social theories of William Morris and Phillip Webb". (40) Following the 1902 Education Act, the ad hoc School Boards were disbanded to come under the local authorities. School design and later Fire stations then came under the jurisdiction of the LCC architects depart- ginated in a number of authorities The Profession: profession. base of the profession. question of styles. (42) - 1622 As far as this and other authorities are concerned, further study is in progress and case studies will be included in the final version of this paper which will describe how and why departments of architechture ori- In the next part of this paper the evaluation of these departments will be related to the cormern with which they were greeted by the architec- tural profession. It appears from the evidence available at this stage that in-house architects in local authorities followed almost automati- cally from the growth in services. Their relatively peaceful beginnings is therefore in sharp contrast to the controversy with which they have been surrounded ever since, especially in the private sector dominated During the period of social turmoil in the second half of the 19th century the architectural profession was pre-occupied with its own concerns. Jenkins (41) has described how patrons of architecture changed from wealthy individuals to commercial and then public bodies following changes. in the economy as capitalism developed. The scope of architectural practice was extremely wide but architects were em- ployed on only some 10% of new building work, Contracting methods were transformed with the advent of the general contractor, with con- sequent effects on the role of the architect. The changing economy not only affected the practice of architecture but also the knowledge The concern of the architect was thus almost wholly directed towards two questions; firstly architects were anxious to establish and main- tain the profession's reputation in the public eye by attempting to guarantee integrity and competence through professional association, formal education and statutory registration. Secondly there was the While it is outside the scope of the present paper to consider this in detail, these two aSpects were closely linked to the development of capitalism. This is not only in relation to competition from builders Benjamin, too, argued that in the 19th century, forced to make novelty its highest value", (44) depended on service not individualised styles. in the profession as a whole. lasyrt rat = yy = ae and surveyors and the need to establish professional status, but is con- cerned with the position of the professional as a mediator of knowledge in capitalism. Secondly as Joanna Clelland question of styles was linked to the development of knowledge as another commodity. She argues that in the Renaissance, knowledge produced by the scientist or artist was believed to be part of the growth in universal knowledge, that is, it was collective. By the 19th century knowledge had become individualised. Individual knowledge differentiated one architect from another and was sold: as.a personal style - as a commodity to the client in competition with the personal styles of other architects. Thus the individualism engendered by capitalism was of particular importance to the private architect. It became his or her source.of livelihood. Public architects however were in a different position. Thier livelihood vidualism is one part of the reason why public practice is designated ° (43) has pointed out the "Art which begins to have doubts about its function is It will be suggested in the following section that this question of indi- PUBLIC V. PRIVATE PRACTICE: The 1950 RIBA Committee on the Future of 81% of students answering their questionnaire declared a preference for private practice. The question as to why the schools of architecture one. It might be expected for example conscious profession would support and and the profession submits to a private practice for the poor and the local authority Local authority departments of architecture distinct from exchange. That is to say they do not design buildings which become commodities or sources of profit. Dele Gevle fe public « While there are many inadequate (and some of the reasons for this will be considered briefly in the next section), the same is also practice in lalio 9 s Private Practice, found that ideology is an intriguing that a liberal and socially- foster the idea of welfare provision departments which serviced that. design buildings for use as buildings designed by publie true of private practice. Yet Derk mye privy 18. contrast to prevailing ideas about private practice, there is a tendency to generalise and to arrive at a position where it is imagined that local authority work is inherently bad. But many examples of local | authority architecture praised by the public and the profession alike exist. They range from early L.C.C. housing estates to post war work in the L.C.C., Coventry, Herts County and many others. Why then are the progressive authorities ignored when the image of local authorities is being assembled? ' /OVINS . To some extent this phenomenon may be explained by the potential economic threat which the public sector poses to the private. More importantly = it is ‘Suggested that it is precisely because L.A. architects Jo design Burylobs for use that they are denigrated, and why certain buildings are thought to be a suitable medium for personal architectual expression and others are not. Moreover, public practice itself is similarly for use and not for profit. ‘It thus exists as an alternative and opposing method of practising architecture. That is to say, public service and public practice create an ideological problem. Commentaries on 20th Century architecture are replete with evidence of the view that public architecture at best is a matter of inspecting and cheking the work of others. (45) Private araerice was presented as a much more attractive proposition although at least in the eyes of Lethaby in the 19th Century the method of securing commissions was less than satisfactory. "At present individual architects are at the mercy of vulgar incidents, such as having a flow of dinner talk or being in with a business syndicate or knowing a Lord.'' (46) Even though the public architect did not have to face these indignities, as Summerson has pointed out, in the 19th and early 20th Centuries, "All the glory and much of the profit is associated with the private practitioners."' (47) Neither thirty years of well designed buildings by the School Boards, ten years of new schools by the local authorities, nor the passing of the 1919 Housing Act as a far reaching piece of social legislation, altered the L.A. image. In the 1920's as Summerson again notes,- "Salaried employment -. except as a mere transition to independence was in 1925 a proposition that attracted few and was entertained by the unambitious and the not very talented. Employment in the staff of a local authority .... was sought only by those to whom the pay envelope was a very much more urgent consideration than opportunities for the creation of architecture.'' (48) Thus by the early 1920's ideas which have continued to this day were firmly established. In some quarters however, during the mid 1930's public architecture had begun to stand for the progressive movement. Amongst politically conscious students it was regarded as the architecture of the future. This point of view was championed by the Association of Architects, Surveyors and Technical Assistants (later to become the Association of Building Technicians). The reputation of the L.C.C. and other ‘progressive authorities after the war was due in large measure to the influence of these architects. The reason why this situation has not continued will be examined briefly in the next section. The RIBA still regarded public architecture as disreputable. In 1935 they appointed a special committee on official Architecture. It should be noted that 19. by this time some 20% of registered architects worked in the public sector, but more important, it was becoming Among the committee's recommendations buildings should be given to private practice. ' than one who is cumbered about with much serving.'' (49) 17.4% of architectural posts were unfilled. of the expansion of the public sector. circumstances. (51) a major patron of architecture. was the suggestion that important 20. "dn important municipal buildings, the design should be entrusted to a practising architect in preference to the official man, because where a new building of civic importance is required or where there is scope for fresh ideas of design leading to an advance in architectural planning the outside architect is more likely to be successful and to contribute to such an advance Bowen (50) in his survey of the architectural profession in 1953, found that there was only a small minority of architects who actively supported the advantage of public employment. In support of this the Mallaby Committee on local government staffing reported that in 1966 Ideas and views denigrating the public architect can be traced through to late 1977,even although the RIBA in 1976 pronounced an embargo on public bickering between the public and private sectors, which they said contravened the Code of Conduct. Equally however, public patronage was becoming more and more significant. Following the labour government's expansion of Council house building and schools after the second world war and their severe curtailment of all private building by means of licensing the RIBA setup a committee .... "to consider the Present-.and Future of Private Architectural Practice'' which reported in 1950. Their report, while stressing that it did not regard private and public practice as being mutually antagonistic, significantly in view of its title, presented in fact a detailed analysis They found that although there had been a decrease in private practice employment of around 16% between 1938 and 1949 and a corresponding increase of 20% in Central Government and 18% in Local Governments staffing, that 57% of practices were expanding and a further third reported no change in exchange versus usefulness. in 1952 argued ; main objective."' (52) 21. Furthermore, nearly 20 years later in 1967 the National Board for Prices and Incomes, reported that only 22% of new work was done by the public sector, compared to 54% by private practice. In addition 45% of all public sector work was carried out by private practice. By 1974 however, the Monopolies Commission Report indicated that private practice's share of all building work had fallen to 29%. The public sector undoubtedly does present a potential economic threat to private practice and is perceived to do so, in that studies into the state of private practice and the profession have always taken place in times of curtailment. Nevertheless this does not fully explain the persistence of their concerns, particularly in the first half of the century. What it does suggest is that the major threat posed by public practice and indeed by the local authority services themselves, stem from its opposition to the dominant image which society has of itself as a private and individualistic social arrangement. Eventual ly it will be said these ideas become incorporated in the concept of Gibson et al in their Guest Editor series in the Architects Journal ' Because the public office grew up during a period when private enterprise was the dominant motive in society, it came to be regarded as the haven for the lame duck, the quiet back water where risk and adventure were at a discount and security the Private enterprise is still the dominant motive in society although other conditions have changed so that their supporting ideas have altered as necessary to fit new situations. The relationship between public and private offices however, may be regarded not merely as a result of economic forces but as part of an overall pattern of how cultural relation- ships are established and reproduced. These relationships that is, which are necessary for the perpetuation of the existing social arrangements, must be reproduced if a dominant class is to be reproduced. In order to do this, the society produces ideas which further the interests of the dominant class and which are represented as the only rational and universally valid ones. Furthermore, these ideas, or ideology must have a sufficient degree of effectiveness in rendering social reality intelligible if they are to gain widespread support. Mephan (53) has maintained that idealogy arises from the opacity of reality and that the appearances of things conceal those real relations which themselves produce the appearances. In addition, ideological categories must be inter-dependent and mutually support. They must form a homogeneous matrix which supports the existing social relations. Any departure from these by new.forms of organisation based on different principles for example, will disrupt the homogeniety of the matrix and will be perceived as a threat to its continuing existence. This it will be said is the case with public practice. — Cf. Gen . at Dateae wieetin These ideas, attitudes and intentions form a dominant culture. The - most important of these ideas, according to Raymond Williams (54) is a belief in individualism. It stems from the concept of private ownership. It is suggested the potential opposition between the rights of the individual stemming from individualism and the limiting of private ownership, is resolved by the introduction of a further concept - that of the idea of permanent scarcity, associated with success through individual merit achieved in competition with other individuals. It may be noted that private practice itself is based on these principles and this supports the ideas of the dominant culture. In addition, if the status and livlihood of the private practitioner is dependent on individualised knowledge sold as a commodity, then it is especially likely that individualism will be strongly supported in the architectural profession. For that reason any alternative and oppositional forms which are not based on private practice will appear as a threat, not only to the dominant culture but to the basis of private practice and the profession. While the dominant culture may be 'natural' in our society,in order to perpetuate itself, society also requires that the working class, with its own and potentially oppositional culture, is also reproduced. This culture will include ideas generated by the social conditions of the class and which further a more beneficial arrangement for that class. 22. The different basis of the two cultures is described by Raymond Williams, "Bourgeois culture - is the basic individualist idea and the institutions, manners and habits of thought and intentions which proceed from that. .... Working class culture is not proletarian art ... or a particular use of language, it is rather the basic collective idea, and the institutions manners and habits of thought and intentions which proceed from it. ' (55) It is therefore argued that it is the idea-of collectivity which is the major threat to the dominant culture. Thus, while it is not suggested that the state in any way stems from working class culture, local government is collective in the sense that decisions are made collectively by committees answerable to the public. Public Architects service elected representatives and not individual or corporate private organisations. A further difficulty for local government relates to the English concept of democracy. As Raymond Williams has pointed out, just because democracy in England grew slowly by gradual constitutional amendment the perception of equal rights embodied in democracy is effectively neutralised. He suggests that the idea of economic individual ism creates a more“decisive social image than democratic equality. Active —_— en processes of popular decision ‘such as committees or juries are not recognised as symbols of equality and are more likely to be regarded as inferior to decision making by individuals. Furthermore, the activities of production and trading are increasingly seen as the essential purposes of society in terms of which all other activities must be judged. Instead of society being regarded as a social order, it is more readily thought of as a market. Eventually, Williams suggests, this gave way to an image whereby the organisation of society itself was thought of as a market organisation. Such ideas are continually nourished by the forms of everyday life, where for example, the exchange between capital and labour presents itself to the observer as being of exactly the same kind as the buying and selling of other commodities. 23. The: purchaser gives a certain sum of money and the seller supplies an article which is of a different kind from money. Debord (56) has argued that as the economy developed, the exchange value of a commodity which originally was a function of use value (or degree of usefulness) came to dominate use value so that use value was dictated by exchange. The use value of an object becomes less and less important compared to the exchange value so that eventually a use value must be invented as a justification for exchange value. Adam Smith also made this point; "The things which have the greates value in use have frequently little or no value in exchange; and on the contrary, those which have the greatest value in exchange have little or no value in use.'' (57) If the ideas in society are to sustain this arrangement the evaluation lee of an article or service must be in inverse proportion to its use value. shuyle Thus council services and buildings which are based on use, the use being reproduction, are not only likely to be ranked low, but also to be denigrated because they are in opposition to the dominant ideas of exchange. Private practice is based on the principles of exchange, public practice is based on use, both in the form of tts service, in the nature of the buildings it designs, and in its internal office arrangements. The internal arrangements are also based on different principles to those which obtain in the private sector. In the latter there is an owner, the principal, whose own income, plus the income to service the office, is generated by the surplus produced by the staff. Definite social relations exist between principal and staff resulting from their connections within the process of production. These social relations mustcontinue if private practice is to continue as it is - on the one hand the owner on the other hand the architectural staff who sell their skills as their source of livlihood. These social relations are concealed or blurred in various ways in order thattheymaybeperpetuated.Thisilsikelytobeespeciallythecase where owners and workers share the same skills and the same professional ideology. 24. In the case of the local authority office the situation is different and more complex. The owner to whom the architectural workers sell their skills is the local authority which is a collective owner. The local authofity does not buy these skills to extract a direct surplus, but to achieve a use. The use is the design of buildings which are themselves for social use. Within the office there is no owner. The chief architect does not extract a surplus so that the social relations existing between him and his staff are different to the equivalent private sector situations. It may be speculated that because of this the public office principal will adopt different forms of social control out of necessity. The occasional authoritarian and arbitary nature of this control may be thought of as a result of this. That is to say in the private sector it is in the principal's interest to appear as similar as possible to his or her staff in terms of status, because the issue of control is established. In the public sector on the other hand, it will be necessary for the chief architect to differentiate his status from that of the rest of the staff in order to achieve control. Finally, the nature of public accountability is different in public and private offices. In the latter, accountability to and control by society is achieved through the market and by means of the ARCUK Code of Conduct. The public architect on the other hand, while also being controlled by ARCUK, is accountable to the public via the local government democratic system. In summary it may be said that public practice exists as an oppositional form to the dominant culture,to private practice and to the professional ideology. It is for this reason that public practice has been so consistently vilified. In terms of office structuring, changes in the forms of control are possible in the public sector because the arrangement does not depend on it. This is not the case in private practice where any change to the social relations between principal and staff would mean the abolition of private practice as it exists. — \ Ww 25. ado \. yw PUBLIC PRACTICE - NOTES ON STRUCTURE: A detailed analysis of the structure of public practice in relation to local government as a whole remains to be completed as part of a further study. Central government, fjnance and control over resources will also au_ t form part of a later paper. At this stage it may be noted that all of these have been covered in some depth by others, particularly by the The following brief review has been confined to two aspects of the structure. Firstly the issue of function based design teams and secondly the question of the internal hierarchy. It will be suggested that these two as they exist are major factors in preventing contact between architect and user. Furthermore they may readily be changed to the advantage of both. It was argued earlier that the role of local government is to ensure the maintenance and reproduction of the labour force by providing schools, housing and other services. Local government also attempts to secure the reproduction of the existing social relations, the most important being that labour stays in the same relationship to capital, i.e. the reproduction of the classes. Although these two aspects of the local government role are indivisible, if they are regarded separately it will be seen that the barriers described by Malpass (58), which exist between architect and user,do not result from the first - the provision of services. The barriers are rather the result of the need for local government to ensure that all-.aspects of the social relations are maintained intact. Thus, if in our society which is based on individual achievement through competition with other individuals,.housing came to be regarded as the public's right, this would conflict with the basis of the society. One or another must be eroded, But both the provision and society's image of itself are necessary if the social order is to be maintained. It is suggested therefore that to overcome this problem conditions have arisen which effectively place 'boundaries'' around the provision so that they fail to appear as a right, nor are they easily accessible. Furthermore although local government is a collective institution local government provision is allocated individually. The collective becomes individualised at the point of 26. CommunityDevelopmentProjects. A IbrooCode oy -frov~ Cnseli reproduction, thereby neutralising the collective content of the service. - "Thus the Welfare State is not just a set of services, it is also a set of ideas about society, about the family and - not least important about Women.'' (59). Two of the boundaries which insulate producer from consumer in the architects departments are function based teams and office hierarchies. Central government dictates which services the local authorities should administer and provides grants of various kinds for this purpose. The local authority council delegates the running of these services to various committees - housing,education etc. That is, committees which are function based. These committees of elected members are serviced by technical departments staffed by full time officers. In the case of a 'spending' committee these departments will-act as client to the architects department. Architects departments thus service various committees via the relevant technical department and are responsible to that committee for the service which they provide. They are also responsible to a ''parent'' committee for staffing, etc. This is often the Planning and Development Committee. (Planning engineering and valuation also often came under this committee). This division by function is generally followed in the architects departments where there are separate sections or groups dealing with housing or schools, etc. The job architect consequently will be responsible for projects in different parts of the local authority area rather in the way that a private consulting architect is. In this way the professional ideology of individual architects expressing themselves in their own job is sustained. In addition, architects deal with and become expert in functional issues, i.|e.g. housing or schools. Their experience will therefore be limited, and they must either transfer or leave to extend it. Furthermore as Bennington (60)has pointed out, there are contradictions in the function based committee structure. The councillor is elected to serve the interests of a small geographical area. But once elected the councillor oD vay pater MO" . 27. is appointed to serve on a series of committees which are organised not around any of these interests but around service committees. These committees are concerned with the provision of city wide services. So that the city is treated as a uniform whole. Sectional interests whether of wards or of classes of people are subordinated to those of the general population. Thus, because the service does not relate to a political area, it does not relate to 'people' but to an abstract idea. This is equally the case as far as officers are concerned. The concept | of the a-political officer paid to solve technical problems is thus reinforced, In addition the arrangement of function based client departments and committees creates a 'logical' method of liaison - architect - client officer - client committee. It is 'illogical' to break this circle to relate-to either area councillors or local residents. Job architects already face a wide variety of constraints as Malpass has shown and they may feel reluctant to add to their difficulties by adding yet another hurdle in the path of their project. I The public also have difficulty in crossing this organisational boundary which tends to make them vulnerable to official action while making officers immune to the consequence of that action (61). It is suggested that an architectural team, based on political areas will create the potential for those organisational boundaries to be broken. (This is to be argued in detail in another paper prepared for this conference). Briefly however, the team based on areas will give the team members the opportunity of working in different types of projects. The architect will therefore deal with as many function based committees as require work in a particular area. The architect will relate not to an abstract function, but to an area, to ward councillors and to local residents and users. 28. HEERARCHY: According to Gibson et al (62), the present vertical structuring of local authority departments of architecture in the late 19th century. That is, were comprised of one principal and a small number of apprentices. Giles Gilbert Scott for example who had one 25 apprentices. of the largest practices, had status depends on design indeterminacy, not numbers of staff. stemmed from private practice from a time when private practices 29. The concept of one individual architect also relates back to architectural knowledge as a commodity and to owner and workers, both of which are in accordance with the dominant ideology. As private practices grew so did the number of partners, each being equally responsible in law. (A common ratio in large private practices is one partner to seventeen staff). In public practice however the concept of one chief wholly responsible to the client remained. Webb (63) has shown how various intermediary grades were introduced and while his argument leaves room for doubt, he has graphically illustrated the position. As the ratio of chief architect to architectural workers rise to 1:100 and over, problems of control must necessarily arise. The obvious solution and the one adopted throughout public practise is to create intermediate levels whose function is to control. Following Jamous and Pelloile's argument therefore, it may be said that the job architect's status and position depends on his or her indeterminacy, that is to say, on that indeterminate architectural knowledge which cannot be codified. The intermediate functionary however, as Webb and others have shown, do no design work. Their status depends on another form of indeterminacy based on procedural and managerial matters. If they are to succeed in this role they must necessarily increase the ratio of procedural over design indeterminacy. It is suggested that this is achieved by increasing the number of workers to whom they relate. They thus depart from the professional model where The job architect relates upwards to these levels, who while blocking access to the chief architect and to the committees, control not only discipline but also design work in the department. They form a further 'boundary' between job architect and committee in an administrative arrangement which has already been described as circular. those and architectural staff. for further boundary reduction becomes feasible. Lsula Ax warpil, 30. In private practice the situation is different. Only one level and sometimes not that separates job architect also drew attention to this. -They suggested that there should be only one level between architectural worker that level should have 'partner' status with the chief. (64) In effect they were arguing for several chief architects, each directly responsible to the client for work suggested that a ratio of 1:10 should While this suggestion also will be discussed in more detail in another paper at the conference, it can be pointed out that the effect of these proposals would be to reduce boundaries between architectural worker and user. Seen in conjunction with area based teams the possibility and partner. Gibson et al and chief architect and that carried out. Further more they be the maximum between each of REFERENCES: (1) (S$. Webb "Architecture Alienation and the Omnipotent Adminman'' AJ 19.10.77 p.751 "The Local State"! Estimated Employment Distribution of Architects 1964 - 1977 Survey of the Architectural Profession AJ 15.10.53 "Report of the Committee to Consider the Present and Future of Private Architectural Practice!’ 1950 "Architects Services - A Report on the Supply of Architects Services with Reference to Scale Fees'' p.12 "Building by Local Authorities'' "Whatever Happened to Council Housing'' op cit op cit ibid "Architects Costs and Fees'! National Board for Prices and Incomes 1968 Guest Editor Series AJ 14.2.52 p.207 opcit p.137 (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) also ( C. Cockburn ( RIBA also ( ( 1. Bowen RIBA The Monopolies and Mergers Commission E. Layton C.D.P. E. Layton RIBA RIBA HMSO ( (11) (12). Layton (13) Institution for Gibson et al Proceedings of Housing and Town Planning Municipal Engineers Conference West Bromwich 191] p.3 (14) Institution for Municipal Engineers (15) J. Summerson (16) L. Althusser (17) Marx (18) J. Mepham (19) J. Clarke AJ Editorial 22.1.53 p.119 "Georgian London" "Lenin and Philosophy and other Essays’! "Capital Vol. 1' p.635 "Theory of Ideology in Capital''in Radical Philosophy I] "History of Local Government in the United Kingdont' REFERENCES: (Cont'd) (20) M. Bruce and E. Hobsbawm (21) J. Harris (22) L. Hill (23) J. Clarke (24) J. Tarn (25) G. Stedman Jones (26) J. Tarn (27) G. Stedman Jones (28) J. Tarn (29) D. Rubenstein (30) E. Gauldie (31) E. Gauldie (32) J.Clarke (33) P. McCann (Ed) - (34) =P. McCann (35) P. McCann (36) P. McCann (37) P. McCann (38) P. McCann (39) Gibbon & Bel] (40) A Servi ce (41) F. Jenkins (42) Barrington Kaye (43) J. Clelland (44) W. Benjamin "The Coming of the Welfare State" "Labouring Men"! "British Government Inspection'' p.12 "The Local Government Officer’ pp.13-15 op cit "Working Class Housing in the 19th Century' p.51 "Outcast London"! p.52 op cit p.4 op cit p. 179 op cit p. 16 "Victorian Homes'' p.188 "Cruel Habitations' p.308 ibid p.307 op cit p.37 "Popular Education and Socialisation in the 19th Century" p.93 ‘ibid p.101 ibid - cited by Rubinstein p.255 ibid p.240 ibid p.242 ibid p.243 "History of the LCC, 1889-1939"! "Edwardian Architecture and its Origins'' p.407 "Architect and Patron!! "The Development of the Architectural Profession in Britain" In conversation May 1978 "Paris - Capital of the 19th Century" From Charles Baudelaire - A lyric poet in the Era of High Capitalism p.172 REFERENCES: (Cont'd) (45) (46) (47) (48) (49) (50) (51) (52) (53) (54) (55) (56) (57) (58) e.g. Barrington Kaye op cit F. Jenkins is Summerson Barrington Kaye Barrington Kaye Bowen RIBA Gibson etal J. Mepham - Williams . Williams - Debord - Smith . Malpass op cit - citing Lethaby "The London Building World of the 1860's p.21 op cit - p.234 - citing Summerson ibid p.166 AJ 10.12.53 p.714 "Report of the Committee to Consider the Present and Future of Private Architectural Practice" AJ Guest Editor Series 13.3.52 p.327 "The Theory of Ideology in Capital" from Radical Philosophy 2 "Culture and Society'' also "The Long Revolution'! ibid "Society of the Spectacle'! "Wealth of Nations! "Architects Professionalism and Local Authority Housing" p.75 "Women and the Welfare State!’ p.9 "Local Government becomes Big Business'' p.13 (CDP) (59) (60) (61) (62) (63) (64) Gibson et al - Wilson J. Bennington a Malpass Gibson et al S. Webb ibid op cit op cit op cit ) oh, * low pou pS 1 Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM PDS Group (John Murray) Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 06 May 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/63e4601962282ba671d9ef545bb48fcc.pdf 5f54569593ddbdd147672b061567987f Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource PDS Conference Subject The topic of the resource PDS Conference May 1978: Invitations, Programme, Applications, Attendance List File, Press Release Description An account of the resource qailan aS heeTa DD =Sek i S=AX SDaNv2S aSav ow—oSS c Diay. LS<7D 3 e P27 FLL (note Inches | | eae Blue Cyan ai iB g \4 E | 0 { 2 3 4 ‘ Centimetres Ss Green Yellow Red Magenta White 3/Color Black ©© Inviatatiaon PUBLIC DESIGN GROUP New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London WI. 3rd April 1978. Dear PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE, UCATT HALL, GOUGH STREET, BIRMINGHAM As you may know, the New Architecture Movement decided at its Hull Congress in November 1977 to develop further its policies relating to the Public Sector. Since then, work in this field has continued steadily and the Public Design Group which was delegated at Hull to arrange a conference now invite you to attend this, the first NAM Public Design Service Conference in Birmingham on Saturday 6 May 1978. During the past months we have met regularly and consolidated our propramme. In addition to refining our critique of architectural patronage and local authority working arrangements, we have been considering the origins and evolution of local authority architectural departments, their internal structure and their relationship to the profession, private practice and to society as a whole. Papers on these Will be available at the conference. We feel that discussions have now progressed sufficiently for interim proposals to be made. At the same time areas of further study and action have been identified and more support is needed to extend the work | of this group. We therefore hope that you will wish to participate in | the conference and to contribute subsequently to the programme. AS you can see from the attached papers it will be a very full day. We hope you Will be able to attend, and we look forward to receiving hi application as early as possible and to seeing you in Birmingham on th May. Yours sincerely, for Public Design Group, NAM. Programme DEMOCRATIC DESIGN A PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE T2.15 - 13.00 13.00 = T4.00 14.00 = 14.30 T4.30 - 15.00 15.00 = 15.45 15.45 = 16.00 16.00 = 16.30 16.30 = 17.15 E7eL5 = 17230 17.30 Their origins, structure and their relationship to private practice and the profession. DISCUSSION. LUNCH - Food available at the Conference. NEW APPROACHES IN HACKNEY - Tom Bulley. Some first steps by L.A. Workers. THE D.L.O. EXPERIENCE - Peter Carter. DISCUSSION+ TEA. A NEW ROLE FOR PUBLIC DESIGN = Adam Purser. Including Interim Proposals and future strategy. DISCUSSION. CONCLUDING REMARKS = Chairman. CONFERENCE CLOSES. SATURDAY 6 MAY at UCATT House, Gough Street, Birmingham I. I0.00 - 10.30 10.30 = 10.35 I0.35 - 10.50 10.50 = II.15 REGISTRATION AND COFFEE. TI.15 - IT.45 II.45 i T2.15 DISCUSSION . CURRENT ROLE OF L.A. DEPTS. OF ARCHITECTURE = John Murray, CONFERENCE OPENHD BY K. BARLOW, REG. SEC. UCATT, AIMS OF THE CONFERENCE - Chairman's opening comments. THE PARTY POLITICAL CONTEXT - Howard Smith. Implications following the Local Elections. SIRMINGHAM| City Centre ROAD Gough Street __| Location Guoas¥* ag New Street Station —_ Application NOTES: Te Please make cheques payable to New Architecture Movement. 2. To save postage we will not confirm unless so requested. Sia If you can, please copy this form and pass to anyone you think may be interested. 9 POLAND STREET, LONDON WI. f PUBLIC DESIGN SERVICE CONFERENCE: Birmingham 6th May 1978. CONFERENCE FEE: Number of People: £1.00 each (exclusive of meals) Cost: Total £ Ay Please send completed form and cheque as early as possible to: PUBLIC DESIGN GROUP, NEWARCHITECTURE MOVEMENT, NAME ADDRESS TEL. NO. OFFICE (If L.A. Worker) 12.45 a 1.45 1.45 = 2.05 2.05 Ls 2.30 = 3,00 3.00 > 5.30 2.30 — 4,00 4.00 = 4.30 4.30 = 4.45 4.45 = 4.55 4 5.00 een Un ebnlivt 3.3” Wwe|, DEMOCRATIC DESIGN - A NEW ROLE FOR LOCAL AUTHORITY ARCHITECTS DEPARTMENTS Registration and morning coffee Opening Kemarke by Bro. K Barlow, Regional Secretary, UCATT. Chairman's Address, A Frurser Role of Local Authority Architects Departments, J Murrey Discussion Lunch Local Level Experience = Hackney, T Sulley ° DIO Experience, F Carter ~- Political Parties and Their Views, H Smith . Discussion A future for Public Design, A Purser Discussion Resolution Chair's Closing Remarks, J Murray Conference Closes Organised by the Public Design Service Group, ‘ew Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, LondonW le 4. Goamna. Fp 4vee CONFERENCE TIMETABLE To ve held on Saturday, 6th May 1976 at UCAT? House, Gough Street, 146 Mustinne Read lida. Clade 16 Motkianwn Creat Sheet Birmingham, 1. 'ae wore pas eewyrermmeaaryyNUM -CUFRyeWK. Crude HES Wale yp PNehad j 10, lng Meades Real Cromey Sheet wel. David Abln, wks lol Whyko Lane Cluclostty Sussex CAfhel. Ceany Bishop | 275 Man OL, Rectlutl ob4 Ann. 1 Aare Forkh . CloBina hannah)Aclulset Dopt mele Backes *tence Blum . {Im . 146 hushinwe Mad livda Clrkg 16 Norttian Jeanna. oN BooTiFul AluiTSHE ? G YO HANBS T0O (COE IN KIKAA HANDY “TA STORE MA CATRE bs, FE66..!) J 6-31 March RIBA ‘Paper sculpture’ exhibi- tion will be retained until 31 March. At the RIBA, 66 Port- land Place, London W1. Mon- day-Friday 10.00-18.00 (closed from 12.00 on 23 March until 10,00 on 28 March). Admission free. 13-31 March RIBA ‘Turkish architectural At the RIBA, 66 Portland Place, Lon- don W1. Monday-Friday 10.00- heritage’ exhibition. 18,00 (closed 23-28 March in- clusive). Admission free. 30 March Society for Architecture and In- stitute of Consulting Architects joint meeting “Sensing architec- ture’. Raymond Moxley and Frederick Chadwick introduce a new programme of events in More architects but fewer new admissions In 1977 there were 26 223 architects on the ARCUK register. There has been a steady rise since 1973 when there were 24 559. New admissions, however, have steadily fallen over this period from 1156 to 843. Kingsweston scheme turned down Planning permission to build a police HQ on land around Vanbrugh’s grade I listed Kingsweston House, near Bristol, has been refused by the city council. The scheme, designed by Avon county architect’s department (AJ 28.9.77 p538), included the repair and conversion of the house and garden aildings. The police have not yet decided whether to appeal or find another site. The Architects’ Journal 22 March 1978 HYRAM .K, ZIMMERMAN 1S NEGOTIATING THE PURCHASE OF THE CURRENT OBJECT OF 1S HEARTS DESIRE Carnegie Trust launches environmental fund Local amenity groups registered with the Civic Trust are eligible for a three year programme of grants launched this week by the Carnegie Trust. The scheme is intended to help groups provide facilities which will give residents and yisitors an insight into the character and resources of their areas, Grants for the projects, expected to include town trails, conservation area guides and wall sheets, will normally meet up to 50 per cent of costs. Obituary: Philip Scholberg Philip Scholberg, who as Brian Grant edited the AJ’s products pages for nearly 40 years, died last week aged 72. He retired in 1975. Future events B...BUT WHY EXACTLY Do YOU WANT, T° BUY St PANCRAS MR ZIMMERMAN 7 GUESS ITS JES’ MA HOBBY, Son... AIM TA TRANSPORT 1TBACK T'HA RANCH IN “TEX--A.S GOT 27 OLE ANTIQVvE STATIONS BAGC “THERE ---/ TELL YA WHAT J'LLBO... £6 MilLion ON TH’ NAIL MY FINAL OFFER ---Au! AS AN EXTRA BONUS LLTAKE “THET THARE.-+> Entries invited for Saltire award The Saltire Society which presents an annual award for good design in housing in Scotland is inviting entries for its 1978 award. The award is given in two categories, new and restored. Closing date is28 April. Housing Centre Trust national conference ‘A better life in towns’. Speakers: Roy Emerson, Professor Graham Ashworth, Leslie Ginsburg and Ed Berman. At Scientific Societies Lecture Theatre, 23 Savile Row, London Wi. Fees: members £1620; architecture and the senses, pre- ceded by the film Beauty i trust (recorded commentary by Sir John Betjeman). At London House, Mecklenburg Square, frers WCl. Details from: Hon Secretary (01-589 0726). 19.00. non-members £21-60; £8.64. Details from: 3424 extns 283 or 291. 13 April students 01-240 oe Institute of Advanced Architec- tural Studies ‘Building perform- ance’ a two-week study course to examine the evaluation of build- ing performance and feedback from user to designer. At Univ- ersity of York, King’s Manor, York. Details from: David Rymer (0904 24919). 1-12 May ee NAM Public Design Service con- ference ‘Democratic design—@ new role for the local authority architect?’ to be held in Birming- ham. Details from: The Secre- tary, PDS Group, NAM, 9 Poland Street, London WI. |6May Pe 1 Nestling on an awkward site in the centre of Brighton is a new office building which shows that it is possible to build successfully in historic towns without resorting to pastiche. Much of the inspiration for the design comes, in fact, from the awkwardness of the site. Located in a narrow strect below Brighton station, the building occupies a pivotal site between immenscly tall buildings on Frederick Place and small terraced houses in Queen's Road Quadrant. To make the most of this dramatic change of scale the building is designed (architects Hughes Lomax and Adutt) in two parts of differing height linked by a service core and dominated by a tall brick tower. So, when viewed down Queen's |Road Quadrant from Queen's | Road (the only direction from | which most people will see the building) the office rises in scale from three storeys, similar to the terraces, to five storeys behind. This difference in height will probably be increased for elfices at required apen atfice space Frederick Place 0 5 10 \Sen a Schematic floor plan. Tint shows circulation the building is designed to allow for another floor to be built on top of the tall portion. The other factor determining design was the client’s (a firm of solicitors) desire to keep costs down. The architects had to design a building which was cheap to construct (it has cost £16 per sq ft to build totalling £331 000) and which would be cheap to heat and maintain. Consequently only the tall part of the building has a reinforced concrete frame with the rest being constructed of load bearing brick. The windows’ sizes have been kept to a minimum and the walls are extra thick with a double size cavity half of which is packed with insulation. Job architect: Stephen Adutt Photographs: Duncan McNcill 1 The Frederick Place frontage from Queen’s Road Quadrant. 2 Looking past the terraces in Queen’s Road Quadrant from Queen's Road 3 The entrance hall. lave| reception Tt central facilities The Architects’ Journal 22 March 1978 537 5. — Rest Gloucester \ | hoa Ted, WARA PulolieTern Soriee Corferencte : Wntrelasy Ci aeeinen :) PhatWweagiedte-matothave2 fay J road sillbeverypleatotdeodthirbul dncasyeou Yor Sica, qe Mann, aoe have Homebefotere cory = rar tre Somenotes,@Lette,ofdniuinian / dal fov B.D. wuk edig blannsa my absence pr~ nivile.$0 perhaps a Dayal Be Sess an yous maniags» Tel: 888 1212 Work 348 87'3 Home aol proye—rne shu may ye you auengh to Sav - © Sow ured lilymnt difomationpliatHg mo. Somat Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Invitations and Applications Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/a73afa35b5014f23b178ce980e456d1b.pdf 640675f7decf8c56d9a0b9d993b684fb Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource NAM PDS RESEARCH 1978 Subject The topic of the resource A file of several papers used as research for the PDS Group Description An account of the resource = CU rs G} Joint Centre for Regional Urban and Local Government Studies J G Smith Building UniversityofBirmingham PO Box 363 Birmingham B15 2TT Telephone 021 472 1301 extn 2143 Cables Inlogov Birmingham Telex Spacephys B’ham 339838 CentreforUrbanandRegionalStudies InstituteofLocalGovernmentStudies Director Professor A S Travis 14th April, 1978. s Unfortunately, I can recommend no material in this library of direct relevance to the subject you are studying. Of course we have the normal abstracting and indexing sources such as Departments of Environment and Transport Library Bulletin and Urban Abstracts and so on which you may well have found in other libraries. The only reference which may be of use to you is "Professionalism and the role of architects in local authority housing" by Peter Malpass in RIBA Journal, June 1975. Of course you are welcome to come up to Birmingham and use our facilities at anytime although we do not loan material to anyone outside the Centre. I am sorry I could not help you further. Yours sincerely, Mem A. R. NEWSON Librarian. Mr. John Murray, 5 Milton Avenue, London, N.6. Dear Mr. Murray, Director Professor J D Stewart Thank you for your letter concerning your research into architectural departments in local authorities. a Curs 9) J G Smith Building University of Birmingham PO Box 363 Birmingham B15 21T Telephone 021 472 1301 extn 2143 Cables Inlogov Birmingham Telex Spacephys B’ham 339838 CentreforUrbanandRegionalStudies InstituteofLocalGovernmentStudies Dear Mr. Murray, Yours sincerely, A. R. NEWSON Librarian. Director Professor A S Travis 14th April, 1978. Director Professor J D Stewart Joint Centre for Regional Urban and Local Government Studies Mr. John Murray, : 5 Milton Avenue, London, N.6. v4 Thank you for your letter concerning your research into architectural departments in local authorities. Unfortunately, I can recommend no material in this library of direct relevance to the subject you are studying. Of course we have the normal abstracting and indexing sources such as Departments of Environment and Transport Library Bulletin and Urban Abstracts and so on which you may well have found in other libraries. The only reference which may be of use to you is "Professionalism and the role of architects in local authority housing" by Peter Malpass in RIBA Journal, June 1975. Of course you are welcome to come up to Birmingham and use our facilities at anytime although we do not loan material to anyone outside the Centre. T am sorry I could not help you further. geriatric ward by sin reciting and will also behanding ing A outEaster“®andpresents defeated. A COMMUNIST candidate who strongly youth centre on Broadwater Farm opposes racism is to stand in the Borough Elections in West Green ward. Mr Terry Heath, 44, has represented Estate and for more full-day nurseries in Haringey. He intends to mobilise public campaigns involving community groups the Broadwater Farm Tenants and trade unions to defend and improve Association in regular meetings with the council for the past five years, and has been involved in campaigns against rent increases and for better conditions on the estate. If elected, he says he will fight for a public services and for more jobs He is a full time official of the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), the building workers union. Terry Heath Joins ight Royal Institute of British Architects 66 Portland PlaceLondonW1N4AD SM/DR 26th April 1978 Mr. Murray, 5, Milton Avenue, LONDON N6. Dear Mr. Murray, Architects! Field of Employment With reference to our telephone conversation of today, the figures below represent the most readily available. All figures from 1970 to 1977 are based on Earnings Surveys. I found a rather ancient document which was also derived from an Darnings Survey, which includes some of the figures you require for 1950. I have enclosed a complete copy of this, as you may find the comments of interest. Employment Distribution of Architects 16h 1970meno72 elo(Onee1D Principals in Private Practice 26.0 29.6 29.1 27.0 27.6 Employees in Private Practice 24.1 19.2 20.5 20.0 17.6 localAuthorities POOeeolez31613163 Central Govt. & National Boards 10.5 11.9 9.8 131 14.4 Education Other Private Employment Yours sincerely, AG rnthe~ Sheila Miller (Mrs) Statistician 2.7 3.3 35.0 3-3 8.0 8.6 6.0 5.0 (All figures are percentages) 3.0 6.1 > 01-580 5533 Ext. 261 "\ and local organisations. Outside the Town Hall a view often express-— ed is that the Council is run by a hier- archy of paid officials and not by the 64 elected members. The new Council intends to ensure that this is not the case, I am pleased that this Labour administration 1s the support of the Conservative yinority group in condueting a thorough This committee meets in public and anyone interested is welcome to attend (see page 2 for timetable). Representatives of our staff and works sides sit on the committee as advisers, which emphasises that we are definitely not aiming to make cuts,create redundancies or run down any of our essential services to the community. While we are likely to be proposing changes in our management and committee procedures, our objectives are to improve the Council's services to, and relation= ships with, the public and to make I am sure most people agree that there is much room for improvement so far as the Council is concerned, On the next pages are some notes setting out the main sub- jects being looked at by the Special Review Committee, However we are interest- ed in positive suggestions on any aspects of the Council's operations (not individ- ual cases or grievances please),.Further background information is included later in the bulletin, to make the changes which are needed, It is vital for the future of Lambeth that together we really do succeed in this goal. Councillor Bryn Davies LAMBETH eas a issued on behalf of the Spe Review Committee by the Public Relations Office, a LambethTownHal,BrixtonHil,SW21RW. AUGUST 1978 For additional copies or information contact Pat Cox (274 7722 ext 50: internal 233) YOU TELL US review of the organisation and work of the Council. A Special Review Committee of Send your comments by 15 September if possible to the Chairman of the Special councillors of both parties has been set up which will complete its work within a vear. Any urgent or obvious changes can be made as the work proceeds. Review Committee, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton, SW2 1RW. You will get a chance to comment on our specific proposals early next year, Help your new Council (Introduction by Deputy Leader of the Council and Chairman of the Special Review Committee). This"#reen paper” seeks the views of local people on how their local authority should be organised and run. Comments are also effective the involvement of the elected councillors in the making of policies and decisions. This after all, is what open government is all about. invited fromthe Council's 9,000 employees, their trade unions, members of the Council 15 Sept.1978 4 Oct.1978 18 Oct 1978 19 Oct.1978 15 Nov.i978 29 Nov.1978 13 Dec.1978 Ist week in January 1979 15 Feb.1979 7 Mar.1979 21 Mar.1979 April cycle ending with Council meeting 2.5.79) Committee meeting to con- sider draft initial report for consultation with members, staff and the community. Publish draft initial report inviting comments by 15th February. Closing date for submission of comments on the draft initial report, (i.e. allowing about 6 weeks for consultation). report, 2 Council meeting to consider the final report for implementation from the Council's Meeting in May 1979, Annual with effect ; PROGRAMME FOR SPECIAL REVIEW COMMITTEE Closing date for submission of comments on the Discuss— ion Document. Committee meeting "to rec-— eive replies and, if appropriate, invite oral evidence and also consider published works on manage- ment", Committee meeting to receive replies and consider final Committee meeting to consider preliminary draft Proposals, If any conclus- ions finalised on short term changes or otherwise recommendations can be Submitted to the Council, Meetings can be arranged in this cycle if it has not been possible for the Committee to complete its work by 7th March, THE PRINCIPAL ISSUES Committee meeting to receive oral evidence, "To review the organisation of the work of the Council including the structure of the Council's committees and departments", 1.2 In order to carry out their work the Committee are anxious to obtain information and Opinions on as wide a basis as possible: not Council meeting to receive outline report on evidence received and any firm ideas under consider- ation. Council meeting to rec- eive any recommendations which may have been finalis-— ed by the Committee on 15th November, le Introduction 1.1 The notes which follow concern the review of the Council being undertaken by the Special Review Committee which was established by the Council at their meeting on May 24th, 1978. The Committee was Given the following terms of reference:— 2. The format of these notes 2el The notes which follow outline the five principal issues in which the Committee are particularly interested, and provide background material against which those intending to give evidence to the 3- Evidence 3.2 Ewidence for the review should be sent to the Chairman of the Special Review Committee, Lambeth Town Hall, Brixton Hill, Swe 1RW. The Committee would be grateful if it could be sent in no later than 15thSeptember, 1978. 4, Issue One: Policy formation and implementation 4.1 The Committee wish to have views on how and where the Council should create its policy and the way in which it should establish its priorities between these policies. In particular how can policy options be presented openly to members with information on their different effectse On the basis of the policies which have been decided how can the Council best monitor and review the way in which these policies are being carried out? In what way should the Council control and deploy its principal resources of finance, land and personnel? 4,2 At present the Council has a Community Plan, a Borough Development Plan, in course of preparation under town planning legisla- tion, and an Annual Budget. What role should the preparation and implementation of such plans and similar approaches have in the Council's work? How should the Council carry out its longer term thinking and research? 5. Issue : Committee structure 5.1 The Review Committee have to report on what is the appropriate Committee structure for the Council. At present, the main principle upon which the Committee structure is based is that all activities of the Council should be classified by their objectives and services contributing to the same general objectives should as far as practicable be grouped under a single Committee. 5.2 The Committee would welcome views on what should be the responsibilities, powers, number and size of the Council's Committees. How can these committees be run so as to take effective decisions in the most efficient way that is desirable? What form of co-ordination and control is needed between the Council's various activities as carried out by different committees? At present, cmsiderable reliance is placed on a Policy Committee to achieve this. 5-3 Because of the considerable and detailed nature of much of the Council's work a lot of issues are delegated to Sub-Committees, Committee Chairmen and the Council's principal officers. What role should such delegation of powers play in the Council's operations, is there scope for further delegation and how should the exercise of such delegated powers be monitored and controlled? . : 5-4 To assist in their work the Council co-opts non-councillors to some committees. What value do such co-options have, and to what extent should the Council use this provision? How should the authority's employees be ok2 Committee can give their own views. The notes are not intended to restrict the nature of the evidence; nor is there any necessity to comment on all the matters raised in them. 3.1 The Committee may wish to include in their reports, extracts from the evidence sent to them. In the absence of statements to the opposite effect, the Committee will assume that they are free to use the evidence in their reports if they wish to do so. 8. Issue Five: Devolution of powers 4 involved (under present law voting membership of committees is prohibited)? Committees have also established a considerable number of sub-committees, working parties and policy groups; what should be the role and function of such bodies within an improved Committee atxcucture? 6. Issue Three: The e of the illor 6.1 The Committee are particularly concerned to consider what are the appropriate role, powers and functions of Councillors and would welcome views on the following points. Is there a need for a greater involvement of individual members, in particular backbenchers, in the making of council policy and its administration? If so, how is this best to be achieved? To what extent should Councillors be in touch with all the Council's activities and how can -phis be facilitated? Alternatively, should Councillors be assisted and epnouraged to exercise their specialist interest and if so what ways? 6.2 What information do Councillors require to exercise their functions most effectively and how should this information be supplied? What other services do Councillors need as ward representatives and in ® particular how can they be assisted to deal with their individual case work? Te Issue Four: + structure 7.1 At present the management structure of the Council is based on a corporate approach. The intended aim is to enable each of the Council's policies and the allocation of resources to be considered in relation to each other. The cornerstone of this structure is the Board of Directors. The Committee are interested in views as to whether the stated aim is being achieved in practice and if not how can it be improved? In particular can the problems of comprehension involved in any attempt to oversee the whole of the Council's activi- ties be overcome and if so how? 7.2 The Committee will also wish to consider whether there are alternative structures which would better serve the Council's needs. Would a structure based more on departments be better or is there scope for a mare generalist approach to solving the Council's problems? In particular should a project based approach, as has already been adopted to some extent in Housing Action Areas, be used on a wider basis? ) 8,1 The Council's intention is to make the Town Hall machinery more accessible to and responsive to the needs of local people. The Comaittee are interested in receiving views on how this can be achieved. In particular they will wish to consider whether the Council should delegate some of its powers to lower tier bodies on either a functional or a geographical basis. If some form of area Ranagoment were adopted,what functions and decisions would it be appropriate to delegate and how would any such geographical areas be determined? What effect would such delegation have on the Council's RPanagement structure? 8.2 In more general terms how can more local involvement in the aotivities of the Council be achieved? How should the Council open up its processes and what information should be provided to strengthen this involvement? SOME BACKGROUND NOTES ELECTED COUNCILLORS The Council consists of 64 councillors representing the 22 wards into which the borough is divided. Twenty wards elect three councillors each, two wards two councillors each, The Mayor who may be a man or woman is elected by the Council each year from among their members. He or she is the chief citizen of the borough and plays an active role as civic representative in the public life of the community, is chairman of the Council and also presides at Council meetings. Politics play an integral part in the itish democratic system at local as well ~ at national level. Anyone who complies with statutory requirements may stand for election at the four-yearly borough elect- ions, but it is the practice of the major political parties to put up most of the candidates, After the election, party groupings continue to play an important role in shaping Council policies, operating in a similar way to those of the House of Commons. At present Labour hold a majority of about two to one over the Conservatives. The Leader of the Council, who is also Chairman of the Policy Committee is selected hy the majority party group from among its membership. The minority party group selects one of its members to be Leader of the Opposition, These political groups also appoint their own officers such as Whips, to help them promote their Wei cise interests in accordance with ir election manifestos. In most cases, members combine Council work which involves attendance at evening Council and committee meetings with ther full-time jobs. They are entitled to a small attendance allowance when particip- ating in official meetings, but otherwise they work voluntarily. COUNCIL MEETINGS The Council meets once every six weeks (August excepted) at the Town Hall at 7pm on Wednesdays, The agenda and minutes are printed and canbe seen at any public library and are available on application from the Information Centre at the Town Hall. Council meetings and most committee meet—- ings are open to the public and press. Tickets can be obtained at the main entrance to the Town Hall on the day of the meeting. WORK OF THE COUNCIL You can get an idea of the Council's activities, how much they cost and future proposals from the Lambeth Community Plan published annually, setting out the Council's policies and forward planning The Community Plan is divided into seven volumes covering different Council services, each volume dealing with one or more of the Council's committees, Copies are available for reference at all public libraries and also for purchase at the Town Hall, The Community Plan is revised each year in an extensive planning process, involving all members of the Council, leading up to the making of the rate in the Spring. However, throughout the year there remain many other decisions to be made in order to implement the Community Plan policies, Most of this work is carried out by nine major committees cach responsible for a group of services. Some of these committ— ces appoint sub-committees to deal with certain aspeets of their work, In addit- ion, the Council appoints a policy committee to give guidance to overall strategy and corporate planning. During a six-week period each committee usually meets once and at the end of the six week cycle a full Council meeting is held at which each committee reports its decisions or makes recommendations to the Council. As the volume of business to be dealt with during the Municipal year is so great certain decisions are delegated to committees, sub-committes, chairmen and directors without reporting back to the full Council. Lambeth's committee meetings are open to the press and public, but there are some matters which have to be kept private for the time being and are discussed E after the public part of tle meeting,such as the buying of land or property, possible redevelopment proposals, legal procedures, contracts and items concerning individual people or families. : THE COMMITTEES Policy Formulating the Annual budget strategy. General co-ordination of policy and administration. Amenity Services Libraries, swimming pools and aeratone baths, sports, arts and recreation Planning and Development Local development plans, development facilities; entertainments Spaces, childrens playgrounds; town-twinn- ing, hiring out of public halls. Construction Services ————eeee Building and housing maintenance, rehabil- itation, conversion and construction, Finance and General Purposes Social Services eS SES. Health and Consumer Services Environmental health, food hygiene, control of noise and air pollution control of factories, registration trades, food and drugs licensing functions, consumer protection and advice,schvol milk, registration of charities, births, deaths public baths and Laundries, promotion of publie and home safety, Housing Management and maintenance of Council dwellings. Housing advisory service, provision for homeless under Council's purchase improvement areas and housing action areas, Management Services a e aEeee parks and open of specific street trading, and marriages, families, mortgages scheme. General control, town planning, ions, employment matters, Public Services patSAnLa planning applicat- MANAGEMENT STRUCTURE Continuous assessment and amendment of a Community Plan setting out the broad pattern of proposed changes in and the development of services in relation to the financial and other resources avai lable New roads, traffic management schemes, road cleansing, refuse collection, street lighting, trees, sewerage (as agents for the Thames Water Authority) drainage, flood prevention, public conveniences, cemeteries and crematoria, maintenance of Council transport, and regularly monitoring its implementation, Control of all Council financial trans- actions, rates, raising of loans, insurance, Superannuation and investments, central public and community relations, neighbour- hood councils, Mayoralty, clectoral registration, elections, The management structure of the Council is organised into ten directorates, Each is headed by a director responsible to the Chief Executive for the management and effective operation of the directorate, Between them Lambeth directorates have a combined work force of officers and Children's services, welfare of old people and physically and mentally handicapped, travel concessions, The ten directorates are listed on the chart following. 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REOODOODOOHAOO¢ WLA2 7®@ ine EP Mat Reward - 6066000000000 0008008 = HARINGEY O°"T2AL AREA +LEADER'S CONFERENCE (COMMITTEE STRUCTURE) Notes of conclusion of meeting held on 15 February 1978 OF 27 FEBI978 err RECEIVED COMMITTED STRUCTURE TERMS OF REFERENCE AND DELEGATION POWERS AND OUTSIDE REPRESHULALTICN D,_- SUBORDINATE BODIES 17 COMMITTEES Considered the discussion document prepared by the Chief Executive ana Borough Secretary and Solicitor and arising therefrom dealt with the following matters so as to enable more detailed consideration to be given at a subsequent meeting. A. OBJECTIVES The purpose of this review of the Committee Structure, with consequential adjustments to the Terma of Reference and Delegation.of Powers, ig to suostantinlly reduce the number of evening commitments for Members by reducing the number of bodies constructing the Committee structure, limiting membersaip thereof, and ensuring that the decision making machinery is effective and efficient. The review is necessary not only because total membership of the Council is reduced from 70 to 59 from May, but because Members commitments, particularly meetings, have reached unacceptable levels. B. POLICY MAKING Agreed that the present arrangements, whereby matters requiring policy guidance etc are referred to the Policy Advisory Group (or specially to a Leader's Conference) whose advice, if approved by Majority Group, is relayed to the Service Committees for implementation,is an effective system and should continue. Agreed further that the creation of a Policy Committee is not necessary. % Officers were asked to >eport upon ways of achieving this broader delegation, together with such checks and limitations that may be necessary; levels of decision making,and the eiministrative arrangements to give effect thereto. G. BASE FOR COMMITTEE STRUCTURE Considered whether the structure should be Service based, or Area based with ‘mini Councils! controlling the requiren ats of areas. Acreed that a Service based structure broadly similar to present arrangements should continue. : Considered that Service Committees should be made more autonomous by considerably relaxing central controls exercised in relation to Terms of Reference and Delegation of Powers, estimates and budgetary control, staffing matters, land transactions ete. The function of central resource committees should be to provide broad guidelines for Service Conmittees who should operate within such guidelines with only exceptions being subject to Central Committee consideration -and approval. }. Service Committees shou.d themselves control the delegation of powers to their Bubordinate groups; control changes in their expenditure within their approved total expenditure; approve staff changes within approved guidelines and approve land transactions and, possibly some planning matters within approved policies. In principle, these should ;onsist broadly oft- . ,G. DIVISION OF COMMITTEE FUNCTIONS t —_——<— 1. Sub-Committees mecting regularly within the time-table, having delegated powers for a continuing purpose, a formal agenda, serviceé by the Secretariat, and open to the press and public. 9. Civis Amenities Committee to carry out the ‘unctions of the present Committes with the addition of Community Development and Town Twinning. 2. Panels created by the Committce and consisting of three members having formal business to conduct preferably by correspondence and meeting only as and when required. Serviced! by the Secretariat. 3, Working Parties who are appointee for a specific pirpose only, have a Limited life and meet informally. Services by appropriate service officers to consult and advise. The Tercs of Reference and Delegation of Powers for these subordinate bodies would rest wich the parent committees. E, SERVICING OF MEETINGS ‘The servicing of formal meetiigs by the Committee Division of the Borough Secretariat will be controlled by) the allocation of staffing resources within which the Committee must contain its activities. Any escalation of meetings requiring additional resources wil require Council approval. ' Recommend that an allocation of committees broadly as frllows be examined in detail: 1. Manacement_and Finance to carry out the presert functions of the .General Purposes, Finance and Personnel and Manement Committees, --=-Texsept for Comnunity Development, Area Managemet and Town Twinning. ‘2, (Public) Worke Committee to carry out the functions of the Highways and Works Panel, al direct labour works and the ac:ivities of the Borough .-Architect. 3. Planning and levelopment Committee to carry out the functions «cf the present Commitiee, less those allocated to the “ublic Works Committee, but with the acdition of Area Management. . 7 4, Rousing Committee broadly in line with present Terms of Reference. ‘5. Sorzial Services Committee broadly in line with present Terms of Reference. ) “6. Education Comm.ttee broadly in line with present Terms of Reference. F.CCMMITTERSTRUCTURE PeTee ig fi b GeneraZly it is considered that each Committee should be directly responsible for sor) main function.s) and that the number of sub-ordinate bodies should be restricted to essential subordinate areas but they be given a wide measure of delegation to enable their functions to be properly performed. The current nusher of appointed bodies excluding staff and employee consultation is 47. A division of functions is proposed which vould have this. . ; ae Tenancy Selection Panel. 5. Social Services Committee with only an Apneals Panel. forking Parties to 2e appointed for ‘one-off' functions as needed. It is also suggeszed that certain membe:s be designated to tase a special interest in specific functions. 6. Education Joumittee to be assisted by Schools Sub-Committee whose functions will be enlarged to include those of the present Boarding and Independent Schools Panel, and Further Education Sub-Committee to whose finctions will be added ‘hose of the Youth and Community Services Sub-Committee. All remaining functione, including Development will be direct responsibility of the Committee. 7- Civic Amenities Committee will be directly responsible for Recreational Services baths, parks, allotments, recreation, entertainment and Catering’ and to be assisted by a Public H2alth Panel ox Sub-Committee to embody the functions of health, safety and protection, cemeteries and crematorium, and Cleansing and Transz0rt; a Libraries, Museum _and trts Panel to which would be added Town twinning; and a Community Development Panel. H. TERMS OF REFERENCE Oi".cers yere asked to report upon Terms of Reference and Delegation of Funstions to give effect to the revised Committee Structure and division of funstions, including those contained in Paragraph © (Base for Committee Structure) and land and planning control. The report to cover the legal requirements and other implications of the proposed allocation. Ofricers shoul¢d consult Chairmen of Committees as they consider desirable. “The suggested division and subordinate bodies are:— 1. Manazement and Finance Committee to be directly resnonsible for the residual functions of the present General Purposes and Finance Committee, and to be assisted in Personnel and Management functions by a Personnel Sub-Committee whose responsibilities will include Work Study and O & M matters, job evaluation, appeals and personnel matters concerned with staff and employees, other than teachers. Staff and employee representatives currently_ attending Personnel and Management Committee to be invited to attend the Sub-Committee. A Finance Panel of 3 Members will function as the present Panel meeting only 2 or 3 times per year. A Disciplinary Panel to be appointed by the Chairman to meet only as required. To continue to monitor the Working Party for Unemployed Younes People pending its review. oe 3. Planning and Development Jommittee to be directly rssponsible for Central Area. IGS have Development Control Sub-Commistee, Employment (or Development) Sub-Committee, Land Act Acquisition 2anel, and for the Area Manaement Advisory Sonmittee to continue but as another Sub- Committee. 4, Housing Committee to be itself responsible for housing management and to be assisted by aNew WorksSub-Committees and aRehavlitatiSoubns Lomittee (both subject to evaluation of workload) and io appoint a I, STAFefe LOY OoUSUMINEEVEIAGIERETS K. REPRESENTATION CN OUTSIDE BODIES ' . '. <peesmoega4 Tt was not considered advisavle to jnelude teachers in the Staff and Employees Joint Consultative Committers, bul officers werensked to report vpon ways of reducing Members commitments jn respect of joint consultations whilst maintaining the opportunities for close contact petween Members and employees. : Cenoi.cered 3 mugged vic rant the number of committee cycles should be reduced, put were of the opinion that this could lead to a substantial number of unscheculed meetings, due to the Jenthened time span between Council and committee maetingse Asked that consideration be given to the possibility of introducing 4 seven cycle time-table designed to minimise the calling of unscheduled meetings. : Deferred sonsideration of this matter, put are of the opinion that commitments must be veduced. wt see Peds ea cores J. NUMBER OF couua Tem CYCLES. AgreedtomeetonFricay10March1978at7Pets see eenste iee b= e NEXTMEETING aBagain, Vera er ¢ ete gs i * fC poeta Tues THD servi rats ‘ wee pelsies te pean 3% + - : . - 7 of Rita COLLINWARE popebeigeenaltacpmtetRearih : -‘vais AC*sHyOLSeos5 Chairman ~ caidascote ares p mh . nae we ' ¢ » a . shic att “ mA‘ tu a ' - 4 \ i at - - oo ~ r+ ate 3 nee { - it la“2. ~«ayo<£ti fe sae Bee : ‘i Z ‘ eae .- Ia ?:2- 5 ‘{3 Bpaow : x (iP a + real P : 4 in + wn -Vidaoteomeso Sow )t jHi ‘ cececetaeaa and Be Aee Ital From the outset, the Council will wish to state its objectives < for this review and establish targets as necessary. Members will no doubt take account of the mounting pressures on their time and their current commitnents occasioned by the present Committee structure, Details of 47 committees, sub- committees and panels and 6 consultative committees are appended for information. This list does not take into account the Policy Advisory Group, Leader's Conferences and other bodies appointed for specific purposes. An indication of these commitments can be obtained from the fact that in 1976/77 there were more than 400 evening, meetings serviced by the Secretariat and that an analysis of the meetings held in Cycle 2 and 3 of this year compared with 1976/77 shows an increase of approximately 16%. If continued throughout the year a total of some 470 evening meetings would be realised. The timetable of scheduled meetings published for 1977/78 totals less than 200 meetings, the balance being made up of special meetings and wmscheduled meetings of Panels and ad hoc bodies. f REVISIONS TO COMMITISE STMUCTUNG i. os 3. Sou 3.2 SUBJECT: To consider poasible revisions to the Committee Structure and consequentiol adjustmepts to the Terms of Reference and Deleyation of Poversy (a8 well as representation on outside bodies.) PURPOSE: The purpose of ;thies report is not to make recommendations but to provide a discussion document to enable members to formulate their views. OBJECTIVES: 4.2 4,3 (a) reducing the number of committees, ‘ (b) reducing the number of Members on each Committee; and (c) a combination of (a) and (b). TEADSRSS CONFERENCE (COMMLTTES STRUCTURE) JOINT REPORT OF THE CHIEF NXECUTIVE AND BOROUGH SECRETARY AND SOLICITOR It is assumed that one purpose of the exercise is to reduce members commitments in regard to meetings, particularly evening meetings, after the elections in May 1978, when the number of Members making up the Comcil will be reduced from 70 to 59. ie further objective may be to reduce their ¢ommitments in ‘meetings of outside bodies, REPORT: A reduction in Members committee workloads may be obtained by:- fh reduction in the number of committee meetings may be obtained by:- (a) reducing the number of committee cycles; and (b) a streamlining of the Structure and the decision making machinery. e @& REVISIONS 10 COMMTIZE STUCTUNG IEADSRSS CONFENSNCE (COMMITTEE STRUCTURE) 3.2 It is assumed that one purpose of the exercise is to reduce members commitments in regard to meetings, particularly evening meetings, after the elections in May 1978, when the number of Members making up the Comceil will be reduced from 70 to 59. \A further objective may be to reduce their Gommitments in meetings of outside bodies. , REPORT: 4 A reduction in Members committee workloads may be obtained by:- (a) reducing the number of committees, ‘ (b) reducing the number of Members on each Committee; and (c) a combination of (a) and (b). JOINT REPORT OF THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE AND BOROUGH SECRETARY AND SOLICITOR I. SUBJECT: To consider poasible revinions to the Committee Structure and consequentinl adjustmepts to the Terms of Reference and Deleation of Powers, (a8 well as representation on outside bodies.\, 2. PURPOSE: The purpose of;this report is not to make recommendations but to provide a discussion document to enable members to formulate their views. Sok From the outset, the Council will wish to state its objectives ° for this reviow and establish targets as necessary. 4.2 Ah reduction in the number of committee meetings may be obtained by:- (a) reducing the number of committee cycles; and (b) a streamlining of the Structure and the decision making machinery. 43 Members will no doubt take account of the mounting pressures on their time and their current commitments occasioned by the present Committee structure, Details of 47 committees, sub- committees and panels and 6 consultative committees are appended for information. This list does not take into account the Policy Advisory Group, Leader's Conferences and other bodies appointed for specific purposes. An indication of these commitments can be obtnined from the fact that in 1976/77 there were more than 400 evening meetings serviced by the Secretariat and that an analysis of the meetings held in Cycle 2 and 3 of thie year compared with 1976/77 shows an increase of approximately 16%. If continued throughout the year a total of some 470 evening meetings would be realised. The timetable of scheduled meetings published for 1977/78 totals less than 200 meetings, the balance being made up of special meetings and unscheduled meetings of Panels and ad hoc bodies. 3. OBJECTIVES: e @& hk 45 4.6 4.7 4.8 4.9 4,10 4.10.1 Haringey is 4 small borough in area. - Members generally have : a very detailed lmowledge of the place and are readily accessible to the public and to representative groups and organisations. There is, therefore, an almost inevitable involvement of Members jn day to day detail. Changes in the Committee Structure in Haringey are more likely to vorl: successfully in practice if they accord with the local traditions and outlook of Membarna. The present "Panel-based Structure!! vas undoubtedly adventurous and innovative in concep. but its operation in practice over the years has apparently strayed considerabl; from the original intention. The "Panel-based Structure"! worke best vhen there are few main committees (perhaps no more than h or 5) with a substantial number of Panels working informally with the mascimum delegation and the minimum generation of paper. In Haringey it is difficult in many instances to distinguish between "committees! and “panels! in their method of operation. \hat Haringey now seems to have is a large number of "committees (although they have the variety of different names including "panel", "sub-committee and "working party'') whose activities have to be co-ordinated by a rather complicated pattern of inter-committee communication and control. In addition, the formal structure generates an ever increasing number of other groups and meetings which are given povers to make decisions on behalf of the Council. The reduction to, say; k committees with panels/sub-committees reporting action taken under delegated powers may result in such committees becoming largely formal instruments for the transmission of information to the Council. ‘The nearest example in our present structure being the Education Committee. The contrary to such an arrangement would be to maximise the number of committees, each performing within more limited but realistic terms of reference, rut with extensive delegation, while at the same time panels/sub-commi ttees are severely restricted. Coupled with a reduction in the number of "bodies! (committees panels, etc) would be greater delegation to officers in order to reduce the number of decisions required of Chairmen or OtGumas Members. Some of the ideas have been mentioned with the purpose of making fever demanés upon the smaller number of Council Members, where the balance of the Council might algo change to make either majority party even smaller proportionally than the present position. There should be a considerable relaxation in the control exercisalover Committees by General Purposes (Tarms of Reference, delegat‘.on), Finance (Estimates and control of budgets), Personnel and Management (staffing matters) and Planning and Development (iand transactions and planning control). The function of central committees should be to provide broad guidelines for other committees. 4.10.2 4.11 4.11.1 4.11.2 4.11.3 44 The main Service committees should themselves control the delegation of powers to their Bub-Committees and other subordinate groups; they should also control changes in their expenditure within their approved total expenditure; in addition, they should be able to approve atafi changes within approved guidelines and should themselves approve land transactions and, possibly. some planning matters within approved policies. There should be provision in the structure for subordinate bodies both formal (having delegated powers, a formal Agenda and meeting and serviced by the Secretariat either for a continuing purpose, e.g. development control, or for a one-off but formal task, €.&- new Leisure Centre; new structure for building works/housing repairs;) and {nformal (having no delegated powers, meeting informally and serviced by the appropriate service officers to consult and advise.) The control of their Terms of Reference vould rest with their parent committee or, their parent committees. Even if these general principles were accepted there must ani jnevitably be a variety of preferences about the number of committees and distribution of functions. For the purpose of thi report the following is however, a list of some of the proposale which had been suggested from time to’.time:- Combine General Purposes and Finance (currently 7 bodies) to form a General Purposes and Finance Committee (reducing to 2/% bodies). Combine General Purposes, Finance and Personnel and Management (currently 10 bodies) to form a Resources Committee (reducing to 3/6 bodies). Under either of these arrangements it is visualised that subordinate bodies alcdin to the Management Services Panel and the Finance Panel would ‘be required with more active roles and that Community Development and Area Menagement would pass to the i Planning and Development Commi ctee. Concidexation would also need to be given to the position with regard to the Joint Consultative Committee representatives who currently attend Personnel and Management Committee. Planning and Development Committee (currently 5 bodies) to divide into an (Architecture and)(Public) \lorks Committee (Including Highways and Works etc. and perhaps Cleansing and Transport): and a committee carrying the Planning and Valuation functions along with Community Development, rea Management,- Central Area and Employment (reducing to 3/4 bodies). Housing Committee to continue but to distinguish tio major functions by "Sub-Committees"; namely the management function and the develonment (new works and rehabilitation) function (reducing to 3/' bodies to include separate JCC). 4.11.5 Alternatively the Housing Committee be divided into tuo Committees namely the management function and the development function. 4.11.11 Employee Consultative Bodies Attached is 4 note setting out the eurrent position. In practice : the present machinery does not often leai to prompt ansvers from either the Council or the Employee's Sides and it produces a lot of cross-referencing from Personnel and Management Committee to Enrp loying Conmittees/Penels and baclt. 4.11.6 Social Services (currently 3 + @ occasional bodies) to be 4 Comnittes \ithout formal Panels put allowing for working partics to be appointed \ith delegation {o carry out one-off functionse 4.11.7 Education (currently 9 bodies, 2/3 only occasionally). It may be considered that there ia no continuing need for a separate Development Sub-Committee. Youth and Community Services and Careers Advisory (possibly with Unemployed Young People Working Party) should be examined (reducing overall to 6). 4.11.8 Civic Amenities (currently 6 bodies). Consider possible joining of Rec: eational Services, \Libraries and Allotments to form & ‘Teisure end Recreation Committee. Contrary views have been expressed about Cleansing and Transport remaining separate or joining the "Works" Committee. However, Health fafety and Protection and Cemeteries ard Crematorium could combine’ with Cleansing and Transport to form an Environmentel (or Public) Health Committee (vaducing to 2 oF 3 bodies). 4.11.10 Or even maintain a Civic Anonition Commi ttoe with one sub-committee carrying either the Recreation ete. activities or the Public Health functions. Revisions to the current machinery should aim at resolving problems within Services wherever appropriate and ensuring that the Member time spent in meeting with Trade Union representatives is spent as effectively as possible. The following broad out): 1e is one suggested way of improving the position:- JCC should meet re_..-arly with Councillors 4s the Management. This couid be extended to include Teacherse Personnel or other officers denending on the subject matter should meet all the ate. rds in sufficient time before the meetin, to explain Management proposals so. that the Trades Union represent..tives can speak for their member: at the meeting and equally the Trade Union Side could explain their items that the Councillors also can be better briefed and abi: to enter into more meaningful digounsiod. 4.11.9 If Gleansing and Transport is accepted as part of a "\lorks Committee" the rem: ying functions of Civic Amenities could be contained within 4cimilarly named Committee with perhaps one Sub-Committee for leisure and Recreation and a Panel to deal with the Health, Satety and Protection and Cemeteries and Crematorium functions. : ; 8. 8.1 9. 9.1 9-5 9.4 9.5 A MEMBER'S SUPPORTING SERVICES Members are finding that the increasing demands on their tine are euch that to carry out their functions satisfactorily; they need to be supported in a number of ways. The General Purposes Committee has vequested the Borough Secretary on| Solicitor to report upon Wiuys of achieving some additional me wwes of support and it ig anticipated that this will be u:dertaken during Cycle 6 so that approvst measures may be introduced in the new Municipal Year. There are more than 60 such bodies requiring Council representation, and 37 governing bodies in Education having 186 Council seats. ‘ The Area Hee.lth Authority currently uses 10 Members but they occupy 26 Member places. a Special mention should also be made of the Joint Committees, TOL) Middlesex Polytechnic Pip.0) N.E.L.E.G. Some rationalisation of Member commitment to outside bodies ust be seriously considered and Conference is asked to advise thereon. R.C. LIMB G.A. BIOOR Chie? Executive Borough Secretary and Solici OUTSIDE AND OTHER BODIES Representation 1 outside and other bodies carries with i. 4 further considerable commiivent sor Members, although it «ould be remembered that persons other than Members may be appointed to some bodies. 9.2 t Council Side Members Staff Side Reps. Frequency of Meetings 9©, ®+ 6 + 2@ Deputies 6 + 4 Deputies Oluce every cycle(6) 500 (fluctuates) h 18-20 esee IPADER'S CONFERENCE (COMMITTEE STRUCTURE) 15 Femnvany¥ 1672 JOINT CONSULTATIVEMACHINERY EXCLUDING TEACHERS 1.Council_and Staff Joint Numbers within purview 3,60 4,600 2. ___Tocal Joint Worka (Craftsnen) se Lecal Joint Works (Nen-Craftsmen) Numbers within purview Council Side Members Employees' Reps. 4,600 I; 12 Numbers within purview Council Side Members Employees’ Reps. Frequency of Meetings Ouce every 3 cycles (2) Council end Employee Joint Conaultntive Caml ttee @ Numbers within purview Council Side Employees Frequency of meetings 6,700 1? + @ Deputies Frequency of meetings Cnce every 3 cycles (2) We FocalJointWorks(Man-Euducnatiin) Nunbers within purview Council Side Menbers Employees! Side Frequency of meetings 2,059 6 N.B. The teachers’ involvement in this body is currently being explored If necessary, additional meetings are arranged, or tieetings cre concelled through lack of business. Above figures are pveraje re meetings « 6 Once every 3 cycles (2) 12 + 4 Deputies Once every 2 cycles (3) ® © © COMUTTEE PANEISOR HEMEL g HOUSING 5 Chairmen 2 Opposition Members ( ( ( ( ( ( ( SUB-0OMMIETTEES lonenaces ad Speyabe COMMETTHES, PANEIS AND SUB-COMITIEES (47) Finance Panel. Working Party on Unemployed Young People indicates meetings open to the public Research Panel Management Service Panel Haringey Council. & 10 Mombora of the Ceunott 2 Majority Party Mombera 1 Opposition Moubor g FINAE 4 Majority Party Mombers 2 Opposition Members & Tenants Representatives g GENERAL PURPOSES Homeless Families Re Selection Panel 10 Monmbern of the Comehl 2 Majority Varty Howl-ora 1 Opponition Merther 2 Majority Party Hemera 1 Opponition Horler Majority Party Members Opposition Members Majority Party Members Opposition Members ~~ “o_o Q PERSCNNEL & MANAGEMEND Community Development Panel 5 Mnjority Party fordore 2 Opposition Honlera Town Twinning Panel Disciplinary Panel 1 Members of the Councs.1 Majority Party Members Opposition Members Housing Development Panel Housing Rehabilitation Panel Housing Management & Pinance Panel. Tenants! Joint Consul- tative Committee 8 Ward Mombers 1 Majority Porty Membor 1 Oppositien Monber 2 Majority Party Members 1 Opposition Mombor 10 Members of the Council frea Management Advisory Committee 2 Mojority Party Menbers 1 Opposition Mombey 5 Majority Party Members 2 Opposition Members nna om — mow Mm nw Haringey Central Area Panel ( ¢ ( 7 Majority Party Members ( 3 Opposition Members ( ( ( ( COMMTTEE PANEIS OR SUB-COMUTTERS MENERSTIE g PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT 15 Members of kthe Council Development Control Panel 4 te ere 2 Opposition Members 2 Majority Party Members 1 Opposition Member € Employment Panel 5 Majority Party Members 2 Opposition Members ; g Highways & Works Panel 5 Majority Party Members i g civic AMENITIES 14 Members of the Council“) g SOCIAL SERVICES 14 Members of the Council g Recreational Services Panel ( 5 Majority Party Menbers (| 2 Opposition Members g Allotments, Cemeterics ( 3 Majority Party Members & Crematorium Panel ( 1. Opposition Member Iibreries, Museum and Arts Panel ( 2 Majority Party Members (| 1 Opposition Member g Health, Safety and Protection Panel ( 2 Majority Party Members ( 1 Opposition Member Leisure Centre Panel 3% Chairmen { Opposition Member 0 ee Canteen Committee ( 4 Majority Party Members ( 1 Opposition Member G5 T.U.Representatives g Residential & Day Care Darel! 7 Members g Community Care Panel 7?Members Appeals( Pre-School Ohildren) Panel ( Chairman, Vice-Chairman an ( 1 Opposition Member of the ( 2Co-opted Members Cleansing and Transport ( 5 Majority Party Members Panel ( 2 Opposition Members Commnity Land Act Acquisitions Panel ( Residential & Day Care Par COMMUDTIRE SOCTAL SERVICES EDUCATION PANELS OR Sus-COMTAES MENPERSUE_ ( 3 Members ( 2 Officers ( Chairmen of Education, Social Services & Housing Committees & Youth Com- munity Sub-Committee ( 2 Opposition Members 18 Members of the Council and § Co-opted Members ( 9 Members of the Council ( 2 Co-opted Members (Chairman, Vice-Chairman & ( one other Member of the ( Schools Sub-Committee ( 9 Menbers of the Council and ( 2 Co-opted Members 7 Members of the Council and ( 2 Co-opted Members ( 4 Members of the Council & ( 1 Co-opted Member 1 February 1978 Adoption Case Committoe Honelless & Detached Youths' Working Party Schools Sub-Committee Appointinents Panel Further Education Sub-C ommittee Development Sub-Committee( Youth & Commnity Services Sub-Committee Boarding and Independant ( Chairman and 2 other Members Schools Panel ( of the Schools Sub-Committee Careers Service Advisory ( 2 Majority Party Members Committee ( 1 Opposition Member Working Party Conditions ( 4+ Members of Service of Teachers in( 4 Teachers FE Nstablishments @ Council & Staff Joint Comittee Builders Joint Consultative (Craftsmen) Committee Local Joint Works (NonCraftsmen) Committee Local Joint Works (Manual Employees - Education) Committee Council & Employees’ Consultative Committee (Education). Premature Retirement Voupensation Panel ( 2 Majority Party Members (1 Opposition Member 343 Joint Consultative Committee CEo2{ Af,, > TAT C LOY Byukleckg Craprinels” SLURS: Val.View," lnba VityVAs jlA Go TRS bt No C Lay fa reloA— Clif hin Be Cluirtéy . g frel+Gray J o eel f -(S6 Yur O72 \e Attia SlCe LIAV l (onWir. Ayate [To a4 Mon we Bay liaMrzm,ig V Dent eet :tl IWy,(/ Rutigo—a ULee PS Aah (EQns:2 ((KiLf Tsga 4Woon) zee eo STS ae (2)2?) Ld CotLe 5 LTA S tha Aha : ‘ KX Fpe Nan ((AS 6 aALp Gn e4 LWare Ee CcUfAes 6 4feiee 1 AOI NG7 Saye aja/ usual l, Caeepfaceclanlid b,yf. SCcot ppeyoq ;Cae|Corols anh/MYheabdullerby atc AAS VAUDCrobonWsafi Realeeasandl.S§trvwer (ER Cabex Qvt)-of,K795% (Ca +16° B wm a te{. TCALG pentGrn. o : PISG Hladaod “| (A4se Siey : . Te Sale of local Auffoihy Building. Folgeit experditun rag achniy, 4 No aeietne,|raneHa.Seona~allft ry [cpast ves Seka Tasty: Ce x, = nie“th Me. ISO a eee ee I9S~ _hou-rSrLoaol, Arum a4Bp parjr ce bout }eanepeta Ke hong-me hynaa{Ldve, Gain— dnoAendwilpl CEC es lao~g + Mk, fbuatg a ovale gy doo. NomCR+ApWeds—cridtAmol vollhax Sano.|LMSWateeco ae y Ie but Ee eer Manto thc [i~9 eyp5 MoiG, amy lhrerss,prurted cals; ce tn es 4euba §athe Cutie -SLah. bg pe LTS04ta— eet Ves]eee NeOfer_aFieSts lscolouytbwitltgr,yfpered Police buch Motel Chinn wWeelt cetran ant tNao drat keg meallyoe ee 1s courhy corel <Bs ely Arhanes haloy, Teucteg had uot. 4] tad < (9506. wit healt ote, ¢age 4 n Pi ne > 3 contribute in a much broader way than they have ever done in the past.” with my fellow chief officers, overriding particular departmental interests. Today the architect, engineer, town clerk and treasurer must act as a team, not as contestants.” His consciousness of the new roles ahead for the architect is accom- panied by a progressive attitude to new methods. Unselfish teamwork is the keynote, whether in his establish- ment of the co-operative office rather than the hierarchical office (“nobody should play at being God’) or in his enthusiasm for consortia working—he is closely involved as honorary archi- tect to the West Group of the London should be looked at on its own merits, and a decision taken as to whether the design function should be under- taken at county or district level.” He sees no reason, for instance, why a county council should not act as the design agent for a district council, bringing all the design skills together. Like all good local authority men, he is adamant that the public sector offers unrivalled opportunities for serving society, and rejects the ‘rat race” tag applied recently by Malcolm MacEwen. “It is probably true that with some authorities there has been a struggle for power, but it is not necessarily generally true. [tis not true of my own authority and | think if architects are prepared to take the responsibility there are far greater opportunities now, and certainly will be in the new Thurston Williams, Hillingdon Borough Architect, on the oppor- tunities and challenges of, the public sector practice. is likely to occur in the reduction in the total number of authorities in the country. Nor do |see there being any major problem at chief officer level, because most of the major boroughs with architectural chief officers are likely to continue as at least the nucleus of the new district councils.” What he is anxious about is that the division of responsibility between the counties and districts will take into account the need for a consistent and varied workload. “| think it is impor- tant that each of the new authorities has a sufficiently wide workload to attract good professional staff. | don’t think architects are going to come into local government in the future unless there is this varied work- load, and unless they feel that they can make a positive contribution to the general improvement of the environ- ment. It is my experience that very few architects want to become in- volved in a practice that has a very narrow range of design opportunities, and if you look at the functions suggested for district councils, out- side of housing there is very little. It is most important that there is not a universal application of function, ‘’There are far greater oppor- tunities now, and certainly will be in the new authorities proposed, for architects to but that each new local authority Housing Consortium, is chairman of authorities proposed, for architects to the consortium’s chief officers’ com- contribute in a much broader way mittee and is a member of the steering than they have ever done in the past.” He has also been extensively involved his authority is involved in a wide in joint project working with private range of consortium work for both architects, and regrets that the enforced reduction in the council's Uppermost in his mind at the moment, housing programme from 1000 to 450 however, are the implications of the dwellings a year has drastically cur- local government reorganisation pro- tailed the scope for more joint working. committee of MACE. Mirroring this, housing and education. posals for publia authority srehiteats, Nevertheless he is suspicious about Tae 2 } _danuer srusent Government intentions ta NTERVIEW . sector architecture probably «much to Thurston Williams - present considerable place in 'oN scheme of things as to any s een As an architect in his at Tshe was at the forefront of the we revolution which influenced the pre become the more repre- ralbodyitistoday. Uptothe er {ties it was undisguisedly an »,pon for private practices, until em “yng, intense architect, then with moc, had the unprecedented ny to lay down a motion from ane atanAGM callingforatrade ee salariedarchitectsinthe gen tor. The formation of the ation of Official Architects was eocehsnly result; a popular front ae assparkedoffwhichledtoa e tchange in council representa- en inthewholecomplexionof maplisnment. Such is the nature nemocracy what yesterday's angry : outsider is now firmly estab- re nthe hierarchy of influence and oe! _as borough architect of the pe porough of Hillingdon, with an fessional department of 140 i Fim, as Honorary Secretary of wr oA and as President of the AOA, tyociation he was instrumental in we Now, at 46, the intensity wm Dy transmuted into an urbane, ” * scholarly, charm but the same we Getermination persists in the pir of what is fair and rational. |wtoftoday's angry young men are » -oning the need for a pro- a ‘institution, but Thurston jwe’ stresses the importance of its sth edexistence. “There isaneed v “essionalism in the widest sense wre held, and the RIBA can assist ide in a positive way. Look at # nad against the Monopolies sane, The present attack on fession IS aimed as much at the . gs at the private sector. I ile ays believed that the public wea architects should participate soemanedly in the RIBA and gain wot antage of the experience of the * jon as a whole. There is an per ndence in such things as wand salaries.” w “veinterdependenceandcom- oe” tariness crop up often in his pression, indicating an attitude to are of the architect that is borne »TM ¢own approach. Heisvery #* cartofthepost-Maud new of manager architects, par- in the design places as part = — =at ty Architect bert H. Clarke, FRIBA, AMTPI in 1937 the amount of architectural work in various departments of the Bristol Corporation brought about the need to co-ordinate that work and the problem was reported upon to the City Council. In January 1938 the appropriate Committee reported the Council on the architectural work already being carried out in the various departments and the manner of its execution, and the City Council accepted recommendations that a separate architectural department should be formed under the direction of a City Architect on a whole-time duty basis. A City Architect was also required to advise the many committees of the City Council on al architectural and building matters. The position relating to quantity surveying work was also reviewed, but it was sot until 1955 that quantity surveyors were appointed. The City Architect is responsible for the organisation and administration of the department which carries out the architectural requirements of the committees of the Corporation, and also undertakes a proportion of the quantity surveying work connected with it, His duties relate to the erection of new “buildings and the reconstruction, adaptation, and alteration of ting buildings in Corporation ownership, and include the . hole range of Architect's work from the sketch plan stage to the supervision of work in the course of erection, the issue of certificates, and preparation of final accounts. The quantity surveying section of the department carries out the full range of duties usually undertaken by Chartered Quantity Surveyors. He 50 acts as architectural consultant to the planning authority, Former City Architect J. Nelson Meredith, FRIBA ai aga | my sine7hy 4iy |5Wo ne|ofthe BristolCity Architect's Department and collaborates with the City Engineer and Planning Officer in approving and reporting upon plans and elevations submitted under by-laws for the erection of buildings by private enterprise and in relationship to the Town and Country Planning Acts, where it is necessary to take into account the design of buildings to be erected within the city boundary. The Department is organised under the control of the Architects’ Committee of the City Council. Such a Committee ensures that the department is organised to deal with the work of other client Committees and that the commissions are allotted proper priority. The Department is under the direction of Mr Albert H. Clarke, FRIBA, AMTPI, the City Architect, with MrT. S. Singer, ARIBA, AMTPI, as Deputy City Architect. Ithas an establishment of architects, quantity surveyors, clerks of works, administrative and clerical personnel, totalling some 140, including 30 chartered architects, 27 assistant architects, 28 assistants, 20 quantity surveyors and 15 clerks of works. This staff establishment has never been up to full strength and a number of vacancies still exist which itis hoped to fil. For ease of operation, the architectural personnel are divided into three sections, specialising in housing, education and general work. Each of these sections ts led by a chief assistant architect and deputy chief assistant architect, who take charge of the detailed day-to-day work on individual projects being dealt with in the section. The quantity surveying section, with a chief quantity surveyor and deputy chief quantity surveyor, Top row: J. Nolson Meredith Former City Architect Albert H. Clarke City Architect K. J. Watson Chief Assistant Architect (Education) Bottom row: T. 5S. Singer rs Dogety Oly Arehitoct OAP May 64 SfB (9) eri -2 4 City Architect from 1908 to 1926 F. E. Pearce Edwards, FRIBA City Architect since 1953 J. L. Womersley, CBE, FRIBA, MTPI On the 5th October, 1908, Mr. F. E. Pearce Edwards, formerly the City Architect and Architect to the Education Committee of Bradford, took up his duties as the first City Architect of Sheffield. The officers formerly employed in the architectural department of the City Surveyors Department and those of the buildings department of the Education Department were transferred to Mr. Edwards, who became responsible for al architectural work including the preparation of plans, specifications for new buildings, alterations or extensions required by the various committees and departments of the City Council as occasion arose, except where the City Council otherwise determined. He also was responsible for the preparation of bills of quantities and for the small repairs and maintenance branch which then existed. It is perhaps of interest to note that in 1910 the repairs branch had 12 workmen whose total wages bill was £20 per week. Mr. Edwards retired on December 31st, 1925, having devoted nearly 40 years to public service. During the 17 years he served Sheffield his department was responsible for the design and construction of many new council schools, secondary and special schools and extensions to colleges and schools. New buildings for other committees included several tramway depots, new swimming baths at Walkley and Hillsborough, depots for the Waterworks and Cleansing Departments, and extension of the Lodge Moor Hospital, but perhaps the work for which he will be best remembered is the very fine extension he completed in 1923 to the Town Hall designed by A. W. Mountford and opened in 1897. The Sheffield City Council has always been a progressive housing authority and under the Housing Acts of 1919 to 1924 over 5,000 new houses were built under Mr. Edwards's direction. Mr. W. George Davies became Sheffield’s second City Architect on May 1st, 1926, and stayed until he retired on January 1st, 1953. Mr. Davies had previous local government service at Bradford, Essex and Belfast and had specialised in schools work. Undoubtedly, some very fine school buildings were produced by the Department under Mr. Davies’ direction. The Central Secondary School, now the High Storrs Grammar School, and the Abbey Lane School are two good examples. During Mr. Davies's period of office, over 33,000 dwellings, including some interesting pre-war flats schemes, were erected. One of the outstanding buildings for which he was responsible, and which will form an important feature of the new Civic Centre, is the Central Library and Graves Art Gallery. Another is the extension to the Weston Park Museum and Mappin Art Gallery, which unfortunately was badly damaged during the War and is now being reinstated. (The Civic Reception for the Conference is to be held in this building.) This extension was carried out by direct labour under Mr. Davies's control. The Department had a repairs and maintenance branch which was developed under Mr. Edwards. In 1927 the City Council 636 City Architect from 1926 to 1953 W. George Davies, FRIBA decided to build some schools by direct labour an force was set up under Mr. Davies and grew unt * size of over 800 employees, undertaking al kinds °’ work. In 1938, it was decided to place the direct! under a separate chief officer and the Public Wor > was then formed, which now has some 2,000 em During the 1939-45 War, when approximately 70° were damaged in Sheffield, the Department wes for first-aid repairs and the ultimate reinstatement © buildings The City Council has throughout the years suppler work of the Department by that of private architecTM the outstanding buildings, designed by E. Vincent” City Hall, opened in 1934, where the opening a sessions of the Conference will be held é Mr. Davies had the difficult task of re-establishine Department after the war, when the demand for and technical officers and building resources far ot supply. However, he achieved a great deal witho himself much limelight. It was on the firm four = first by Mr. Edwards and built upon by Mr. Dar Mr. J. Lewis Womersley was able to develop t when he became the City’s third City Architect © 1953. it is perhaps during the past ten years that the wo’ © Department has attracted most attention. Mr came to the Department from Northampton wher 2 reputation for his housing work. He now fis 200 of which 80 are architectural; the remaine quantity surveyors, structural, heating and elect’ land surveyors, clerks of works and administratv been responsible for much of the recent rebuildin for major housing redevelopment schemes anc peripheral developments, in which he has sought to improve housing standards and to secure pect segregation from traffic. One of the best-known schemes is Park Hill wi! designed as a neighbourhood unit with schools §!** centres, clubs, tenants’ meeting hall and laundries © was awarded the Good Design for Housing Med!” the RIBA Bronze Medal for Sheffield, South Yorks" District for 1962. This scheme, costing over £2.07 built by the Public Works Department under its > Manager, Mr. H. Smith, ARICS. Another is 1 Valley Development where interest centres on 5° excessively steep slopes and on the use of exist © landscape. Mr. Womersley was awarded the 815” in Town Planning in March, 1958, for his work * and at Greenhill, Gleadless and Park Hil! in She" Another RIBA Bronze Medal was awardec Greenland Road Bus Garage When awarded the CBE last year Mr. Wome” a a) eee — Fal ah a ~~ . on Saas TM By bs criia * a = re 1 2! 5 ae ” ed . ed ~ End ; ae Yorkshire. 10 January 1978 Dear Mr. Smith, Yours sincerely, Aicunr Os When telephoning please ask for: General Secretary: GEOFFREY DRAIN BA, LL B, JP. Mike Dobson Alan Jinkinson Local Government Service Conditions Officer LG/7/GA/G2 Uy NATIONAL AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT OFFICERS ASSOCIATION Barrister B. Smith, Esq., 56 Sunnyvale Road, Totley, Sheffield, 1Mabledon Place London WC1H 9AJ 01-388 2366 ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY JOHN DALY Service Conditions In reply to your letter dated 5 January 1978 I have noted your observations but the point you have raised would be more appropriately dealt with by your professional association the Association of Official Architects. As a trade union NALGO is concerned directly with service conditions matters affecting its members and the problems to which you refer should be directed through the professional body who will be better equipped to deal with them. SHEFFIELD JULY 1977 A SPECIAL BULLETIN FROM THE NALGO/MRC PROJECT STEERING COMMITTEE Approximately 2000 members completed questionnaires in the survey carried out earlier this year ~ about one third of the Branchmembership. Althoughit{snotpossibletoprovethesampleisatotallyrepresentativeone,thesampleislargeby All Departments and status levels are represented. 51% are male and 4% female. eos) 31%areunder25,38%26-40,and31%41orolder. 34% have less than 3 years’ service, 39%] 3-10 years, and 27% 11 or more years. 55% say their political opinions are "right" of centre, 45% "left" of centre. The results are helpful in answering certain questions: IS IT TRUE THAT ONLY A SMALL MINORITY ARE EVER ACTIVE IN THE BRANCH? Yes and No. If you take any single activity - such as attending union rallies, attending meetings, canvassing or raising issues with shop stewards ~ then generally fewer than 40%} of the membership have done any one of these in the last 12 months, However 73% of the sample reported having voted {n a unfon election in the past 12 months, and taking all activitiestogetheronly12%reporttheyhavedonenoneofthem. Inotherwordsonlyjustover1in10istruly“inactive”. ARE ONLY POLITICALLY MINDED PEOPLE ACTIVE IN THE UNION ? FOR WHAT REASONS DO PEOPLE GET INVOLVED IN UNION AFFAIRS ? 0 Ideology and politics are not the most common reasons; more people see involvement 4s 8 way of putting their point >f view across, and concem over service conditions seems to be the predominant motivation here. For example, 39% feel their salary {s unfair compared with that of other Council employees; 44% feel their promotion opportunities are unfairly Hmited, and 41% feel the economic climate represents a direct threat to them in their jobs. For many it seems the union is important as a path to industrial democracy - 47% want more involvement in higher management decision-making. WHY DO PEOPLE NOT TURN UP TO MEETINGS ? Reasons differ but the most common ones are: because people “have too many other things to do” (88%), because meetings are held at an “inconvenient” time (82%), or because they are "not interested in that particular meeting” (81%). (Contd. overleaf) The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those BRANCH oftheExecutiveCommittee. First results of UNION DEMOCRACY SURVEY No. Only 5% take an “ideological” approach to union involvement whilst 7% say they are actively involved but with no interest in politics. Both groups are oumumbered by those who are content to be inactive most of the time but prepared to be more active over certain specific issues, 1.e. 37% of the sample, of opinion on the extent to which the main Branch policy makers are seen as receptive to membership feelings and opinions, though it could be said that the number who think they are not {s disturbingly high ~45%. most survey standards, and the diversity of respondents suggests that all sections of branch membership are represented, Here {s a brief profile of the sample: In contrast, only a minority say "it would be a waste of time, my opinion wouldn't carry any weight" (47%), that they haven't been informed of meetings (38%), that the location is inconvenient (31%), or that they don't know or like the people who do attend (35% and 29% respectively). HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE HOSTILE TOWARDS THE UNION IN GENERAL AND BRANCH POLICIES IN PARTICULAR 2? A minority, though a noticeable one, are “reluctant union members” = just under 17% say they wouldn't be in the union if it were not a condition of service. A larger proportion are out of sympathy with Branch policy (34%) - but these are out~ numbered by the 39%} who agree with most Branch policy (27% couldn't decide on this question). There is a similar division Gale. if me 66% of the sample well-informed but the way they make decisions seems to vary considerably, WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF THE BRANCH ? Representatives also keep 15% involve members FOR FURTHER DETAILS OF THE SURVEY ++++++ee+- Please contact your shop steward, who has a more detailed report of the main findings. -~ 2 MORE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS The MRC (University) team are carrying out further investigations within the Branch, via interviews with all shop stewards and Branch Officers, by attending meetings, and by more complex analyses of all the findings. This information will provide further insights into how the branch is working. If there is a question you would like answering please write to the address below and we will endeavour to provide an answer in a special “question and answer" column of Nalgo News, Please write to: MRC/NALGO Project, 32 Northumberland Road, Sheffield, S10 2TN. Membership of the Project Steering Group Rn ; Es\akz.. Press Cactus SBISTS (pvext See(7IaSBofp-coKadkeer,Piste(xeS5 Mr Scanbonad 4 S| S22 | 2E2S4 par«eo Of sous By -§Jack te i Seem eeee _ HOW EFFECTIVE ARE COMMUNICATIONS WITHIN THE BRANCH 2? They are definitely good, as is suggested by the small number who say they are not informed about meetings. More directly, 68% say that the branch keeps the membership well informed about what it is doing, whilst 29% disagree with this. A large majority also report that they are kept well informed by their shop steward. ARE PEOPLE SATISFIED WITH TUE WAY THE BRANCII IS ORGANISED FOR UNION DEMOCRACY 2 Generally yes. Only 25% feel that they don't get suffictent Opportunity to express their feelings about Branch leadership through the existing electoral machinery, and a similarly small proportion feel that there has been too much “devolution” to department level union organisation. ‘The shop steward system is important here and most people regard it as a progressive development for union democracy and the welfare of members. There fs agreement that its introduction has increased the union's effectiveness in negotiating with management, improved the flow of information within the branch, enhanced membership commitment to the union, and made the Branch more democratic. Quite well, insofar as almost all members have regular access to and contact with a shop steward or worksite Time, materials, and analysis were all provided free by the Medical Research Council HOW WELL IS THE SHOP STEWARD SYSTEM WORKING ? ; rep. Only jb say there is no union representative of any kind within easy reach, Similarly over half the sample see their representatives at least once a week, though 28% have very infrequent contact with one. completely equally in decision-making, and 35% consult with members before making decisions, But 50% only communicate with members about decisions after they have made them. In view of the fact that 77% of the sample say they feel stewards should be “followers” rather than "leaders" of membership opinion, this clearly leaves room for more consultation, Finally, there is considerable uncertainty and disagreement about how much influence on Branch policy AD is available via the shop steward system. Although the shop steward system is alive and well, there is no cause for complacency in these results, and there is a clear need for improvements in certain areas, Whilst "downwards" communication from Branch to membership is effective, the "upward" communications and decision-making links need to be strengthened. Two areas suggest themselves for future attention; 1. The links between stewards and members need to be strengthened. Representatives should have more opportunity to consult directly with their electors, and both members and representatives should see thattheseopportunitiesareutilized. Constituency-basedelectionsofshopstewards,thoughnotwitnoutproblems,isone way of helping to create this closeness of representation, 2. The links between shop stewards and Branch policy making should be strengthened. Recent changes in Branch committee organisation are helping in this, but it requires a lively climate of departmental shop steward committee organisation to ensure that Branch policy continually evolves to reflect membership opinion. WHAT HAS THIS COST THE BRANGH ? Practically nothing. Unit in the University. MRC - N. Nicholson, G. Ursell, P. Blyton, Jackie Lubbock Zn Neo leaner « she. Steconret ae NALGO = Yvonne Rose, Ruth Sanders, Kath Butler, Keith Dugdale, David Haslam ~ > 7S ae S S 3 Werk foWed azeriraoas ~ / The NALGO- activists Nigel Nicholson and Gill Ursell A... it gives me a chance to give vent to my feelings B .. .-it identifies ma with ae Labour Movement 23 64 i9 72 15 74 13 73 collar unions themselves face the challenge raised an issue with a of accommodating new high status members union rep with diverse needs. Clearly, the first chal- attended a fullbranch lenge is highly dependent on the second. meeting Yet very little is Known about what white canvassed within the members’ opinions and feelings in these 61 26 13 areas. What attitudes and opinions encourage. 65 22 34 12 and discourage activism? First, it is im- branch their unions, still less about Aow they parti- spoke at a meeting 84 6 85 6 85 7 collar workers want from, or feel about, tion, but in both cases the answer is no. common among people who are active First, we asked members to define their members of political organisations outside own level of activism (table 1): Table 1: How members describe their involvement %o |amonlyamemberbecause|havetobe 17 1don’t mind being a member but |don't have any interest in the union 35 the workplace. In terms of personal charac- teristics, activists are more often male, long service, older employees and have higher educational qualifications. At a more psychological level we have sought to identify what mofivates activists. Asking people directly about different possible needs for involvement shows (table Most of the time | don’t gat involved but | do on certain issues 37 I'ma loyal and active member most of the time but |have no concern for the ideological aspects of trade unionism My involvement in the union is an exten- sion of my political and ideological beliefs 5 While the closed shop agreement seems to have netted a sizeable minority of “reluct- ant” or “unwilling” union members, just about half the sample say they are occasion- ally or regularly active in union affairs. A problem here is one’s definition of “active”; clearly people may be active in a number of different ways. To look at levels of membership participation multi-dimension- influence others ally we asked respondents to state how However, admission of any of these needs often in the previous twelye months they is highly correlated with activism—most had participated in each of seven ways strongly so in the case of needs for affilia- (table 2): tion and influence (items c and pD in table 10 sonsiderable growth in white collar Table 2: Participation in union activi- 3) and to a somewhat lesser extent for nsM1 Over recent years poses two im- ties over a twelve-month period expressive and ideological needs (items A portant challenges. On the one hand, it presents a challenge to traditional patterns of management as dual membership and activity allegiance (to both union and management) reach -upward into the higher levels of voted in union elections 27 56 7 want from the union. A large part of the organisations. On the other hand, white attended a dept mesting 54 26 13 questionnaire was devoted to revealing cipate in union activity. r attended aunion rally These issues form the focus of a major What is particularly interesting about these Table 4: Members’ attitudes to branch research collaboration between a team forms of -participation is that they are not policy from Sheffield University and one of the as highly correlated as one might expect: largest provincia! city branches of NALGo, Who does or does not participate is not the the local government union. The 6,000 ‘same across al forms. This is illustrated strong branch is pioneering an industry- by tabulating how many. different activities agree disagree Yo Yo style shop steward system, which was ' people have engaged in. From this it re y endorsed and recommended to emerges that only 13 per cent have engaged |am strongly opposed toa lot of 57 33 other branches by the union’s annual con- in none of the seven activities in the last what this branch does 32 39 ference. The current programme of action- twelve months, 26 per cent have done only As one might expect, the more active Tesearch is thus for the union branch a one of them, 26 per cent have done any members tend to be those who wish the ccurageous piece of self-examination and two, 15 per cent any three, 21 per cent union to have a wider role than solely a declaration of intent to use systematic- four or more. defending job and pay levels. They are ally gathered information to further re- It is notable here that if one accepts a more ready to endorse branch policy (much form and refine it’s representational system. generous definition of participation then of which concerns issues over and above The part of this continuing research pro- it is by no means a minority phenomenon; local service conditions). This tendency for Stamme that we report here consists of on the contrary it is the totally inactive non-activists to disassociate themselves the first results of a postal survey of the members who are the small minority. Yet attitudinally from the union also emerges entire branch membership, which yielded the possibility still exists for the highly in the reasons people give for not attending a return of 2,050 questionnaires. active minority to wield an effective and meetings (table 5). Nigel Nicholson end Gill Urselt are researchers with the Medical Research Council Social and Applied Psychology Unit at Sheffield University. Our primary analysis of the results has unrepresentative control over union affairs. Correlations from these and similar ques- been geared to seeking answers to a Thus the second major question we tions reinforces the conclusion that in- number of questions. First: Js it true that sought to answer was: What types of mem- difference, torpor, negativism and a feeling only a small minority participate in union ber are active? Contrary to popular belief, of “weightlessness” in the face of the union affairs? The questicnnaire results provide activism is not confined to left-wingers. In machine are felt ‘by non-active members. two different sorts of answer to this ques- 7 Table 3: |value being a union member because... ~ 3) that each of these needs is only acknow- Talal g to be personally relevant by a minority. agree disagree ~ YoYo C .. it helps bring me into con- tact with other people D... it gives me-a chance to three and B). not once or or more Clearly such needs do nce exist inde- atall twice times pendently of people’s experiences and atti- %o So Yo tudes to work and what they expect and epiae portant to note that wide differences of 8 opinion exist among the membership about 9 what the branch should be and is doing 8 (table 4): our sample an equal number of right-wing Nonetheless it might be expected that activ- members are highly active. However actiy- ists would have negative attitudes to aspects ism is positively related to people's self- of employment such as job content, pay, assessed interest in politics and is especially promotion opportunities, and the employer 1 want the union branch to con- fine itself to defending my job and pay level 581 VST TEtan pesewpegs - oe = cere + 2 :tineiaaginaaieSpPayFEPEtosbo TS - ESL as ME SEEREPras i /- “excessive stress” in their jobs, feel that the present economic climate directly threatens their own jobs and desire more involve- ment in higher management decision- making. The latter result is particularly important: demonstrating that white collar employees value their involvement in trade making a decision 37 unions as a form of “workers’ participa- # city corporation). Surprisingly, this is regular contact with stewards described Ot the case, though activism is related to their “style” of decision-making: Some other work attitudes. More active / members tend to admit to being under Table 7: Members’ descriptions of their shop steward’s ‘style’ tion.” This leads us finally to the question that Table 5: Members’ reasons for not attending union meetings some- never times/often allows me an equal Say in decisions 15 This brings us finally to the most import- |have too many other things to do The time of meetings is in- convenient - I'm not interested in that particular meeting I'm not interested in the union generally 12 18 19 Stand A feeling -39 my opinion wouldn't carry ‘ of fun Angela Carter It would be a waste of time— any weight | haven't been informed of @: meeting 533 62 63 65 71 and’ attending full branch meetings. The is unambiguous; but the noun certainly the reason %o the reason - %o " 88 62 81 61 47 38 27 35 29 ant findings to emerge from the research so far. Correlational analysis clearly shows that members who have good access to shop stewards are more likely to be active than those who do not. In other words, the shop steward may have a crucial part to play in developing membership interest and partici- pation. Still more interesting relationships emerge on the shop steward “style” variable, for results suggest that “democratic” shop stewards tend to foster “local’’ forms of union involyement—attending departmental meetings, raising issues, and convassing for causes. Members with “autocratic” stewards are more likely to engage in ‘“‘central’’ forms of participation—voting, attending rallies, The idea of “fun” is an odd one. “Funny” e& place of the meetings is inconvenient Idon't know the people who are active in the union Idon't like the people who are active in the union encapsulates the main purpose of our research: What patterns of union organisa- tion stimulate membership involvement? The branch adopted the shop steward system some four years ago with the aim of strengthening members’ ties with union decision-making and to devolve responsi- bility for negotiation from the centre to the departments of the corporation. We asked members to evaluate the changes they had witnessed as a result of the sys- tem’s introduction and found that percep- direction of causation in all these relation- tudes and behaviour will shed further light machine killed you with too much pleasure. T% makes decisions and then informs me about them afterwards 25 makes decisions and then takes some trouble to explain or justify them 23 consults me about the options before does not imply the simply risible. And fun ships is probably two-way, and it is hoped is quite different from pleasure, which has that closer scrutiny of shop stewards’ atti- obscure overtones of the erotic. Barbarella’s on these results. Buying votes Since the 1972 us presidential election— when, among other things, Richard Nixon’s Campaign to Re-Elect the President (CREEP) greatly outspent George McGovy- ern’s Democratic Party campaign—new laws have been introduced in the us to limit private and corporate financial contribu- tions to political campaigns with the object of curtailing abuses. But. does campaign spending really matter anyway? Lawrence Shepard has investigated the extent to which spending sways public opinion in Californian congressional elections (Public” Opinion Quarterly, vol 41, No. 2, page 196). A machine that killed you with too much fun suggests a far less swooning death. Death by tickling, perhaps. (The World's Fair advertises tickling sticks, “ideal for Glasgow Fair.”) Fun is also quite different from delight, which is a more cerebral and elevated concept. You might get pleasure, or delight, froma good performance of The Marriage of Figaro. If you found it fun, or worse, “great fun,” it would only go to show what a camp little number you were. According to the Oxford English Dic- tionary, “fun” originally meant a cheat, a hoax, a practical joke; widened to involve ridicule (“to poke fun’) and heartlessness, always an aspect of the comic, It only finally settled to a significance of guiltless enjoyment at around the tum of this cen- tions were largely favourable (table 6): Table 6: Members’ perceptions of changes since adoption of a shop After a complex multiple linear regression tury. Perhaps some folk memory of its eward system information flow union. effectiveness conflict in branch membership commitment democracy in branch 31 50 management—union analysis, Shepard found that public opinion earlier meaning is what lends a certain am- as expressed by voting behaviour was more ‘bivalence to funfairs. (Which are not the more no change %o So 65 32 less %o 9 was shown to vary directly with population 54 42 44 52 responsive to Republican spending than same as fairs.) 4 Democratic spending. The proportion voting Since fun is pleasure without. guilt, as in 4 Democratic in each district was simply re- the euphemistic “fun-loving,” we are bound 35 56 the thing is the guilt, anyway. Adultery is to feel it must be inherently trivial. In a towards Democratic candidates. This total Judaeo-Christian culture, half the fun of 4 lated to the number of citizens predisposed 18 density, degree of urbanisation and un- never fun; look at Anna Karenina. Swap- employment—and it also varied inversely 28° with income. ping is fun, or so the writers to Forum harmony 19 52 A more direct evaluation of the system is Although Democratic spending does in- you in approved school, but “having a bit provided by members’ own reports of their crease when the election result is expected contact with shop stewards. These reveal to be close, it makes no difference to Demo- that the great majority have easy and cratic performance. Shepard therefore con- regular access to, and information from, cludes that incumbency and predeliction their representatives, though it is less are the most important influences in Demo- evident that all stewards are approaching cratic voting behaviour. But the new legis- the pleasure of the working class, as defined their role in an overtly democratic manner, lation on campaign’ expenditure docs Table 7 shows how those members in diminish Republican prospects. from outside that class. Nevertheless, it’s a shibboleth that ain Ree ————————cncneecacape-roerciestalea teneeeAI TTTETTET claim. Promiscuity isn’t fun and will land of fun” with a consenting adult suggests that nobody minds a slice off a cut loaf. Fun is pleasure that does not involve the conscience or, furthermore, the intellect. Hegel is never fun. Fun, in fact, might be "New Society 15 December 1977 Dick Scott Stewart NRC/NALGO FROJECT -- UNION DsvOCRACY SURVEY /DEPARMMENTAL FROEILE This sheet summarises the results for your Department of the membership survey carried out earlier in.the year. It docs so by showing under 5 head— ings in what ways your Department differs from "the Rest". If no differences are mentioned, you may sssume your Decvartment's results are broadly similar to those of "the Rest". For details of these, consult the full revort of results issued to shop stewards, or to the. summary issues to all the memoder— ship. Department PLANNING & DESIGN 4) SAMPLE CHARACTERTSTICS ——---- eee ee ee Sample Size 272 Response Rate 56% . "the Rest" 1781 2) MEMBERSHIP ACTIVISM/INVOLWVRENT P&D 74%| 615| 2he65| us the Rest 13% 19% 29.55 8.5% venue for union meetings is a greater consideration. ‘ 82% of Planning & Design respondents are male, which is a much larger pro- portion of men than among the Rest (425 male). This Department tends to be more highly educated than most, with 65% holding first degree or higher equivalent qualifications compared with 3% among, the Rest. However, Planning and Design members are likely to supervise fewer other people than is generally the case. Members in this Department seem less likely to do nothing in the union but more likely to do very little rather than a lot. Measuring participating in 7 forms of union activity and comparing this Department with the Best gives the following percentage distributions for extent of activity: A larger proportion of P & D members have voted in union elections than among the Rest 83% as against 725), but-fewer have attended derartmental union meetings (225 as against 73 » and have taken part in union rallies ($5 as against 153). Apparently for P & D members the inconvenience of the 0 4-2 3-6 7 Number of Activities engaged in SDaaa Sag ASOEaTeTRTSECSCDERRaaaeca Fewer P & D members feel themselves to be under stress intheir jobs (414 feel under stress as against 265 of the Rest), and fewer find their work is boring (124 say it is, os against 164 of the Rest). Also there seems to be less inchnation to feel that the Department has more than its fair share of pro- blems (235 feel it has, as against 31% of the Rest). Problem-loaded, stressful and/or boring work would not then appear to be substantial reasons for union involvement in this Department. The membership here is also less likely to look to union involvement as a way of identifying with the labour movement (11% regard it in these terms, as against 193 of the Rest). However 564 of P& D respondents do feel that the current economic climate represents a threat to them in their jobs, i.e. more than half those replying and significantly more than the 38% of tne Rest who feel this threat. 1,) REPRESENTATION AND THE SHOP STEWARD SYSTEM Generally soeaking P & D members are better served by their shop stewards in >?) that more of them have frequent contact with their representatives {at least once per week for 67% of them, which compares with 5/% among the Rest). Also more P & D snop stewards are employing consultative and democratic styles of decision-making in their relationship with their constituents: 51% of the membership describe their steward in these terms, as against 35% among the Rest. So far as assessing the introduction of the shop steward system is concerned, P & D attitudes tend to be very close the the norm (se2 Section & of the full report), with the excention that slightly more people see the system as generating greater conflict within the branch. . 5) APTITUDSS TOWARD THE UNLON AND BRANCH TEMOCRACY Greater dissatisfaction with the union branch is expressed by P & D members on counts: 49% of P & D membership is strongly opposed to a lot of what the branch does, simificantly more than the 325 of the Rest who feel this; 38 regard shop stewards as having too little say in branch policy, some 84 more than those among the Rest who say this; 32 are dissatisfied with the current electoral system for-branch leadership, some 74 than among _ the Rests finally, fewer P & D members regard Chief Shop Stewards and Branch Officers as taking sufficient acount of membership feeling (21% say they do, as against 234 of the Rest). : oD xe First Results of U.D.S - Some interpretative comments from the University teom Ree First, what do people do in the won? se wae The survey is significant for several reasons. In the wider sphere as a tpoical comnentm on the growth of white-collar wiionism, Implications also for industrial democracy, for managerial and white collar unionism established democratic lines of comminichytion that cut across the boundaries of arganisatibnal hierarchy. fhis msns it is important to Pind x out who particivates in theimion and why Whilst it is avparent that only a smll proportion have ever held office (taple 16%) » this is not the whole story and larger proportions participate in others ways (tables 17-23). Even so, a large proportion are generally inactive, Some clue to reasons are to be found in table 2), where a general disinclinaticn/apathy is more canmon than feelings of haxtitrtyy; alienation, Our study is especially interesting being based on a large ard heterogeneous population - 2000 returns from all levels, fimctions, areas. A better understanding of people's feelings about union invdlvement is to be found in table 1)., which shows that most inactivity is potentially activity given the right stimulus — one mist asaume that this means tmt members are content with their ovm inactitity. How do people's needs and attitwies explain activity/apathy? Tables 32-5 show that the union is no’ serving individuel needs ina deeper psychologicel sense for mare than a minority, but that of these needs the n'"opinion expressive" function is the strongest. i.e. the remainzder (on the evidence of +14) are only pulled into action by crisis-created needs. It would seem that the membershin are rexlatively content about sm:h-axs the Unions's effectiveness as an information channel (4.39), and is reasonably confident that electoral checks on the leadership do exist44+2> (.42). Moreover, whilst the membership"s view af what the scope of twrtomcx Branch policy/is narrower than ib is in reality (+.36) they are not,on balance, opposed to Branch polity (t.37), though the no. of yeses here is not insignifiayt. Opinion is divided omer the extent to which Branch Officers take account of members feelings.(t.38) What checks are there on exécufive action? How well is the shop steward system working? This is crucial to the interpretation of all foregoing results. Insofar as the ses. system epitcmise& devolved power, the membership neither clearly endorse nor criticise the system (t,l4), though there is an uncomfortabiz large proportion (albeit balanced by one of opposite opinion) who lack faith in their rep.'s access to power and decision-making(+¢.10) More positive are results concerning s.S »-member relations, which seem to be close and canmmicative (+.25)(t.26). However, stecards seem to vary widely in their "style" of operation (¢.27) ané clearly some need to be less autocratic and more sresvonsive to their members, It seems that stewards are viewed most favourably as information chanrels (4.28), and are not sccm as concerned or aware of members' individial problems (+29). Let us be clear on this point — the members want their stewards +d be more receptive to their needs (t.31). However, from those who were in a position to assess the effects of the introduction of the system, (aprrox 1200), -L~ people are gererally positive about the changes it has brought about (t.20) = the system does work, though with some possibly uncomfartable (butarguably beneficial) side-effects (e.g- conflict within the Branch). “ Binally, in view of table 48, it is clear that the union has a role to play in giving people access to decision-making, The implications for the Branch are relatively clear: first, there is a need to strengthen links between shop stewards and Branch policy-making; second, there is a need to iimpzove the patterns of consultation between shop stewards and membership, It showld be stessed that we have no data on the wider union system and the tim links between membership and bodies beyond Branch level, but the evidence of all participation research strongly urges the point of view the democracy begins at hame, Sheffield Branch has got a head start over others on this, and the results of this survey offer the opportunity for future advances. y Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Various Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1978 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/285e9ac1768e57ff6fab557d6157b33c.pdf c81de158ad0d65bd0d288822b559e41b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Public Design Group Description An account of the resource Argued that it was only through the public sector that the majority of people could have access to the land and resources needed for housing, education and other essential services. The task was therefore to reform the practice of architecture in local councils to provide an accessible and accountable design service. The Public Design Group proposed reforms to the practice of architecture in local councils to provide a design service accessible and accountable to local people and service users. The following 6 Interim Proposals were developed which were later initiated and implemented in Haringey Council 1979-1985 by NAM members. <ul><li style="font-weight:400;">Local area control over resources </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Design teams to be area based </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Area design teams to be multi-disciplinary </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Project architects to report directly to committee</li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Abolish posts between Team Leader and Chief Architect </li> <li style="font-weight:400;">Joint working groups with Direct Labour Organisations</li> </ul> Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Background Subject The topic of the resource Following the Hull Congress in 1977, it was considered that a more concentrated programme of research and action was required and an enlarged NDS Group evolved into the Public Design Group mandated to present their developed proposals at a conference next year Description An account of the resource Batkground At i ts Hul l Congress in November 1977, the New Archi tecture Movement decided to develop further i ts pol icies relating to the publ ic sector. NAM I s interest in this field had already been establ i shed at our fi rst Congress in Harrogate in 1975 when the idea of a National Design Service was put forward. The National Design Service (NDS) proposals, based on a cri tique of architectural patronage, argued for a local ly based design service di rectly accountable to tenants and users. I t was suggested that Local Authority departments of archi tecture could provide the basis for such a service. Discussions on the NDS were continued i n i t ia l l y under the auspices of the former North London Group of NAM, and a smal I i ssue group evolved. Further NDS papers stressed the view that any long term advance in architectural service to the publ ic could only come through the publ ic sector. By late 1977, i t was cons idered that a more concentrated programme of research and action was requi red and fol lowing the Hul l Congress an enlarged N.D. S. Group were mandated to carry out the work and to arrange this conference. Since November, the NDS Group evolved ihto the Publ ic Design Service (PDS) Group. The Group, in addi tion to refining i ts critique of patronage and Local Authority working arrangements, has been studying the origins and present role of Local Authori ty departments of archi tecture and thei r relationship to the profession and private practice. Work has al so been done on the party pol i t ica l context and on an analysis of Housing Associations. The resul ts of this prel iminary study are presented here as draft papers, interim proposals, and suggested areas of future work. For further informat ion contact PDS Group NAM 9 Poland Street LONDON. . Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource John Murray Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 30 November 1997