International conference and project meeting in Kirklees

During their project meeting partners had the opportunity to actively discuss the draft set of indicators, which will later become the core of the Reference Framework's Monitoring tool. Among other findings partners emphasised the need for “sustainable” indicators, which do not only relate to one topic /  pillar but at the same time take into account the issues of all pillars of sustainability.

Other topics of the work session were: LC-FACIL's further involvement in the RF-development process, in particular during the large testing phase with 60 other European cities; the project's independent work on experiences and lessons to be learned when implementing integrated, sustainable urban development; their local action plans; and first ideas for the LC-FACIL final conference taking place in May 2011 in Leipzig.

Kirklees conference(s) and site visits

The international conference started on Thursday with a morning session of the British National Support group for the Reference Framework process: Numerous practice examples were explored and expectations on the future RF-tool exchanged with LC-FACIL partners.

In the afternoon the Kirklees Sustainable Development Conference was held: 150 participants from the UK and other European countries exchanged their experiences on various topics around integrated, sustainable urban development practice. Several LC-FACIL partners were invited to present their experiences. See the conference web-site for the results.

Friday offered the Dewsbury Renaissance Event: The new master plan was presented and discussed with local stakeholders and some of the international guests in Dewsbury townhall.

On Wednesday evening a tour through the town centre of Huddersfield passed by Kirklees' Media centre, where several 100 working spaces for creative start-up companies were created over the past years.
The Thursday evening tour through the town centre of Dewsbury included a visit at the neighbourhood shop (the d-shop) and led to a “one-day-restaurant” where dinner was served in a temporarily used shop.