Northern Corridor Community Volunteers
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NCCV is a community led volunteer group protecting Greenspaces and community wellbeing in the 8 former mining villages of the Northern Corridor of North Lanarkshire. Many of the community members are unpaid carers.
CONTEXT
Despite years of the group interacting with the planning system, very few unwanted developments have been stopped, and the health of existing residents has been impacted by new housing, with no infrastructure delivered to support the existing or growing population. The group recognise that the Scottish National Planning Framework (Section 4) offers tools to protect communities but recognise that there’s a limitation based on an understanding in how to use them to full effect.
The current official statistics about the need for access and provision of good statutory health services in the former coal-mining community of Cardowan in North Lanarkshire do not reflect the lived experience. The community members described themselves as “living with long-term health conditions” and feel “powerless and ignored and frustrated and exhausted” by the “inadequate and inequality” of services in their area.
A report from CommonHealth Catalyst stated that “in Lanarkshire an existing historical vulnerability has been made much worse by recent events” referring to the negative health impacts of de-industrialisation further exacerbated by recession, austerity, COVID-19 and the cost of living crisis.
The community wanted their “voices heard in the decisions being taken about our community” and “to engage and participate in taking high level action to make long-lasting change for ourselves, our families, and our neighbours”.
ACTIVITIES
From July to December 2024 the community used the CHIA toolkit with the aims of:
Identifying where the current impact assessments are lacking;
Sharing the outcomes of the CHIA community consultation;
Providing actions for the community, partners, and for those with a statutory duty of care (including North Lanarkshire Council, NHS Lanarkshire, University Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire).
The team reviewed a number of existing guidance and reports from authorities who have a statutory duty of care for the area. These include Local Outcome Improvement Plan: Northern Corridor (North Lanarkshire Council, 2020); Northern Corridor Community Board Profile (North Lanarkshire Council); NL North Locality Health and Social Care Locality Profile (Health and Social Care North Lanarkshire, 2022); Our Health Together: Strategy 2024 – 2031 (NHS Lanarkshire, 2023).
A snapshot from NCCV’s feedback report on their CHIA grant usage
A snapshot from NCCV’s feedback report on their CHIA grant usage
OUTPUT
Many of the documents they reviewed stated that health inequalities need to be addressed in North Lanarkshire but there is little detail on how inequalities affect people, and what is the coordinated activity and support to address them? A key weakness in the system was their observation that statistics lacked data relevant to the local community of Cardowan, and the distortion of what data there was led to “an ill-informed representation of the reality”.
Part of their investigation led them to note that despite the introduction two new higher value residential communities being developed around them that “in this period there was an active withdrawal of public amenities for the community of Cardowan: buses, post office, green space (via NLC planning consent), and no additional statutory services – health and social care in particular – were offered as the local population doubled in size. This data underpinned their perceptions of being let down by the services in their area leaving them “powerless and ignored and frustrated and exhausted”.
Their research concluded that the hard facts show that the access and integration of adequate statutory health services for people living in Cardowan is now severely lacking:
There is still no statutory health provision of any kind in the community.
The nearest GP practice is a minimum 15-minute walk away in Stepps.
The nearest Hospital and Minor Injuries Unit is 3.2 miles away in New Stobhill Hospital.
The nearest Accident and Emergency Department is 4.2 miles away in Glasgow Royal Infirmary.
They noted that at the time of research they haven’t seen the results of the mapping of “local services, challenges and opportunities" as described in the Local Outcome Improvement Plan for the Northern Corridor back in 2020. Discussions centred on how data dictates how resources are allocated to certain areas but others are ignored. This reinforced the proven principle that the data doesn’t reflect lived experience in Cardowan and saw the CHIA is an opportunity to gather and act on primary research: consulting with the community members and sharing our experiences and knowledge, both good and bad.
OUTCOME
The value of local greenspace as a promoter of health and social capital was a clear response across all genders and demographics. This came through in-person evidence, testimony and the stories of its recuperative benefits on individuals beyond the focus group.
It became clear that the purpose of this research should be to find better ways to evidence these issues, which are well documented already by statutory bodies and academia. But in a way which can be constructively used to protect community interests, and create a fairer more just community for all residents.
This discussion continued exploring community empowerment and legislation such as the draft National Planning Framework 4. This involved having an understanding of the role of citizens in Local Development Plans. This led to the feeling that the community has no voice in legislation so the community members came up with the question: How are we here today with all this evidence they need to listen to and no voice in planning or service delivery?
Ethical use of the data gathered from the community was proven to be an important element of the CHIA conversations. This was particularly relevant when exploring ways to move away from old repetitive patterns of giving information and/or energy and seeing no positive change as a result. It related to both the health and wellbeing of the community as well as the green spaces community members have been fighting hard to maintain as public amenities.
In Spring 2025 NCCV were successful in getting funding to ask the wider community the question which they hopefully see as being a catalyst for real change in the Northern Corridor.
“Community-led action research is not research for the sake of it, to prove a theory or to satisfy the curious. It is about people asking their own questions about the issues they experience, getting the information, and evidence they need, and testing actions for change…This CHIA has demonstrated that individuals can come together to make change. It may not be in the prescribed format or language of statutory bodies but with trust it can work with the announced “community-led” strategies of those bodies.”