Rural entrepreneurs in and around the Tyne Valley share environmental, social and economic concerns and have overlapping visions for a future.

These are based on community and kindness, hard work and passion, as well as a value inherent in people’s wellbeing, restoration of nature and protection and development of a local culture and heritage - founded on a natural friendliness that’s part of a Northumbrian way of life.

Their vision is centred on helping smaller and independent businesses and town councils to work together to support thriving town centres that are self-sustaining and inclusive, with space and time for everyone. To achieve this they would like to see more community owned buildings and organisations that provide focal points for work, play and learning, connected to green spaces, public transport, walking and micro-mobility networks that reach within and between their towns. They recognise that private vehicles remain important for rural communities but they no longer want them to dominate their towns.

Despite these aspirations, entrepreneurs don’t have the knowledge or experience to achieve these goals alone. There's a lack of trust in developers, landowners and larger businesses (often remotely owned) so they’d like communities, local and central government agencies to collaborate rather than compete for limited resources and want other organisations - societies, schools, healthcare and heritage to join in. Not every entrepreneur recognises the urgency for radical change, but they don’t want special interest groups or individuals to dominate decision making about their shared future.

The tools that we used in this project served the purpose of collecting perspectives and stimulating discussion. But they do not provide a quantifiable platform that towns can use to justify a future vision and they aren’t yet suitable for large consensus building group activities. To take this work forward, we need to partner with planning organisations, digital platforms and democracy experts so that design skills can complement other quantitative and deliberative engagement techniques that are available today.