From its inception, SCT had always intended that one of its early projects should seek to meet the particular challenge of a rural environment. Now, in partnership with the New Economics Foundation (nef) and supported by a grant from Regional Action West Midlands’ Every Voice Counts programme, SCT has the opportunity to adapt its model to address the needs of the rural communities of six parishes in north Herefordshire.

SCT’s project in the London Borough of Waltham Forest was inspired by a group of teachers from three local primary schools and a secondary school along with the Friends of Stoneydown Park and local residents who all wanted to see a Speakers’ Corner established in their park both as a way of enhancing its environment and in order to provide a platform for their community. Following the development of projects in a major industrial city and an historic market town, the promotion of a scheme on a much smaller, neighbourhood scale was a particularly attractive challenge for SCT.

The idea of promoting a Speakers’ Corner project in Lincoln came from the local Lincolnshire Take Part Pathfinder, a programme supported by the Department for Communities and Local Government as part of the Together We Can campaign and designed “to provide programmes of active learning that enable people to gain the skills, knowledge and confidence…to make an active contribution to their communities and influence public policies and services”. With the support of Lincoln City Council, SCT launched a stakeholder consultation in August 2009.

Bristol became the third UK city in which SCT has promoted a Speakers’ Corner after local people impressed by the project in Nottingham suggested that with its diverse communities, rich heritage and burgeoning cultural life would make it an ideal candidate. The City Council was equally supportive and, in summer 2009, SCT undertook a highly successful consultatioin among potential stakeholders.

Following the success of its pilot in the major industrial city of Nottingham, SCT was particularly keen to test its model in a smaller town with a rural hinterland. In July 2008, on the advice of the National Association of Local Councils and with the support of Lichfield City Council, SCT launched a major consultation in the historic cathedral city of Lichfield – home of, among many other notables, Samuel Johnson, Erasmus Darwin and David Garrick.

Following eight months of consultation and development and with the wholehearted and active support of Nottingham City Council and other key partners, SCT’s first UK project was launched in Nottingham on 22 February 2008. Nottingham was chosen for SCT’s pilot partly because of its status as a major city with a celebrated freethinking tradition but not least because of the rich diversity of its communities which, from the days of the legendary Robin Hood, have played an important part in the campaigns for individual freedom and social justice.