I am a chartered town planner, a qualified mediator and a trained facilitator. After fifteen years working as a town planner in Scottish local authorities and community housing development in Indonesia, I established Nick Wright Planning in 2004.
For me, planning is about shaping our environment for the future. That needs imagination, creativity and a desire to positively embrace change and risk.
I can’t do all that on my own. So I work with communities, activists, businesses, artists, civil servants, young people, architects, other planners, Councillors and all the other people who create places and make them tick.
My role is to make things happen: bringing people together, helping them to share ideas and solutions, and translating aspirations into action. Here’s a flavour:
- Community-led action planning in the Highlands from Crianlarich to Stratherrick and Foyers near Inverness, and other rural projects such as East Lothian Rural Voice.
- Helping to reimagine urban Scotland – for example in Glasgow, redesign of George Square, the city centre Avenues project and a 50 year vision for the city as a whole.
- Sharing knowledge about town regeneration, from developing Scotland’s Towns Toolkit to community-led plans in individual towns like Biggar, Moffat and Lockerbie.
- Supporting community-led Local Place Planning through pilots like Foxbar (Paisley) and action research.
- Using digital tools to engage local communities – for example, Alexandria and Huntly.
I work with a wide network of planners and designers on projects mainly in Scotland, together with voluntary roles in:
- Planning Aid for Scotland (current volunteer and former chair)
- Royal Town Planning Institute Scotland (2016 Convenor)
- Active Learning Centre (chair since 2015)
- External Examiner for MSC in Urban Design at the University of Strathclyde (2016-21)
- Member of the Scottish Government ‘Fraser Review’ External Advisory Group on Town Centres (2012-13)
- Community Council office bearer in my local area for over a decade
The map below will give you a flavour of the 250+ projects that I’ve been involved with since 2004. If you want to find out more, I’d love to hear from you. If I can’t help you, the chances are that I can point you in the right direction.