One thing I love about Glasgow city centre is the buzz: people everywhere, events in the street, new places to visit. In my professional life as an urban planner, I’m really interested in how to help make that buzz even better. Planning is often thought of as a legalistic activity, regulating new development. But it […]
Archive | community engagement
Scottish planning awards: cutting edge or simply best practice?
The annual Scottish Quality in Planning Awards took place last Wednesday night in Edinburgh. If you’re interested in seeing the 20-plus awards that illustrate the best of Scottish planning in 2018, you’ll need to do some digging. The relevant Scottish Government webpage refers to just three of the awards; the interactive map linked to from […]
Glasgow city centre Avenues: initial design proposals for Argyle Street
As part of the team led by Civic Engineers with Urban Movement, Icecream Architecture and others for Glasgow City Council, we’ve just kicked off the first round of public engagement to roll out the transformational City Deal funded Avenues scheme over the next 5 years or so. Over 500 people braved the damp weather along Argyle Street and Trongate […]
community charrettes: how we can maximise their impact
I’ve had the privilege of being involved in almost twenty charrettes in Scotland. And it really is a privilege, because on every occasion I gain a fascinating insight into local life and aspirations, and learn new things about community development, placemaking and making change happen on the ground. Being a planner, I’ve long seen charrettes as […]
real community planning in Lockerbie?
Earlier this year, Lockerbie Community Council commissioned a Community Action Plan to support community-led activity aimed at improving the Lockerbie area as a place in which to live, work and visit. Following a public meeting in November 2016, a steering group was established comprising a number of Community Councillors and other local residents. An independent […]
barriers to community engagement in planning – an issue of trust
When I first heard of the Scottish Government’s proposed research into barriers to engagement in planning – linked to the ongoing review of the planning system – I expected the barriers would relate to access to information, too much jargon, and outmoded communications channels like statutory notices. How wrong I was! As part of the […]
Moffat’s on the move
Moffat is doing is what I call real town planning: a Community Action Plan that considers how to plan a better community in the round. Not just physical things like land use and buildings, but also how to directly support activity by the third sector, private sector and public sector. Communities aren’t just streets and buildings, […]
delivery v engagement: a way through the tension?
(This article was originally published on the RTPI Scotland blog and RTPI Scotland LinkedIn page on 21 February 2017.) A constant tension has been present in the Scottish Government’s Planning Review since it was announced in 2015: how can planning deliver more homes AND give communities more influence over their future? True, the tension between community […]
it’s official: young people are important
In last week’s consultation on the future of the Scottish planning system, the Scottish Government says that it will “bring forward proposals that will require planning authorities to consult more widely, including by using methods that are likely to involve children and young people in the process” (see page 21). This could have the biggest […]
Lessons in community empowerment: Crianlarich
It’s not often that we planners get to see a plan being delivered on the ground – not, I hope, because they are undeliverable, but because it can take years for proposals to come to fruition. So it was with great delight that I headed up to Crianlarich last week to the opening of their […]