Councillor training on planning is back on the agenda, more than ever before. The draft Planning Bill published this week proposes: compulsory planning training for Councillors an examination for any Councillors involved in planning decisions At face value, those proposals are a pretty strong indictment. Improvement is needed. But are Councillors really that bad at […]
Archive | planning
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 […]
‘local place planning’ | is this what the Planning Review envisaged?
“Communities should be empowered to bring forward their own local place plans, and these should form part of the development plan.” That was one of the recommendations of the Independent Review of the Scottish Planning System in May 2016 – recommendation 44, in fact. But what are ‘local place plans’? What would they look like? […]
planners as honest brokers
How would you describe the job of a planner? Regulator? Facilitator? Broker? Manager? Mediator? Designer? Personally, I’m more of a broker. At the moment I’m brokering between people with different visions for Moffat: residents, public agencies, businesses and landowners. And elsewhere I’m brokering between different interests, too: between walking, cycling and vehicles in a redesign […]
maximising planning’s potential
The Scottish Government’s planners are busy working on a new White Paper on planning reform, for publication by the end of the year. I think they should be congratulated for their innovative decision to draft the White Paper through co-production – a process which kicked off in mid September with a two-day workshop for planners, […]
why we need to better integrate land-use and community planning in Scotland
This article first appeared in RTPI Scotland‘s journal The Scottish Planner (June 2016 edition). Better integration of spatial planning and Community Planning has been a hot topic in national and local government for the last year couple of years. There’s been lots of high-level talk about improving integration, including in the Planning Review report published in May. […]