Community Land Scotland‘sPolicy Director Calum MacLeod has just published an excellent brief overview of what Scottish land reform has achieved since the 2003 Land Reform Act (thanks to the Scottish Community Alliance). As Calum succinctly explains, much has been achieved since 2003 – but more needs to be done to spread the benefits of community land […]
Archive | projects
creating a buzz: the collaborative city centre
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 […]
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: The Underline
There was lots of interest when I posted the initial design proposals for Argyle Street and Trongate back in June. So, dear reader, here’s a preview of the next wave of Avenues design proposals for the city centre. (If you read my previous post, you might recall that I’m part of the team led by […]
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 […]
‘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? […]
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 […]
How can planning contribute to wellness?
BEFS (Built Environment Forum Scotland) this week organised an evening seminar asking: How can the planning system contribute to wellbeing in a fairer Scotland? Alongside Alex Neil MSP, Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Communities and Pensioners’ Rights and Sir Harry Burns, Professor of Global Public Health, University of Strathclyde, I was delighted to represent RTPI Scotland on the panel. […]
Buckie harbour & Scotland’s future
Buckie Harbour was built over 100 years ago to serve the fishing industry, growing over the years to include a significant cargo industry as well. The decline of the fishing industry over the last 20 years in the UK has had an impact on the port, like many others. Although Buckie Harbour is far from […]