Over the last couple of years, I’ve been fortunate enough to work with several communities across Scotland on Local Place Plans.  I thought it would be useful to share some of what I’ve learned with other communities and with local authorities who’ll be supporting and using Local Place Plans. I’ve picked just four Local Place Plans to focus on.   Before you read on: if your community is unsure of whether to embark on a Place Plan, think carefully before you decide.  Preparing a Plan is a...

Highland Council has registered their first Local Place Plan. Stratherrick and Foyers, south of Loch Ness, are the first out of the blocks. It means that the community now has a plan that sets out what it wants to happen on the ground. Rather than a plan done by government to the community, this is the community's own plan of what it will do itself (they are lucky to have access to windfarm money) - and what it would like local and national government to do. The Community Council will use the...

Urban designer Paul Morsley of Iglu Studio, development economist Steven Tolson and land-use planner Nick Wright summarise their work on the public sector’s role in delivering NPF4, commissioned by Scottish Enterprise after draft NPF4 was published in late 2021.  [Image] The changing context Achieving zero, improving health and wellbeing, and creating a fairer and greener economy are established objectives enshrined in the Scottish Government’s current Programme for Government.  NPF4 now...

Can 20 Minute Neighbourhoods work in the Highlands and Islands? Yes! During the first half of 2022, Ines Triebel of WMUD and I have been exploring two questions for HITRANS and Sustrans:  • What could a 20 Minute Neighbourhood look like in a rural and island context? • What would need to happen for a rural settlement to become a 20 minute community? With huge thanks to many practitioners and planners across the Highlands and Islands and elsewhere in Scotland for their help and support, the...

For 20 years, I’ve been lucky enough to work on regeneration plans and projects in Scottish towns from Annan to Lerwick, and Stornoway to Peterhead.  I’ve learned how one person can never know all the answers, but what brilliant things can be achieved when people work together. That means that deciding a town’s future must be a collaborative effort.  It also needs to be comprehensive: doing one thing - like a marketing campaign, a new town square or a Christmas fair - is never enough.  Each...

Despite a lifetime of travelling around the Highlands, I had never visited Foyers and the south side of Loch Ness. So, when the chance to facilitate this plan landed in my inbox in October 2020, I sensed an opportunity. Not simply to get to know somewhere new, but to do something that hadn’t been done before in Scotland – to support the emergence of a healthy, vibrant, growing rural community, leading change itself from the inside, and working with the public sector as an equal partner....

Communities sometimes ask: what’s the point of a community-led plan?  Why sit around talking about a plan?  Why not just get on with what needs to be done? There are two answers to this.  The first answer is: how do you know what needs to be done if you haven’t done a Community Action Plan?  That’s because a really important part of Community Action Planning is asking the local community what’s important for them.  Without asking people, the community won’t know what’s dearest to people and...

The original version of this article, jointly authored with Kathie Pollard of the Scottish Land Commission, was published on the Land Commission website on 15 June 2020. This version has been slightly updated. [Image] Research aims  The principle of early public engagement is enshrined in recent major reforms to Scottish planning and land reform policy. The Scottish Government's  Land Rights and Responsibilities Principles tell us what responsible land ownership, use and management should...

There's been lots of interest in the Scottish Government funded pilot Local Place Plan for Foxbar in Paisley and accompanying 'how-to' guide for Renfrewshire Council, both published last year thanks to the initiative of Renfrewshire Council.  Winning a Scottish Award for Quality in Planning 2019 in the 'Plans' category this week may have encouraged more interested too! Here's more information. Local Place Plans The intention of the pilot Local Place Plan was to test a workable model for...

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 can also be proactive and creative activity. When it comes to making the city centre buzz, a good starting point for me is to work with the folk who make that buzz, to find out...

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 planning?  Like any cohort of people, some will be better than others. But I don't think it's reasonable to argue that...