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Presentations to be added shortly on RTPI in Scotland Group web-pages

PLANNING IN SCOTLAND TO 2030: THE RTPI IN SCOTLAND ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2009

RTPI Communications and Public Affairs Officer Jamie Hodge reports on the 2009 conference...

The conference took the theme of Delivering Development: planning in Scotland to 2030’ and was held at the Royal Society of Edinburgh. It featured a keynote address from Stewart Stevenson MSP, Minister for Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Climate Change, and attracted 100 delegates from across the UK for a jam-packed day of discussion, debate, and networking: all made possible by the kind sponsorship of Biggart Baillie LLP, Morston Assets, Scottish Government and Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH).

The Minister

(Photo:Stewart Stevenson MSP and RTPI President Martin Willey)

Introduced by Scottish Executive Convener John Esslemont, Stewart Stevenson MSP opened the day’s proceeding by giving an overview of the implementation of the new National Planning Framework 2 (NPF2).  He saw the RTPI conference as an opportunity to highlight the importance of planning in the current economic climate, and stated that that a key part of the Scottish Government’s economic recovery plan is ensuring that all Government activity, including planning, supports economic development.

Recent initiatives like ePlanning, NPF2 and the commitments in Delivering Planning Reform, all underpinned the key message from the Minister, and he said that the Government had taken real action to reform the planning system in Scotland. He thought that the changes over recent years meant that the planning system was increasingly joined-up, and well on the way to "providing greater certainty and speed of decision-making for developers and communities."

The National Context

The overall focus of the day was discussion of the 'way forward' now that NPF2 is in place.  A series of fascinating presentations and discussions provided delegates with a timely opportunity to identify key challenges facing the planning sector; debate the way forward; and importantly, to learn from good practice from across Scotland.

The morning programme focussed on the challenges of implementing NPF2 with particular reference to city-regions and national developments. Dave Anderson, Director of City Development at the City of Edinburgh Council, gave a characteristically upbeat but realistic presentation on the challenges and opportunities facing the capital city. He made a strong argument that Scotland’s cities are the key drivers of the Scottish economy; with all the positives and negative factors that entails. Murray Shaw, Senior Partner at Biggart Baillie, posed a number of thorny questions over the capacity and ability of the planning sector needed to deliver strategic national infrastructure projects; which sparked much debate over lunch.

Planning and Transport Connectivity

This is very much a newsworthy issue at the moment in Scotland and provided a meaty topic for discussion later on in the morning. Alison Irvine, Senior Transport Planner at Transport Scotland, provided attendees with an overview of Transport Scotland’s key role in delivering new transport infrastructure such as the M74 Extension, as well as the vital contribution of transport to improved land use planning. 

She was followed by Leo Petch, General Manager for Long Term Asset Planning at Scottish Water, who reminded delegates of the central role that water plays in Scotland - something all too apparent upon looking out of the window at the unfortunate weather that day! Leo’s presentation focused on the links between planning reform and sustainable water and wastewater infrastructure. He highlighted that climate change would have a significant impact upon both rainfall and climate in Scotland; thus a major challenge exists with regards to how we plan and manage our communities and deal with both the provision of drinking water and dealing with waste.

Michaela Sullivan, the Head of Planning at Forth Ports plc, spoke of the challenges of regenerating Edinburgh’s waterfront at a time when funding has become harder to secure. She considered that the vision for Edinburgh Waterfront was still achievable but that the delivery timescale had, of course, been affected by the economic downturn. Further property spend will be focused on building value through achieving planning consents, creating income-generating opportunities and fulfilling pre-existing commitments. Michaela noted that, contrary to some reports, the port business was the key driver for Forth Ports and the Company was increasing investment at its key port facilities such as Leith and Grangemouth, where tonnage is holding up well.

Green Infrastructure

Following a networking lunch, the day’s proceedings turned to green networks. John Thomson, Director of Strategy and Communications with Scottish Natural Heritage, spoke on his organisation's strategy for delivering quality green networks across Scotland. Detailed examples of the Glasgow and Clyde Valley Green Network and the Edinburgh City Region were presented by Max Hislop and Ian Whitehead, and  highlighted at a practical level how green infrastructure is being delivered.

Infrastructure for Sustainable Communities

The conference’s final session presented a range of case studies on developing infrastructure for sustainable communities and showed how disadvantaged communities could be enabled to benefit from growth and access opportunities, while improving public health.

Will Reid, Senior Development Planner at the EDI Group, spoke on creating 'new streets as shared spaces' and gave insight into an increasingly popular approach to neighbourhood design. He focused on the ongoing regeneration of Craigmillar, an area in Edinburgh that is ranked fourth on the Scottish Government’s ‘Index of Multiple Deprivation’. The ultimate aim is to make Craigmillar a pleasant place to live and work and the target is to double the population to 15,000 over 15 years. Will showed how the design and planning teams on the project are utilising the concept of shared space and better urban design to increase feelings of safety, community cohesion and neighbourhood attractiveness.

Mark Greaves, Programme Manager at The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment, gave an engaging presentation on the Foundation’s work on the proposed new community of Knockroon. He described their experience in employing the techniques of 'Enquiry by Design' to work in a deprived area with the local community to create a sustainable and well-designed new town in Cumnock in Ayrshire.

He was followed by Tim Mitchell, Principal Officer, and Etive Currie, Project Manager, from Glasgow City Council. Their project ‘Equally Well’ in the east of Glasgow focuses on health inequalities in relation to placemaking, and on how it may be possible to incorporate health outcomes into the planning process. They saw their key challenge as reducing people’s exposure to factors in the physical environment that cause stress, are damaging to health and wellbeing, and that lead to health inequalities. Using innovative community engagement strategies such as photo scrapbooks and workshops, they have identified a number of new toolkits which should enable the Council to integrate health into the City’s planning practice. They gave a fascinating presentation of an area of study and practice that is increasingly important to planners in Scotland.

RTPI President concludes

The conference was closed by Martin Willey, RTPI President (2009), who thanked the sponsors and supporters, and the delegates for attending.  He saw the event as groundbreaking and stated he had been impressed by the breadth of innovative initiatives across the planning sector in Scotland  presented during the day. He thought that the recent reforms to the planning framework in Scotland have strengthened a system that was already effective and much admired. Whilst the implementation of the new system would surely face issues along the way, he was of no doubt that RTPI in Scotland Members would rise to the challenge. The President considered that NPF2 set out a clear way forward for a sustainable Scotland and hoped the experience of the successful implementation of a well-thought through national strategy would be heeded south of the border as well.

Presentations to be added shortly on RTPI in Scotland Group web-pages

Return to RTPI in Scotland conference reports page
Return to RTPI in Scotland home-page
Return to Scottish Planner Extra December 2009 

Author:

Jamie Hodge - James Henderson

Publisher:

The Royal Town Planning Institute

Date:

10-Dec-09

Categories:

Nations & Regions 

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