Highlands and Islands

About Us

The Highlands and Islands Chapter covers Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, Highland, Orkney Islands, and Shetland Islands council areasThe Chapter promotes planning as a profession and builds links with other built environment professions and organisations throughout the Highlands and Islands. We offer members a programme of relevant, interesting and affordable seminars and events, often in collaboration with other built environment professionals. These assist planners in the Highlands and Islands with CPD requirements and provide an opportunity for networking and share experiences with fellow professionals. Regular bulletins are circulated to members with forthcoming chapter events and other built environment organisations seminars and conferences. We welcome views and opinions from all our members and are always looking for new committee members to help with running our CPD programmes.

Forthcoming Events 

A New University for the Highlands and Islands

7th March 2013, Beechwood Campus, Inverness

This free event will provide an opportunity for built environmental professionals to visit the evolving site of the new campus for the University of the Highlands and Islands. At this time the on-site infrastructure will be almost complete so you will really get a feel for how this will be a hub for learning research and development. More details

Time: 12:30

Processing Agreements: Good Practice and Lessons Learnt

21st March 2013, Highland Council Headquarters, Inverness, IV3 5NX

This free event, run in partnership with the Scottish Government, will provide an opportunity for planners and other built environmental professionals across both the public and private sector find out more about the use of processing agreements and their benefits. With worked examples and a prospective from both a Planning Authority and a developer this event promises to provide a useful insight into how we can move forward with the use of processing agreements to speed up the planning process. More details

Time: 17:00 for a 17:15 start

Delivering a Primary School for 21st Century Education

25th March 2013, Milton of Leys Primary School, Inverness

This free event is a great opportunity to have a tour of the joint winner of the Inverness Architectural Association’s Best New Building in the Highlands, Milton of Leys School, Inverness. The architects of the school will provide a guided tour of the school with plenty of opportunities for questions. More details

Time: 17:00

Waking a Sleeping Giant

17th April 2013, Nigg Energy Park, Inverness

Nigg Yard was taken over by Global Energy in mid- 2012 since then it has been a hive of activity. As one of the Scottish Government’s Enterprise areas it is a huge success story for Easter Ross, the Highlands and Scotland as a whole. This free event will give those attending the opportunity to have a tour of the site and hear about the latest plans for the former fabrication yard.

Time: 12:30

Mapping Scotland’s Wild Land

30th April 2013, Great Glen House, Inverness

Scotland’s wild land is one of it’s most significant resources but what is it, how can it be considered through the planning of new development and how is it being brought forward at a national and local level. To find out the answers  to these questions and more come along to this free event delivered in partnership with SNH.

Time: 12:15 – 13:45

Developing a new national planning policy

TBC May 2013, Council Headquarters, Inverness

2013 is going to be a pivotal year for planning in Scotland. The production of a revised Scottish Planning Policy will be progressed in tandem with a new National Planning Framework. This event will be an opportunity to find out more about both documents and the challenges being faced in delivering these extremely important documents.

Time: TBC

Delivering better Places through Design

TBC June 2013, Council Headqurters, Inverness

It is all about the mediation of space to create place, right? There are a number of ways the planning profession can influence this but we need to work in partnership. This event will provide an understanding of some of the tools available to us including masterplanning, charrettes (lessons learnt) and design review.

Time: TBC

Summer Networking Event

Late July 2013, Ben Wyvis, Ross-shire

This networking event is an opportunity to get outdoors with some fellow built environment professionals. By walking this magnificent hill there will be opportunities to consider the impact of wind energy development on the landscape and get an overview of the recent developments across the inner moray firth from 1046m up!

Time: 4pm

Kishorn Yard – A base for the renewables industry

TBC August 2013, Kishorn Yard, Ross-shire

Like Nigg Energy Park, Kishorn is making a comeback. With interest in bringing the yard back into use for the renewables sector this will be a great chance to visit the site and find out more about their plans for the future.

Time: TBC

Protecting and Enhancing our Built Heritage

TBC September 2013, Council Offices, Dingwall

With all of the changes happening in our built environment it is extremely important to look at how we can use innovative approaches to the protection and enhancement of our built heritage. This event will look at the CARS Projects, Conservation Areas and changing approaches to the protection of our built heritage.

Time: TBC

RTPI Highlands and Islands Annual Conference 2013

Places for People – Delivering Better Town Centres

21st November 2013, Council Headquarters, Inverness

Our town centres are the hearts of our communities. They have traditionally been a place for business, retail and leisure, however with the evolution of the digital world are they still relevant and how can they meet the challenges currently facing them?

This event will be delivered by a number of speakers from across built environment professions to look at how we can work in partnership to bring the buzz back to the high streets of City, town and village centres across the Highlands and Islands and beyond.

Time: 10:30 for 11:00 start – event will close by 16:30 at the latest

Annual Pub Quiz

Date and Venue to be confirmed

Following the success of the 2012 pub quiz we will be running it again in 2013. The questions will again be a great mix of general and specialist knowledge. With prizes for first and last place it promises to be a good opportunity to network with other built environment professionals and do your sector proud!

Time: TBC

Recent Events

6 February: Supplying the Demand for Scotland’s National Drink, Glen Ord Distillery, Inverness.  See event report here.

21 January: Designing Streets in the Highlands and Islands (followed by AGM), Inverness. See the presentation here and a report on the event here.

22 November: Annual Conference "Delivering Development: Making Developments Stack Up" See the reoprt of the event here.  You can also see all the presentations here. 

17 September: We have published a report on our event Integrating Building Design, Manufacture and Construction which was held on 17 September.  You can get it here. 

21 June: We published a report on our event on "Public Art - A New Approach", which took place in Inverness on 21 June 2012.  You can get it here. 

Publications

The Chapter Convenor's Report for 2012 is available here

Committee

The Chapter Committee is:

Simon Hindson – Convener

Julie-Anne Bain – Secretary

Lynn Clarke – Secretary

Jim Harbison – Treasurer

Alan Ogilvie

David Baldwin

Douglas Chisholm

Emma Forbes

Elli Carlisle

Scott Dalgarno

Contact

Contact us on highlandsislands.scotland@rtpi.org.uk