The Scottish Government

« Previous | Contents | Next »

Listen

Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2003

Application form

This application form can either be completed by hand or electronically (pdf version) on the Planning homepage at www.scotland.gov.uk/planning . Please complete all four questions. The deadline is 12 September 2003. An acknowledgement letter will be sent to the person who has completed this form.

Please provide a name and contact details of the organisation responsible for this work. If partners were involved, identify the lead organisation, and then list the other partners/bodies who had a key role.

Name of key partners (if appropriate)

Please complete the form by providing a brief summary (in no more than the space provided) of the piece of work you have entered. You must also conclude, with a key reason, as to why you think this work merits an Award.

Please tick the key criteria which relate to this entry:

You must describe in your written submission (below) how the criteria which you have ticked relates to your project.

Description of project

This project involved the use of disposable cameras as a means of community engagement at the initial steps of the preparation of a new Local Plan for Wester Ross. This allowed local people to capture visually their views on issues that they felt were of importance to their communities and submit opinions in the initial stage of the plan process. The aim of the project, titled "keep Us in the Picture!" was to include a wider audience than that attracted by the more traditional type of consultation events, by using disposable cameras as a tool to capture, in an interactive manner, the things that the community liked or disliked about land use in their community and to suggest sites for future development or protection. This project resulted from discussions between the Highland Council's Planning and Development Service and Education, Culture and Sport Service in the context of current Scottish Executive work on public involvement in planning, and in particular on how consultation and engagement of communities could be improved. The feedback from communities to this initiative has been very positive.

Around 80 disposable cameras were distributed throughout Wester Ross and were available through Community Councils, Council Service Points, libraries and other local contacts. All primary and secondary schools in the area were also provided with cameras. The availability of the cameras was advertised through a Facts and Figures' leaflet distributed to every household in the area, articles in the local press, posters and by word of mouth. A record sheet accompanied each camera on which photographers recorded where the photo was taken and why it was taken. The pack would then be returned to the local contact for the next person to use.

Over 620 photos were taken over a six week period, and this has provided a valuable and innovative input to the Local Plan. The photos have been used as displays at the initial Plan Your Community events, and there has been very good feedback. They also have a very practical application through the identification of sites within the Local Plan.

The photos covered a wide range of issues, from the identification of sites for development to non land use related concerns which are being dealt with through the wider community planning mechanisms set up to progress the Wester Ross Local Plan.

All the photographs and comments have now been transferred to a searchable database which is available on CD-rom. This has provided a very valuable resource for the Local Plan Team and also for other Council Services.

Timescale (over which the project has developed)

The Council was approached by the Scottish Executive in 2002 to take part in a pilot project looking at improving the local planning process. The pilot project was to reflect planning in a rural area and coincided with the proposed revision of the local plans covering the Wester Ross area.

The "keep us in the Picture!" project came about as a result of a series of brainstorming workshops held towards the end of 2002 with a range of partners prior to the formal Notice of Intention to Prepare the local plan. The purpose of these were to assess whether current local planning arrangements within The Council area were effective and what new approaches could be adopted within the preparation of the Wester Ross Local Plan.

The "keep Us in the Picture!" project was implemented as part of a suite of consultation exercises undertaken throughout the Wester Ross Local Plan area during Spring 2003. Other innovative methods used to improve community engagement included Community profiles, which were accompanied by a feedback form and were sent to every household in the plan area (over 3600), and the use of 4 Opinionmeters sited in 11 locations over a period of weeks.

The Notice of Intention to Prepare the Wester Ross Local Plan was advertised in March 2003, and the camera packs were distributed throughout the area. The packs were distributed among the contacts and the communities were then given a period of 6 weeks to use the cameras and return them to the Councit for processing. The photographs were then split into themes and displayed, along with their corresponding comments, at the "Plan Your Community" events that were held in 9 locations throughout Wester Ross during May and June 2003. All primary and secondary schools in the plan area were also provided with cameras, and schoolchildren's photographs were also therefore received and displayed.

Context (the problem which had to be addressed)

The Highland Council is currently preparing the Wester Ross Local Plan as part of a pilot project involving Highland and South Lanarksh ire Councils under the Scottish Executive's Review of Strategic Planning. The purpose of the pilot is to identify ways to make local plans more effective, including clearer management of the process, faster plan production, more innovative ways of consulting and engaging with communities and stakeholders, a greater focus on delivery and better presentation of the documents.

An important element therefore has been to improve engagement of the planning process with local communities. The Scottish Executive has recognised through the White Paper on Public Involvement in Planning (Your Place, Your Plan) that there have been barriers to public involvement. These barriers have included a lack of awareness of opportunities to comment, the complexity of procedures and practices, and a lack of expertise on planning matters.

There has also been an awareness within Highland that whilst some of the traditional methods such as Plan Your Community had been successful, further work was required to ensure that communities were engaged throughout the process rather than during quite specific and discrete periods of the plan preparation. Along with a range of other innovative approaches the project plan for the Wester Ross Local Plan has been developed to meet these concerns.

It was also clear that in an area such as Wester Ross there were a number of groups which needed to be specifically engaged, who might not traditionally attend the planning meetings. This included groups such as young people, travelling people, those with aspirations for affordable housing and those involved in crofting.

Action taken

Following the brainstorming workshops, further work was carried out to look at examples of best practice from elsewhere. In addition, the assistance of the Council's Education, Culture and Sport Service was enlisted to identify innovative approaches to involve the community. As a result of suggestions from the Council's Arts Development Officer, the disposable camera scheme was chosen as a useful vehicle to involve communities in a fun and interactive manner and to meet some of the aspirations of the Council in respect of Community Planning.

Following discussions with a range of camera providers, an arrangement was reached with Photo Factory which represented best value to the Council. Packs were made up, each including a disposable camera, a form to be filled out with details of who had taken the photo, its location and the reason for taking the photo, and instructions on what to do.

The project needed to be administered locally, and a number of contacts were approached to take responsibility for distributing and keeping track of the cameras. The contacts were made up of staft in libraries and Service Points, rangers, Community Councils, local artists and other interested locals. The project was promoted by:

• Information in the Community Profiles which were sent to every household in Wester Ross
• a press release in the 3 local newspapers
• adverts on community websites and the Council's Wester Ross Local Plan website
• posters in local shops/notice boards/libraries and Service Points
• word of mouth by the local contacts, especially Community Councils

As the project progressed, the technical elements of presentation were considered, resulting in the production of a database which can be placed on a CD and distributed to other Council services in the first instance. Work is also being progressed to show the pictures on the Wester Ross Local Plan web-site, another integral part of community engagement. A developmental version of the CD is enclosed for your information.

Results achieved

Over 620 photographs were received along with the taker's comments, and they covered a wide range of issues. These included sites that people wanted to see developed for a variety of purposes, including affordable housing (a major issue in Wester Ross), community facilities and play areas. Other important themes which emerged were the identification of areas to be protected (including favourite views or woodland areas), areas which would benefit from environmental improvement, buildings which should be reused or upgraded, and footpath/access opportunities.

The project also allowed people to give their views on design, and a large number of photographs were received which illustrated examples of what people thought of as good and less good design throughout the area.

Other comments were less relevant to the land use focus of the Local Plan but were relevant to the wider Community Planning role of the Council. For example, a large number of comments involved roads, public transport or waste management/recycling issues. These photographs and comments have been passed onto the relevant Council services and other agencies to ensure that they are considered and responses will be fed back to the community through the community planning mechanisms specifically set up for the Local Plan.

The photographs are now all held in digital format, and a database has been developed allowing all the photos and comments to be viewed. The project has received very good feedback from those attending the Plan Your Community meetings, and offered a way of maintaining interest in the plan from the initial adverts through to the meetings and beyond. The photos also offer a useful resource to use throughout the pian process in terms of presentation, as a monitoring tool and as a means of feedback to communities on how ideas have been related back to the local planning process.

Conclusion - Why does this piece of work merit an Award?

This piece of work merits an Award for the following reasons:

1. It fits well with the current initiatives to improve community engagement in the development plan process in the context of the Scottish Executive proposals.

2. It is an innovative approach to involve a wider group of people than is traditionally involved in the local plan process.

3. It was completed within a tight timescale through effective project management.

4. It represented value for money taking into account the number and range of comments received.

5. It contributes to the wider Community Planning aspirations of the Council and involved partnership arrangements with both the communities and local agencies responsible for delivery.

6. It grew out of partnership working between different Services of the Council to seek a new approach to a particular problem.

7. It has resulted in very positive feedback from the local community.

Date
11 September 2003

« Previous | Contents | Next »