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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

The Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership (ATP) is promoting sustainable development in small towns through a specific framework of professional research, continuous community engagement, town strategies, and targeted support. This unique multi-town Partnership is enhancing the social, economic, cultural and environmental vitality of 5 towns with populations between 10-20 thousand in North East Scotland (Stonehaven, Inverurie, Ellon, Peterhead and Fraserburgh). This project is concerned with developing a process and teams, to manage the development of sustainable communities.

Each of the 5 towns has its own profile (built up from detailed professional research) and its own set of indicators. Following wide local community discussion, targets for intervention have been identified, leading to public discussion and agreement on town strategies, with priorities and actions then set out in succeeding 3 year programmes. This has enabled the Partners - Aberdeenshire Council, Communities Scotland and Scottish Enterprise Grampian - to integrate their existing involvement in these key towns and feed the local community and business priorities into their forward strategic and operational programmes.

The three founding Partners are not the only stakeholders. Each town has generated its own local partnership and has brought in other local agencies (such as Enterprise North East Trust and I or Grampian Police), depending on its specific town strategy and its priorities. Each Town has a multi-discipline Town Team, including key stakeholders engaged in the life of the town; and the Towns Coordinator is the link officer between each of the Town Teams and the ATP Steering Group that has agreed the Partnerships strategic objectives and monitors the operation of all the town programmes.

ATP has its own website, and all the information on profiles, indicators, strategies, targets, programmes and contacts are freely accessible on each town's web pages.

Planners have been involved from each of the Partner bodies in the setting up and design of the Partnership framework, and are key players in the coordination of the Partnership and in the development and implementation of the action programmes in all of the Town Teams. Other key players involved in the town teams and some of their working groups include personnel from economic development, housing, education, social work, youth and community, health, transportati9n, arts and leisure.

Timescale (over which the project has developed)

The Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership was created in 1998 to tackle the revitalisation of 5 of Aberdeenshire's main towns. Town strategies and 3 year programmes of action were developed following professional studies, with significant community involvement in each of the towns. All towns are now into their second 3 year programme (2003-2006). From the start of the ATP programme to 2002, 12.9 million has been targeted by the Partners across the 5 towns.

Following an independent review last year, a new Partnership Agr6ement has been signed. This will continue the initiative until 2006. Another 10 million is committed to special projects and activities, which have been identified by the communities as priorities for their future social, economic and environmental development. As with the first 3 year programme, links with European agencies and authorities will continue for financial assistance, joint projects or exchanging best practice.

Some of the first group of towns are planned to become less dependant on ATP funding over the next 3 years, and there is a commitment for other towns to come into the ATP programme, Banif and MacDuff, able to take advantage of the experiences gained from pilot projects in the 5 towns, and best practices established.

ATP has developed a process of managing change in small towns, and for each of the 5 towns there is not an end point to what has been started. Change is dynamic, and therefore the development of more sustainable communities will be an ongoing process, with new needs, priorities and actions emerging, and being delivered by the established town teams and local communities as resources allow.

Context (the problem which had to be addressed)

Each of the towns initially chosen had significant issues of economic instability, decline or decay (issues including the BSE crisis, and the decline in tourism and the fishing industries). Studies to revitalise local economies, and to regenerate and improve town centres were common to most of the towns, but issues of housing, transportation and environmental improvement were also examined.

ATP Partners are working to develop more sustainable communities (as set out in NPPG1, The Planning System) by integrating their policy development and decision making in ways that go beyond the formal Development Plan making system, and build on positive community planning methods of public and business engagement. There are still complementary positive physical planning measures being pursued to influence change and enhance the towns, to guide new development in terms of location, transportation and quality design. Pan 52, Planning for Small Towns and PAN 59 on Town Centres recognise that local authorities cannot act alone, and there is the need for coordinated action and agreed programmes. ATP has embraced this approach in its strategic objectives.

The ATP has sought to develop long term visions for each town, through preparing and commissioning a range of town development studies which have facilitated public discussion in each town. Town strategies that followed, also covered important sustainability issues, including, employment opportunities, tourism, skills and learning, social housing, healthy living, marketing and biodiversity.

Action taken

ATP Partners have provided the core funding to commission professional studies in each of the towns, and much of the expertise to enable the towns to prepare their own strategies. It has required the knowledge, involvement and enthusiasm of the local stakeholders to develop and agree the Town Strategies, and to agree on their priorities for action. Projects are diverse and vary between the towns, as local needs dictate. These have included - a footpath network in Ellon, a community flat in Inverurie, a regeneration masterplan for central Fraserburgh, healthy living centres in Peterhead and In verurie, tourism marketing in Stonehaven and Fraserburgh, youth facilities in Ellon and Fraserburgh, biodiversity initiatives in Ellon, an e-business centre in Peterhead, community art in Ellon, Peterhead and Inverurie, a signposting and interpretation strategy for Stonehaven (to select just a few from well over a hundred).

Community involvement and empowerment to influence the investment, expenditure, and service provision programmes of the Partners has been key to this Initiative throughout all the participating towns. From the start business and public participation has been to the fore. There is continuous dialogue within each community, and community/public involvement has been fostered through

• Community training, using Planning Aid
• Annual ATP Seminars for sharing experience on key issues of common interest.
• A Towns Together Forum for quarterly networking of businesses and traders across the towns to discuss ideas and progress.
• Annual Town Partnership meetings (in each Town) to exchange views with the local community on progress, and review past and projected work.
• Planning for Real exercises, focus groups and workshops in each of the towns to develop for example, strategies / development briefs / or town centre master plans.

Results achieved

The development of a holistic approach to the management of change in small towns, with Partners and other stakeholders able to target limited resources to the needs and priorities identified by the communities -covering work in environmental enhancement projects, work on business promotion and support, the provision of targeted social housing and associated community, health and arts infrastructure.

The revitalisation of business and traders groups in all 5 Towns has been another outstanding achievement; getting them involved actively in the decisions, programmes of action and activities in the towns. Business groups are now effectively networking within the towns, and across the 5 Towns in ATP, becoming more independent financially and more proactive in their communities.

Community organisations and interest groups are actively working together adding value to new developments and Partner projects, and in the development of new and improved facilities in health, housing, leisure and the arts. Collective marketing of facilities and activities within, and across the towns has started in the areas of employment land, leisure and tourism. New Development Plans and Aberdeenshire's Community Plan are benefiting from the more proactive engagement and feedback from Town Teams, Business and Community groups, and in turn these Plans provide evidence for intervention and actions.

An external review of the ATP Initiative confirmed that it has added value to public services, pursued best practice in terms of town models and community participation, and it benchmarked robustly against other partnerships throughout the UK.

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

The pioneering work of ATP is an excellent example of a holistic approach to managing change in small towns.

The ATP approach has been to work hard to activate, engage and enthuse communities to get involved in the development and regeneration of their own communities. Bringing together the Partners, and the various private, business, voluntary and cultural groups into active Town Teams has helped to drive forward many successful business and community projects that meet agreed local needs and priorities.

From an Initiative that sought to tackle issues of economic performance, environmental enhancement, community involvement and transportation, has evolved a network of reactivated community organisations and a momentum of community engagement in the management of change in 5 of Aberdeenshire's main towns. Integrated actions and expenditure programmes in each of the towns, targeted to meet the needs specific to each of those communities, has resulted in a new vitality in these towns - not just in terms of physical enhancement, but in terms of business confidence, linkages and involvement in the community, and in terms of tackling issues of social inclusion.

The framework, the process and the skills established from this initiative are transferable to other towns in Aberdeenshire and beyond. The Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership provides an outstanding example of what can be done to realise the vitality of small towns and to promote their sustainable futures.

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