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7 SUPPORTING THRIVING COMMUNITIES
Edinburgh from space
WE NEED TO GET MUCH SMARTER AT PLANNING FOR AND DELIVERING SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AT THE OUTSET, WHETHER THROUGH NEW INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT (TRANSPORT, SCHOOLS, HOSPITALS), HOUSING DEVELOPMENT OR COMMUNITY REGENERATION
INTRODUCTION
7.1 Thriving and healthy communities have strong individual identities that engender a sense of pride in those who live and work in them. They are well planned, well connected and well kept places where people wish to live, are active in shaping local services and their local physical and cultural environment, and where the needs of everyone in the community are taken into account.
7.2 Thriving communities should make it easier for us to live in a sustainable way. Given the scale of the challenge Scotland faces in reducing our environmental impact, we need to get much smarter at planning for and delivering sustainable development at the outset, whether through new infrastructure investment (transport, schools, hospitals), housing development or community regeneration.
7.3 Our local environment plays a key part in the quality of our lives. Programmes to support local environmental improvements can make an important contribution to environmental justice since it is often the most deprived communities that live in the worst environments.
7.4 One of the criteria for sustainable regeneration is to put local people at the heart of the process, to combat social exclusion, strengthen community spirit and encourage equitable economic development. Individuals and communities should be able to influence the decisions that affect their environment.
KEY OUTCOMES
7.5 We want a Scotland that:
- has well-connected places
- regenerates local environments
- puts people at the heart of change.
WELL-CONNECTED PLACES
7.6 Thriving communities are built on the ability for people to connect with each other - within their family, and with friends - and to have ready access to a range of services - work, shops, medical assistance and leisure. The challenge is to maintain and enhance such connections while reducing our environmental impact.
7.7 We need to design places in ways that support more sustainable choices. Good quality open spaces and streetscapes can encourage people to exercise and play outside and to walk or cycle for shorter journeys. Good connections to the places we work, where our children go to school and to shops and services can help us to drive less and make places feel vibrant. The Executive's planning, transport, housing and regeneration policies all have a vital role to play in making this happen.
WE WANT A SCOTLAND THAT:
- HAS WELL-CONNECTED PLACES
- REGENERATES LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS
- PUTS PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF CHANGE
7.8 Programmes are in place to encourage walking and cycling through the work of local authorities and initiatives like the National Cycle Network. Measures such as 20mph zones and Home Zones are making our streets safer and more enjoyable places to be. School Travel Co-ordinators are in place in every local authority in Scotland to promote healthier and more sustainable travel to and from schools.
7.9 Information and communications technology offers new opportunities to connect remote communities. The Executive has engaged BT in a £16.5 million contract to upgrade 378 rural exchanges across Scotland and is supporting wireless broadband access throughout the Western Isles. Take-up in communities acquiring access under the programme since it started in June is outstripping the Scottish average, illustrating the demand in rural and remote areas for the social and economic benefits of broadband connectivity.
7.10 Businesses can and do play a positive role in the life of their local community, not only as good employers but also as good neighbours. There are many positive contributions a business can make, like providing cycling facilities or supporting the development of local footpaths, or having its own travel-to-work strategy. Effective regulation protects communities and their environment from pollutant emissions, noise and nuisance, but businesses being good neighbours is also about recognising the value of open and cooperative relationships with those on whose doorsteps they operate.
7.11 Antisocial behaviour affects the quality of life of everyone. We all want to live without the threat of crime, drug misuse and disorder hanging over us and our families. Failing to deal with antisocial behaviour such as noise, dumping of rubbish, vandalism and graffiti creates a downward spiral, making people want to leave previously thriving communities and putting a stop to efforts to improve neighbourhoods.
7.12 The Scottish Executive is investing £120 million over 2004-08 to prevent and tackle antisocial behaviour. Backed by recent legislation, initiatives such as community wardens, mediation services and antisocial behaviour investigation teams are helping to tackle antisocial behaviour and build strong, safe and attractive communities where people feel that there is a long term future for themselves and their families.
7.13 Accessible local services are important for the long-term sustainability of all communities, especially remote rural communities. The Executive is committed to improving service delivery in rural areas so that agreed improvements to accessibility and quality are achieved for key services in remote and disadvantaged areas.
Image: Kelvin Clyde Greenspace
7.14 Regeneration - the transformation of underperforming places and communities - has an important contribution to make towards economic prosperity, tackling poverty and disadvantage, improving health and delivering sustainable development. Regeneration programmes provide an area focus for policy: on places where there is potential to realise economic opportunities and places with the greatest concentrations of deprivation. This is particularly important in Scotland as we still have very high concentrations of poverty and disadvantage in some parts of the country which are often near areas of economic opportunity.
REGENERATING LOCAL ENVIRONMENTS
7.15 The quality of our local environment can have a major impact on the well-being of individuals and the wider community. Local authorities are well placed to take action to improve the local environment, with programmes for example to deliver cleaner streets, better local roads, parks and playgrounds, improvements to local transport, neighbourhood safety and recycling initiatives. The Executive is providing funding of £50 million in both 2005-06 and 2006-07 through the Quality of Life fund to support local authorities in this work. New partnership approaches are also delivering good quality 'breathing' spaces in and around our cities, towns and villages, including both woodlands and greenspaces, and conserving and encouraging the reuse of the historic buildings that contribute to the quality of our neighbourhoods and townscapes.
7.16 Much can be done to create safer communities by designing out crime and building in feelings of security. Projects that make a significant, visible difference at an early stage are well received by local communities. The installation of white lighting together with environmental improvements that make areas feel safer and cleaner can both reduce the fear of crime and encourage a sense of involvement. New Planning Advice is being prepared on 'Designing Safer Places' which will highlight the positive role that planning can play in creating attractive, well-managed environments which in turn help to discourage antisocial and criminal behaviour.
7.17 We know that Scotland's most deprived areas bear the burden of some of the worst environmental impacts, including dereliction, lack of greenspace and industrial pollution and poor air quality. People living in the most deprived areas have particular concerns about their local environment and quality of life issues including vandalism, the behaviour of young people, litter and dereliction.
7.18 Community regeneration of the most deprived neighbourhoods has a key role to play in improving the quality of the local environment. Community Planning Partnerships have been supported to develop and deliver Regeneration Outcome Agreements ( ROAs) that set out how £318 million from the Community Regeneration Fund will be used over the next three years to deliver local environmental improvements alongside improvements in employability, education, health and access to local services. The environmental regeneration of the most deprived neighbourhoods will be a priority for the sustainable development strategy, and will be built into the performance management framework for the ROAs. As a first step Communities Scotland will analyse existing plans with a view to sharing best practice and identifying areas where further support and guidance is required.
7.19 Access to funding for local environmental regeneration projects should be easier than it is now - negotiating complex funding streams across developmental, environmental and regeneration interests creates major barriers for applicants and gets in the way of delivering joined up outcomes. The Executive will review the range of funding available in these fields with a view to simplifying the range and scope as far as possible, in order to ensure that funding is directed at projects in a way that secures the most significant outcomes, especially for Scotland's most deprived communities.
PUTTING PEOPLE AT THE HEART OF CHANGE
7.20 Involving local people in the changes that are happening in their area can bring a range of benefits, both producing improvements in the local environment in which people have a stake and building confidence and valuable transferable skills in those who get involved.
7.21 Communities Scotland is supporting Community Planning Partnerships to make best use of its National Standards for Community Engagement to help them improve the quality of community engagement practice. It is working to help communities identify their skills needs and ways of filling these through its Skills Framework for Community Regeneration and it has established the Community Voices Network. This will support people to engage effectively in the regeneration of their communities by building their knowledge, sharing information and learning from each other about what works in community regeneration and by providing a mechanism to enable communities to influence national policy and practice.
Image: Aberdeen Countryside Project
CASE STUDY
Forestry Commission Scotland: Woods in and Around Towns
Woods in towns provide more benefits than you might think. They can be a place to retreat from the hustle and bustle of urban life and to get active - contributing to our health and well-being. Woodland is a cost-effective way of transforming derelict and post-industrial land and is a natural tool to help encourage urban regeneration and inward investment. They are also places that allow wildlife to thrive, increase Scotland's biodiversity and make wildlife more accessible for enjoyment and learning.
Forestry Commission Scotland's Woods in and Around Towns initiative ( WIAT) aims to increase the contribution of woodland to the quality of life in Scotland's urban and post-industrial areas.
An example is a £190k partnership project with Glasgow City Council to manage 100 ha of urban woodland for the 40,000 people on the Bishops and Easterhouse estates in East Glasgow.
The Easterhouse partnership project involves:
- recruitment of a full-time community ranger to involve local people in managing and using the woods
- provision of training for long-term unemployed
- constructing 2200m of new footpaths
- upgrading 1500 m of existing paths
- removing 100 tonnes of fly-tipped rubbish and litter
- thinning 14 ha of woodland to let in more light and create space.
www.forestry.gov.uk
7.22 Scotland is pioneering an assets-based approach to community regeneration in the highlands and islands. A partnership of Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the Scottish Land Fund, the Community Land Unit and the Highlands and Islands Community Energy Company is supporting community-based organisations and the voluntary sector to build assets and provide services, providing advice and support for the acquisition and management of land and marine resources for community benefit, enabling communities to harness the area's renewable energy, and bringing integrated and innovative approaches to regeneration and asset management, including housing and other infrastructure. Communities are acquiring not just assets but also skills, capacity and confidence: a model from which other communities - and national programmes - should borrow and learn. The Executive through Communities Scotland is exploring how this may work in urban areas and will work with the Big Lottery Fund, which is also exploring the development of communities owning and managing facilities and services Scotland-wide.
7.23 The Executive is making changes that will improve access to information on the local environment and make it easier for individuals and communities to take part in the decision-making processes. Key programmes include:
- modernising the planning system, so as to strengthen the involvement of communities and reflect local views better
- SEPA's work to provide and promote accessible, meaningful and easily understood information on the environment
- the Executive's work to explore options, such as a 'one stop shop' service, for providing the public with accessible environmental information and advice.
7.24 There are important links to be made here with the learning agenda. That includes support for individuals and communities to learn - for example proposals to strengthen and learn from the success of programmes that link practical action to improve the local environment with a package of training and skills development for those that are taking part (see chapter 13). There is also a lot that others can learn from the approaches communities in Scotland have developed - from the practicalities of designing and implementing sustainable development solutions to their insights into the connections between issues, problems and solutions.
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