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Articles
This interesting Communities and Local Government article highlights how temporarily converting empty shops into social enterprises, local art displays or learning centres can help innovative communities prevent high streets declining.
A street in Brighton has been transformed from a rigid, motor car dominated environment into one where pedestrians are actively welcomed.
CABE announces latest round of funding for seaside regeneration projects through its £45 million Sea Change programme, funded by the Department for Culture Media and Sport.
Good Practice and Guidance
The residents of Neilston formally handed over their charter for the future of their village to East Renfrewshire Council's leader Councillor Jim Fletcher, at a conference on the Scottish Renaissance Towns Initiative on 25 June 2009. Created by the residents of Neilston, it documents their 20 year vision on how to inject new life into their village.
Although similar renaissance projects have been undertaken in the USA, Australia and in the Yorkshire towns of Wakefield, Doncaster and Scarborough, this is the first of its kind in Scotland.
This CABE briefing follows 'This way to better streets (2007)', in which CABE Space looked at the design of 10 streets from town centres to ring roads and beyond Here, CABE focuses on the design of residential streets in new developments.
CABE has published this guidance for local authorities and their stakeholders on how to prepare, deliver, monitor and review an open space strategy. It includes best practice examples which sow the benefits of a strategic approach.
This short guide by Communities and Local Government is for town centre managers and their local partners. It offers practical help in setting out how we can work together to make sure that our town centres reach their full potential, even in tough times, so that we can all enjoy, and be proud of, the centres of our great towns.
But it also looks further ahead. It is vital that those involved in town centres - planners, service managers, businesses, local groups and communities - develop a clear vision, and actively plan to take advantage of new opportunities when the recovery begins.
A colleague recently attended a Regeneration and Renewal conference where one of the exhibitors was a team from City University, London who have been developing a website to provide advice for voluntary and community organisations. A lot of the data is English based however this is an interesting and interactive site that you may find helpful.
The Historic Towns Forum (formerly EHTF) has been supporting professionals working in the historic built environment since 1987. The events, publications and guidance focus perennial and topical issues, drawing together practitioners from across the disciplines and sectors. This collective offers a strong platform from which to lobby policy makers on behalf of historic towns and cities. Check out their website (link above) for more information on HTF
This new greenspace scotland publication is a book in two parts:
The first half (' making the links') draws on international research and project examples from around Scotland to demonstrate how greenspace contributes across the Government's five strategic objectives and national outcomes to create healthier, safer and stronger, wealthier and fairer, smarter and greener communities.
The second part (' making it happen') looks at the actions that are needed by a range of partners to make greenspace deliver these outcomes and benefits; this section signposts readers to a range of useful tools and resources, and highlights examples of good practice from across the country.
Planning
The planning system is critical to increasing the rate of sustainable economic growth. It should be one of the main creative driving forces behind the delivery of better places in Scotland - helping the public sector, development industry and communities work together to make good development happen in the right place.
Sets out the Scottish Government's shared determination to speed up reform of the planning system.
Planning Aid for Scotland's practical guide to aid community engagement in Scotland. SP=EED stands for Scottish Planning = Effective Engagement and Delivery. It has been designed to help contribute to improving public involvement and efficiency in the planning system, a key requirement of the Planning etc (Scotland) Act 2006. SP=EED provides a checklist and good practice examples of community engagement and will be developed over time.
Past Events
The Vital & Vibrant Town Centres Conference at Stirling Management Centre focused on the theme: "The challenge for our town centres and high streets", an issue at the top of the agenda for the Scottish Government, stakeholders and businesses.
A number of high-profile speakers highlighted the key issues that need to be addressed if towns and high streets are to achieve successful regeneration and sustainable economic growth.
Learning Points
This SCR Learning Point looks at what action can be taken to change negative perceptions into positive ones as part of the wider regeneration of neighbourhoods.
This SCR Learning Point records the views of practitioners working at project level in the regeneration field on what makes regeneration effective, and what factors helped or hindered them in the establishment of good practice.
This SCR Learning Point explores how education and regeneration professionals can better work together by identifying common areas of interest and sharing examples of good practice.
Communities Scotland published a report in 1996 which includes a number of sources of information and tools for analysis. This gives information about the (then) legislative framework, suggests ways of gathering evidence and provides tools to help develop an evidence base.
This SCR Learning Point summarises the discussions at an event which showcased how evidence has been used in planning four different Scottish examples of regeneration work.
Published in April 2008 by Scottish Government and COSLA to establish a long-term path to ensuring community empowerment.
Launched in May 2005, they set out best practice principles for the way that government agencies, councils, health boards, police and other public bodies engage with communities. The idea for developing the standards came from people on the front line of community engagement.
This sets out a framework of competencies designed to enable the planning of learning in community engagement, and to test models for delivering effective learning for community engagement. Published by Scottish Government
This SCR Learning Point captures the key lessons from our Masterclass, 'Delivering Buildings as Community Assets'. It focuses on issues that are important if agencies are to help communities successfully take on the challenges involved.
This SCR Learning Point is about 'active ageing', a term used to describe an ideal, integrated and aware community that offers choice to the older person. It looks at how we could develop our communities to support an older population that has very different expectations from previous generations.
This SCR Learning Point is about taking a vision for regenerating a community and putting it into action using appreciative inquiry methods. Appreciative inquiry highlights the most positive aspects of a community organisation. It encourages people to imagine the best that their community or organisation can be and then translate these possibilities into action.
This SCR Learning Point discusses the work of the Asset Based Community Development Institute in Chicago, and in particular the work of John McKnight and his colleagues there, to examine how public sector organisations look at communities and how communities look at themselves, and how bringing these two elements together leads to effective community development.
This SCR Learning Point is the product of 'Rural development in the Highlands and Islands' - a practice event in Inverness in September 2005. Organised by the Scottish Centre for Regeneration, and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, the event brought together partners and networks from across the north of Scotland to promote good practice and exchange information about what works for community regeneration in remote rural areas.