How to Prepare a Strategy for Your Town: A Practitioners Guide
A guide, prepared by practitioners, on how to prepare a strategy for your town. Designed to help people work through key issues and practical considerations in preparing a place-based strategy for their cities, towns, villages and neighbourhoods.
Developing a Key Performance Framework for your Town
Identifies key areas which should be considered when developing a performance management framework to monitor a town centre. It highlights performance measures under themes of 'People', 'Place' and 'Work'. Each performance area discusses suitable mechanisms; giving examples of how the measures can be used and existing systems of information which are available.
Briefing papers
Learning Network Briefing Papers: Lessons Learned 2009-11
This briefing paper captures messages relating to the two main priorities agreed for the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network: town centre and whole town strategies and performance management of town centres.
Social Enterprises and Town Centre Regeneration
The Town Centres and Local High Streets learning network has identified a need for better understanding about the challenges facing social enterprises within town centres. This briefing paper draws on a review of documents on social enterprises and telephone interviews with people who work alongside social enterprises.
Family Businesses and Town Centre Regeneration
The Scottish Family Business Association (SFBA) and the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network held workshops in Hamilton, Paisley, Inverness and Glenrothes for family businesses located within these town centres. Discussions were around the views of family businesses, the current situation of the towns, how the town got into that situation and possible solutions.
Whole Town Strategies: Who is Doing What in Scotland?
This review maps out how Local Authorities and their partners are approaching town centre regeneration and the extent to which Whole Town Strategies are part of this picture.
Learning and Networking to Support Growth and Change in Towns
This paper looks at how organisations are sharing their practice and learning from each other through networks and activities; what activities and learning tools seemed to be effective; new or emerging examples of supporting learning about towns or other relevant fields; examples of individual learning being embedded in people's own jobs and their organisation; and how the outcomes of learning were being captured and shared.
Learning points
Revitalising our Town Centres - More Than Retail?
This learning point is developed from an event held in February 2011, which focused on approaches to town centre regeneration. The event looked at key principles and good practice in regeneration generally but took the regeneration of Paisley town centre as a 'test case'. It brought together people from the public, private and voluntary sector across Scotland to discuss issues and share experiences.
Social Enterprises and Town Centre Regeneration
This learning point is developed from an event, held in October 2010, which explored how social enterprises could play a more significant role in town centre regeneration. The event highlighted some of the issues preventing this from happening and identified some ideas on what could be done to better harness the potential of social enterprises in contributing to innovative approaches to town centres.
A Private Sector View of Town Centre Regeneration: The Stenhousemuir Experience
This Learning Point is developed from an event held in Stenhousemuir in May 2010, which provided a perspective on town centre regeneration from a private developers point of view.
Performance Management in Towns: An Introduction to Milestone
Developed from an event held in November 2009, which focused on performance management in towns and the need for robust quantitative and qualitative data to enable monitoring and evaluation.
Renaissance Towns
This Learning Point is developed from an event held in February 2010, which explored the Renaissance Towns approach to urban regeneration. It brought together people from the public, private and voluntary sector across Scotland to debate the issues and share their experiences.
Securing private sector investment in town centre regeneration
This event focused on how to secure private sector investment in town centre regeneration. It brought together people from the public, private and voluntary sector across Scotland to debate issues and share experiences.
Piecing together the towns jigsaw: Developing and implementing whole town strategies
This Learning Point is developed from an event held in October 2009, which focused on the development and implementation of Whole Town Strategies. It brought together people from the public, private and voluntary sector across Scotland to debate issues and share experiences.
Town centres and local high streets creating places that work for people and business
This learning point is about the key issues and challenges currently facing Scotland's town centres and local high streets. It is based on learning from the Town Centres and Local High Streets Learning Network launch event, held in Stirling on February 12, 2009.
How do we change the way people feel and think about places
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.
Successful regeneration: the practitioners view
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.
Using evidence to mainstream equalities in regeneration
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.
Using evidence to help plan regeneration
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.
Joint statement of commitment to community empowerment
Published in April 2008 by Scottish Government and COSLA to establish a long-term path to ensuring community empowerment.
National standards for community engagement
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.
Better community engagement: A framework for learning
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
Developing buildings as community assets
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.
Reports
Making towns count: Reviewing the case for Scotland's small towns
The COSLA Small Towns Group commissioned Adrian Colwell Associates and Hexagon Research and Consulting to undertake a review and evaluation of the policy context for Scottish towns and to identify the potential for more integrated support from the Scottish Government. The report will assist the Small Towns Group to take forward its work in implementing the recommendations of the Scottish Small Towns Report: 2007-2013.
Good practice and guidance
Neilston Renaissance Town Charter
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 way to better residential streets
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.
Open space strategies: Best practice guidance
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.
Looking after our town centres
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.
Historic towns forum
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
Making the links and making it happen - Greenspace for a more successful and sustainable Scotland
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
Designing streets: A policy statement for Scotland *NEW*
Designing Streets is the first policy statement in Scotland for street design and marks a change in the emphasis of guidance on street design towards place-making and away from a system focused upon the dominance of motor vehicles. It has been created to support the Scottish Government's place-making agenda and is intended to sit alongside the 2001 planning policy document Designing Places, which sets out government aspirations for design and the role of the planning system in delivering these.
Delivering planning reform
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.
SP=EED: A practical guide to better public engagement in planning in Scotland
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.