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Designing Places

Foreword

In November 2000 my predecessor as Planning Minister, Sam Galbraith, asked the question "Where are the conservation areas of tomorrow?" There are no single or simple solutions to raising the standard of development in urban and rural Scotland - but we have to make a start.

NPPG1 (Revised 2000) The Planning System emphasises the importance of design considerations in reaching planning decisions. We have published Planning Advice Notes on subjects such as the Siting and Design of Housing in the Countryside, Small Towns and Town Centre Improvement. But what we did not have until now was a general statement setting out the Executive's aspirations for design and the role of the planning system in delivering these.

This document fills that gap. It was written by Robert Cowan, an urban designer and author. A Steering Group including Scottish Executive officials and outside interests steered the work. Represented on the Group were the Urban Design Alliance (which embraces the Royal Town Planning Institute in Scotland, the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors in Scotland and the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland), planning and architecture schools, local authority officials, architects, landscape architects and transport planners. The aim of the document is to demystify urban design and to demonstrate how the value of design can contribute to the quality of our lives. Good design is an integral part of a confident, competitive and compassionate Scotland.

This statement sits alongside the policy on architecture, which was launched in October 2001, and it is a material consideration in decisions in planning applications and appeals. It will also provide the basis for a series of Planning Advice Notes dealing with more detailed aspects of design.

Together I hope that these will provide the foundations for tomorrow's conservation areas.

Lewis Macdonald, MSP
Deputy Minister for Transport and Planning

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