Stuart Mearns, Head of Planning and Rural Development for Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park details the wider benefits of investing in engagement to develop policies, proposals and guidance for future growth…
As a National Park Authority, we are tasked with looking after some of the most precious and well known locations in Scotland. Planning in the National Park is different to the rest of Scotland; we have to balance the conservation interests along with the development needs of our businesses, communities and visitors, whilst ensuring we deliver Scottish Planning Policy. Our decisions, policies and Plans are developed in the context of our National Park aims which cover conservation, visitor experience and rural development.
We are coming to the end of an extensive wide-ranging consultation on a new Proposed Local Development Plan known as LIVE Park, which sets out new development opportunities across some of the most stunning towns and villages in the country. We’ve called our Plan LIVE Park because it is about making the National Park a great place to Live, Invest, Visit and Experience.
Our first Local Plan was adopted in 2011 and in keeping with the rest of the UK, we have seen a lot less development activity due to unsettled economic conditions. We wanted LIVE Park to respond to a very different development climate by building on existing collaborations. The key to achieving this was how we approached the process and the changes planning needed to respond to.
The innovative methods we adopted during our preparation and development of the Plan have revolutionised how we work with communities, partner organisations and the development sector.
Before we launched the consultation on our Main Issues Report, we were clear that we wanted to build a better understanding amongst communities of what planning involves and why it matters. We talk about community engagement frequently but just how much of the whole community are actively involved in planning their own future development? We really wanted LIVE Park to reflect a shared vision, with everyone involved (from communities to partner organisations to businesses) having a sense that they had made a lasting contribution to help address some of the main issues and opportunities facing rural communities. Not only would this help us prepare a better Plan, it would also create a greater awareness for when planning applications were being processed. We made a conscious decision to actively engage a broader cross-section of people and to make sure we kept them informed as we moved through the process.
So, how did we do this? Our collaborative process began by working with experts in service design and stakeholder engagement. We set ourselves the challenge of making sure we offered as many people as possible the opportunity to understand the main issues and opportunities the National Park faces so they could help shape the Plan. We knew to do this we had to remove barriers that can put people off getting involved in Planning, whether that’s the language we used, how readable and accessible our materials were, where and when we held our community meetings and how we kept people informed of our progress. We particularly wanted to target traditionally harder-to-reach audiences including young people and working-age families, who don’t tend to get involved in the Planning process.
We developed a fully integrated communications plan including piloting design-led community workshops (“charrettes”) to help deliver a consultation process that put our audience firmly at the heart of the process. Alongside the usual face to face engagement and printed materials, we developed a digital marketing campaign across a range of platforms from Facebook to Twitter, YouTube, Sound Cloud and Instagram, all of which allowed people a way to get involved that suited their lifestyle and needs. We placed greater emphasis on visual engagement and we produced a series of short videos that helped explain what Planning is, why it matters, what some of those mysterious ‘Planning Buzzwords’ actually mean and what the main issues and opportunities were for the National Park. We have no doubt that this people-centred approach to planning fully helped us to deliver a better informed Plan that had been shaped by a broader cross-section of people who have an interest in the Park.
During the consultation period, we wanted to gather as much information as possible and it was equally important that we shared feedback with our communities. We published a series of blogs on a bespoke website and when we held events, we used social reporting techniques to capture feedback that could easily be shared on SoundCloud or YouTube so people could hear the views of others too.
We were also very conscious of preparing a planning approach that grasps the commercial opportunities for landowners and also delivers the needs of our communities whilst supporting our conservation aims. Although challenging at times, we have been successful in bringing all interests together to share open and frank views of what could and should happen across the National Park.
We have now devised policies and strategies for different areas of the Park such as our Rural Development Frameworks for West Loch Lomondside, Buchanan South and our Callander South Masterplan. All of these policies have been prepared collaboratively to ensure a broader buy-in.
Although our experience has not been without its challenges, when we look at our Proposed Plan, we believe we have managed to prepare a document which delivers on what we set out to achieve, through a process that we tailored to fit a wide range of aspirations.
To achieve true collaborative working with communities and stakeholders, Planning Authorities need to embrace and involve communication specialists to use innovative methods to reach the broadest audiences. By bringing communities into the process, Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park has fostered greater ownership of the Proposed Development Plan and a greater appreciation of the planning process.
For more information about LIVE Park and the consultation process visit www.ourlivepark.com
Stuart Mearns
Head of Planning and Rural Development
Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park
info@lochlomond-trossachs.org
www.twitter.com/lomondtrossachs