PLACE GUIDE: A PROCESS FOR IMPROVED PLACE-BASED DECISION MAKING SCOTTISH FUTURES TRUST


30


Process * Key output:


Structure Place Diagram


This should be a simple visual representation of the Place Brief, showing clearly delivery against agreed outcomes for the Place. It can be used in communications with all relevant stakeholders, and in related or subsequent business cases and masterplans. Again, it sets out long-term aspirations and should be referred to over several years as a way of measuring progress/success.


The Diagram should be developed with communities – perhaps coordinated via a series of workshop sessions.


Every Place is unique, and emerging Place Briefs will likely focus on distinctive combinations of ideal features locally. As such, the Guide does not set out a prescriptive template for the Place Diagram. Instead, the advice here is on ‘how to develop’ with an example output set out on the next page.


Content


The starting point should be the Place Brief which will have established agreement across key partners and communities on desired outcomes. These will likely include considerations and options for connected services, connected opportunities and connected places.


The Place Diagram should show where things need to change, and how. That means illustrating the defining features (the key physical aspects of the future Place, and how the built and natural environment shape local possibilities); the areas of greatest need (showing the communities with the greatest inequality that need support and investment); and how assets can be used (the range of assets (including connections in a Place and the services they provide to their communities now and in the future).


Visually, it should demonstrate the value of combining these elements spatially. That is, highlighting how the layering of existing as well as new resources in a Place can have the greatest collective benefit for people who live, work and play there.


Development


Although the Place Diagram is a snapshot of activity, it should be developed iteratively to show how activities are being undertaken by different teams and partners but not joined up in a planned way. For example, if we remember the ‘Connecting dots’ scenario:


Often, business cases for individual projects have been approved, but all working to different timescales, briefs and funding. Earlier mapping work may show that there is no clear sense that community priorities are being delivered or co-ordinated across a Place.


There may be individual projects such as a “planned retrofit of social housing stock” by an RSL and “an expansion of active travel network” by the local authority transport team”; as well as “a new community health facility” and “upgrade to the leisure centre”.


Instead, a Diagram developed within a Place-based framework will have encouraged all relevant local stakeholders to collaborate on agreed priorities and outcomes. That may mean subsequently stopping or delaying some initiatives, clearly demonstrating where and how some layering of activity would be beneficial, and helping to plan projects thematically.


Overall, it aids defining: “when all this is done, what kind of place will this be?”


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33