Apologies for the erratic nature of my blogging, but as the student in the office, I’m working on a whole range of topics which gives me the chance to experience lots of planning issues. I’m not just here to make tea! HOWEVER, I have (fortunately for you, reader) found the time to write and henceforth publish yet another blog post.

Emma’s blog post #3: Maps (again)

The City of Edinburgh Council’s brand new all singing, all dancing interactive Local Development Plan (LDP) Proposals Map

I apologise for that subtitle. Wasn’t very snappy. ANYWAY the map is actually very good. The new LDP was adopted at the end of November, and the map is now live. It shows the land allocations from the LDP, and the associated policies, so you can easily check which policies apply to your area (or your house, if you’re just having a nosey). You can click on your area/site (house), and all the policies pop up with links to the LDP document. Let’s use Leith as an example, because I may or may not live there.

Click somewhere on the map, and up pops a dialogue box where you can flick through the different categories that apply to the area. And hyperlinks are in there that take you straight to the written policies. It’s a pretty useful bit of kit. AND: it can be used on your mobile device, so you can check your policies on the go. You can flick through the different layers, there, on the right. Turn some off, turn more on. Whatever tickles your fancy. You can even scribble on it, or leave text boxes, if you were so inclined.

BUT WAIT! There’s more. There’s a whole “other” section on the layers list. Here, you can see data sets like “Education” and “Derelict and Vacant Land” etc etc. AND THEN you can map these onto different basemaps, to see what has changed over time.

^^ That ^^ is all the “other” data, mapped onto an aerial picture of Edinburgh from 1940, and I think it shows quite well how things have changed since then. So some structures are the same, but some have transformed drastically… Like Leith Academy on top of what looks to have been a train depot?

So that’s that covered: New map for the LDP. Check it outtttt.

Feel free to leave a comment with any planning-related topics you would like to see covered in the blog – I’m open to suggestions (FYI: I’m obviously eager for my posts not to be about maps every time). I’ll try my best to enliven anything you suggest. I know some people think planning can be a bit dull…  but I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s ALWAYS EXCITING.

Emma