Last week (22nd and 26th November) we ran a couple of Place Standard events at Southside Community Centre. The events were generally well attended, with some really good feedback from both sessions.
Following on from these events, we are now running a short online survey using the questions from the Place Standard tool, which, if you live, work or spend time in the Southside, we would love it if you could spare 5 -10 minutes to complete it.
Just a reminder of what the Place Standard is, it is a tool to evaluate the quality of a place. There are 14 questions which cover the social and physical elements of a place. Each question is given a score out of 7 based on what people think and feel, 7 being excellent and 1 being poor.
The results of the events and the online survey will help to inform future policies and change in the area, so it is vitally important that you have your say on what needs to be improved.
The Southside
Thank you in advance for taking time out to complete the survey.
The City of Edinburgh Council in partnership with various organisations from the Southside, will be holding a Placemaking exercise to get your views on what you think works well and what doesn’t work so well in the Southside.
The Southside
How to get involved
We will be carrying out a placemaking exercise using the Place Standard tool which has been developed by A&DS, the Scottish Government and NHS Scotland. We will take groups of people through the exercise in facilitated sessions. We’d like as many of the community as possible to get involved to help make the process work.
The Place Standard wheel shows how people scored different aspects of their area. 1 being very poor, 7 being excellent. (This is an illustrative example and not the scores for the Southside).
This is the third time we have used this process, so we know it is a successful tool. It will help inform the Town Centre Supplementary Guidance and the Southside Locality Improvement Plan.
Please let us know if you’re interested in coming along to one of the sessions by contacting george.oldroyd@edinburgh.gov.uk
What is Placemaking?
Places that work well for the community have a significant influence on the health and well-being of individuals. The opposite is also true – places that do not work well have a negative impact on health and well-being. The aim of placemaking is to create successful places.
We can measure the success of a place through the use of a tool called the Place Standard . This consists of a series of indicators that allow the community to assess things like access to greenspace, general maintenance of an area and perception of safety. This tells us where a place is succeeding and where it is failing.
The Scottish Government’s policy on Architecture and Place – Creating Places sets the context for how we can deliver great places.
What will happen after the exercise?
This process will give us lots of information about the Southside and how it works well as a town and where it doesn’t and we can use this to inform what we do as a Council and how new development can support the qualities of the Southside.
This is not just another consultation, it is an opportunity to make a difference to the area in which you live, work and visit.
Information regarding these events is also available on the City of Edinburgh Council’s consultation hub.
New guidance has been approved for Bruntsfield/Morningside and Leith town centres. The guidance looks at activities in these town centres such as shopping, walking and visiting and will be used to improve these places for all users.
Bruntsfield/Morningside town centre planning guidanceLeith town centre planning guidance
We had the help of HERE+NOW to look at issues in the town centres and come up with a number of suggestions. We have used this and the feedback from the consultation to inform the final guidance. The guidance aims to strengthen and improve these town centres as the heart of the local community and to help develop proposals for placemaking. They will be used to assess planning applications and proposals for change. We’ll also be working with other Council services to see how improvements can be made in these areas.
Your views on the Bruntsfield/Morningside and Leith Town Centres
We are now consulting on draft guidance for Bruntsfield/Morningside and Leith town centres and would like your views on how we plan for these places.
You can give us your views on the draft town centre guidance by completing the online surveys or speaking to us at one of the drop in sessions noted below. Posters for these events are at the bottom of this post. Both consultations will close on 16 February 2016.
The Edinburgh Local Development Plan has eight town centres with more detail contained in Supplementary Guidance. Preparing this guidance allows a more flexible approach to how we plan for these different town centres.
The guidance also sets out how we apply the Scottish Government’s Town Centre First Policy and emphasises how important town centres are as the heart of a community and a place for a range of activities.
Supplementary guidance is already in place for the City Centre, Corstorphine, Gorgie/Dalry, and Tollcross town centres. Later this year we’ll be preparing town centre guidance for the remaining town centres at Nicolson Street/Clerk Street, Portobello and Stockbridge. You can keep up to date with these by subscribing to this blog or the Council’s consultation hub.
Did you know that Edinburgh has eight town centres? These are Brunstfield/Morningside, Corstorphine, Gorgie/Dalry, Leith/Leith Walk, Nicolson Street/Clerk Street, Portobello, Stockbridge and Tollcross.
Recently we’ve been asking people about shop uses in their area and what else they would like to see such as cafes, offices or community uses. As part of this, pupils fromCorstorphine Primary and Dalry Primaryschools drew what they’d like in their area. Thanks to the pupils for their great ideas, which you can view below.
At the moment we are consulting onCorstorphine and Gorgie/Dalrytown centres. We’re holding a a drop-in session on Saturday 10 May 11am to 3pm atFountainbridge Libraryif you’d like to speak to us about Gorgie/Dalry or ask us about any of the town centres.
Planning Edinburgh 
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