Tag: engagement

Changes to pre-application consultation with local communities

View of Princes Street from the Castle looking North on a sunny day.

Changes are coming to the way pre-application consultation with local communities takes place.

All applications for national or major development must comply with the Pre-Application Consultation (PAC) process. Where pre-application consultation is required, applicants must submit a Proposal of Application Notice (PAN) at least 12 weeks prior to the submission of the planning application.

Previously, a minimum of one event was required to take place, however for notices submitted after 1 October, there will now need to be two events, in accordance with The Town and Country Planning (Pre-Application Consultation) (Scotland) Amendment Regulations 2021 .

At the second event the application will provide feedback on comments received regarding the proposed development. Both of these exhibition/events must be press advertised.

The changes also introduce a time limit of 18 months within which an application must be submitted.

Notices submitted prior to 1 October will not be required to hold two events but will be subject to the 18 month time limit, starting from 1 October. 

Since the first outbreak of Covid in March 2020, all events have been taking place online. For notices received after 1 October, all events must now be in person. It is still good practice however to provide online information for those not able to attend in person.

The Edinburgh Development Concordat promotes collaborative working between the developer, community councils and the Council. It is recommended that an engagement strategy is prepared which sets out how community feedback will be sought. This could include the use of:

  • Public meetings
  • Meetings with community councils
  • Exhibitions with developer staff on hand to answer questions
  • Social media to promote events
  • Bespoke websites for the development
  • Surveys – both online and in person
  • Posters in local libraries and other public places
  • Leaflets distributed to properties in the local area

Consultation should be a meaningful engagement with the community and should offer the opportunity to mitigate negative impacts and misunderstandings and deal with community issues that can be addressed.

Future Edinburgh – City Plan 2030 and our City Mobility Plan

FutureEd snip1

Shaping our city for future generations

Edinburgh has set an ambitious target for Edinburgh to be carbon neutral by 2030. We want everyone in every community to benefit from the city’s success, and make neighbourhoods great places for people to live in. To achieve our ambitious target, we need to make changes to how we manage and develop our city. This will be challenging.

We’ve already approved a programme to transform our city centre so that people come first. We’ve committed to building 20,000 affordable and low-cost homes by 2027. We’re committed to improving air quality by introducing a low emission zone.

These are just three of the many ways in which we’re working to meet our bold ambitions.

We’re developing two long-term strategies which will set out the way we shape and transform our city. We need to know what you think of our proposed plans:

  • Choices for City Plan 2030 sets out options for how we could develop our city sustainably over the next ten years
  • City Mobility Plan proposes radical changes as to how people and goods move around our city.

You can find out more about both projects at www.edinburgh.gov.uk/futureedinburgh

Respond to the Choices and City Mobility Plan consultations

The consultations on both strategies are now live and will run until Tuesday 31st March 2020.

Choices for City Plan 2030

City Mobility Plan

 Talk to us

The Choices for City Plan 2030 and the City Mobility Plan are about Edinburgh’s future and the city we leave for generations to come. Your views are important.

You can find out by speaking to us at our drop-in events and get help with filling out our online questionnaire at our ‘surgeries’.

Find out about our engagement events

Keep up to date

You can keep up to date with the City Plan 2030 project by:

Visiting the website at gov.uk/cityplan2030

Subscribing to this blog at https://planningedinburgh.com

Following us on twitter at @planningedin

Join in the conversation by using the #cityplan2030 hashtag

Subscribe to the newsletter by emailing us at cityplan2030@edinburgh.gov.uk

City Plan 2030 – Shopping and Leisure Seminar

On 22 February 2019 we held a shopping and leisure seminar with people who work in this sector as well as people from community councils. The seminar was a chance to share findings from our research into the shopping and leisure market in Edinburgh. As with the seminars we held on housing and visitor accommodation, these events help us gather a range of views to help shape our policies for City Plan 2030.

The event included an open discussion with a number of issues and queries raised.

The speakers included Cllr Neil Gardiner, Convener of the Planning Commitee, who welcomed the attendees to the seminar:

 

Daisy Narayanan (Project Director, the City of Edinburgh Council) who talked about the progress of the Edinburgh City Centre Transformation project:

 

Keith Miller (Senior Planner, the City of Edinburgh Council) who shared the context and timing of City Plan 2030, and our research and monitoring done on the subject of the shopping and leisure market in the city;

 

and Dr Mark Robertson (Ryden) who covered the draft retail and leisure commercial needs study which was commissioned by us to inform our retail policies for City Plan 2030;

 

Part of the draft study can be seen below, including some detailed findings on the number of shops, rent and vacant units in our town centres. You may not know that Portobello town centre has the lowest rent costs but also the lowest rate of vacancy in the city, and that Leith/Leith Walk has the most shops of all centres:

vacancyslide

rentunitsslide

 

The city centre has been rated highly in surveys which were done as part of this study:

satisfactionslide

 

And access to shops outside of centres was covered, with this map showing parts of the city which are within walking distance of a food or local grocery shop:

AccessToShops_with centres map.jpg

 

The Ryden study includes a lot of data, but a few key points include;

  • Vacancy levels have fallen since the recession, and are below the Scottish average.
  • Although not the biggest shopping and leisure market, Edinburgh city centre ranks highly on quality. Edinburgh St James will continue to shift the market to the east of the city.
  • The reduction in comparison goods shops has been offset by higher numbers of leisure and service uses, although spending on comparison goods (which shoppers buy less often, and will compare prices, features and quality between products and shops before buying) is forecast to grow up to 2028.
  • There is enough convenience shopping space to allow for the expected growth of the city up to 2028.

These are all trends we will need to address as we continue to shape our policies. This is only part of the research that is going into City Plan 2030, and as the plan moves forward we will be getting more views and consulting on what the plan should include. You can keep track and take part by:

City Plan 2030 – Children and Young People Engagement

As we start to prepare City Plan 2030, we have been visiting secondary schools across Edinburgh, coinciding with the 2018 Year of Young People. We have been asking young people about what they think about their area, and what issues are facing the city.

To help us with this, we have been using the Place Standard Tool, which helps us to structure conversations about place – including the physical and social aspects, identifying the assets of a place, as well as areas where places could improve.

We have collected views from nine schools across the city including Queensferry High School, Craigmount High School, Wester Hailes Education Centre, Firhill High School, George Watson’s, James Gillespie’s High School, George Heriot’s, Liberton High School and Portobello High School.

We are now using the views collected to inform the preparation of City Plan 2030.

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What are the young people’s views telling us?

Although the issues raised and the results varied across the city depending on location and school, we can identify a number of key themes.

Parking and traffic was highlighted as an issue in relation to safety, space and sometimes making it difficult to walk and cycle safely.

Having a sense of control or influence was also brought up by a number of young people across the workshops. One attendee from the South East of the city said from “We rarely get chances like this to change our area”. And another said that they “feel like there should be more opportunities to get my voice heard in my local community.”

Edinburgh’s natural spaces were rated the best across the city. Many attendees mentioned their local favourites and appreciated that these spaces were open free and accessible.

Good quality public transport and a wide variety of bus routes were also mentioned as positives, as well as trams and trains which were highlighted as being of importance to young people.

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What next?

We are encouraging all young people in Edinburgh to keep up to date with the City Plan 2030 project by following this blog or following us on Twitter or using #cityplan2030.

For those that had views on transport and mobility in the city a major public consultation called ‘Connecting our City, Transforming our Places’ is also currently looking for the views of the public and we would encourage everybody to share their views by completing the online survey which is open until 12 November 2018.

There will be more opportunities to engage with the City Plan 2030 project moving forward – you can contact the City Plan team and/or subscribe to our newsletter by emailing Cityplan2030@edinburgh.gov.uk or find more information on the City Plan 2030 website www.edinburgh.gov.uk/cityplan2030.

Planning and Building Standards – customer engagement

In June this year the Planning Committee approved a draft customer engagement strategy which explains how we intend to engage and communicate with all of our customers.  We are also proposing changes to our customer charter.  This sets out the level of service you should expect from us.

These changes are due to a number of factors such as increasing demand, how our customers access the service and how we can continue to improve performance.

We have two short surveys on the draft engagement strategy and our revised customer service charter and would appreciate your views on both. The consultation will close on 28 September 2015.