Local Development Plan Update: Our New Development Plan Scheme

After the Local Development Plan (LDP) was published, we asked you for your feedback on how well you had been involved.  The results of this survey can be viewed here.

The Development Plan Scheme

The newest Development Plan Scheme was approved on the 7 September 2017. Every Development Plan Scheme has a Participation Statement. This sets out how we will engage with the public as we get ready to prepare for the next LDP.

The planning system can impact everyone. So, it is important that all members of the public, community groups and organisations have their say about what’s in a LDP.

Thomas Morton Hall 18 Jan 2012 2 (002)
Engagement Workshop we held for our current LDP at Thomas Morton Hall in January 2012.

Improving Engagement

This year, we have considered the feedback we received from the LDP engagement survey when writing our Participation Statement.

Following the public’s comments, we are now working towards raising better awareness of the LDP process and improving the opportunities for you to get involved with creating the Plan.

To kick things off, we are:

1) Writing a communication plan.

69 people responded to our consultation survey. We found that the majority were over 65 and retired.

As result, we now know we must find better ways to:

2) Engage with the 16 – 54 age group.

47/69 respondents disagreed or strongly disagreed with the statement that “I think that the Edinburgh Local Development Plan process was good“.

Because of this, we are working to understand:

3) Better ways to involve all community groups in the creation of our next LDP;

4) Your preferred method and frequency of update from us; and

5) How we can make it easier for you to comment on proposals and let you know how we use your comments.

What happens next?

We will keep you updated with the work we are doing to deliver the first LDP with a frequent series of blog posts.

Moving forward, these will begin to touch on preparing the next LDP – LDP 2.

A new Development Plan Scheme will be published in 2018 and will include details and dates of engagement activities that you can get involved in.

Southside Place Standard Online Survey

Hello All,

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
The Southside

Thank you in advance for taking time out to complete the survey.

George.

2016 National Customer Satisfaction Survey for Building Standards

The Scottish Government (Building Standards Division) are looking for your feedback about the local authority Building Standards service in Scotland.

New Waverley building site

They would like to hear about the quality of service you have received when applying for a building warrant and/or submitting a completion certificate. Views are sought on the customer service you have experienced as opposed to the actual decision on any application you may have made.  More details and the survey can be found online. The survey will close on Monday 28 November 2016.

Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site…

… have your say.

WHS panorama and logoThis is your opportunity to have your say on how the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh World Heritage Site should be managed.

The consultation opened on Friday 1 July and will run until 1 August 2016.

We’ve had over 230 responses since Friday and the results are starting to take shape…

Pavilion Postcard
This wheel is a visual representation of the results so far (click to enlarge).

So far, this is what the respondents have scored high:

  • Feeling Safe
  • Livability
  • Facilities and amenities
  • Identity and belonging
  • Natural Space

Themes that are not scoring so well include:

  • Control and Guidance
  • Contribution of new developments to city centre
  • Housing
  • Visitor management
  • Care and maintenance of buildings and streets
  • Influence and sense of control

Public consultations are only as effective as the input from those who participate, so if you haven’t done so yet, please take a moment to share your thoughts, ideas and suggestions using our online survey.

You can also download the survey and send comments to worldheritage@edinburgh.gov.uk

Watch this space to see how the shape of the wheel evolves over the coming weeks.