Introduction

Put simply, a Local Place Plan is a list of priorities set by local people for what they need and want in their neighbourhood.

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KPC are firmly committed to building power through knowledge, skills and capacity building within all of our neighbourhoods and their communities.

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We see developing our shared Local Place Plan as a vital tool to do this in a structured, inclusive, and powerful way.

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Our aim is to set-up a local strategic system for community-led development, led by local people, for local people, to achieve the quality of neighbourhoods and communities local people want.

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This is why the project will be called Because We Say So! with the tagline On Our Turf, On Our Terms and why the result will be called the Because We Say So! Blueprint

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We hope you enjoy learning about Our Blueprint and we are looking forward to collaborating with you all in the months and years ahead!

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If you have any further questions or ideas, please don't hesitate to contact us by email: hello@becausewesayso.scot

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Let's Go!

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What is a Local Place Plan?

Local Place Plans are a new proposed model for:

- urban planning and development to be community-led
- community planning and development to be community-led
 

In other words, Local Place Plans put local people in control of planning:

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• what communities want in their neighbourhoods,

• to make life better for everybody living and working there,

• to address community needs and how these could be met,

• to address community aspirations and how these can be realised.

 

In other words (again!)

Local Place Plans are a BLUEPRINT for everything communities need or want in their neighbourhoods to improve quality of life, health, and wellbeing. And local authorities and other service providers are required by law to use our Local Place Plans when they themselves want to do any work in the area. SO:

 

• They give legal support to communities and are the first serious move (post Community Empowerment Act) to move beyond endless tokenistic, consultation based community and urban development.

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• Local authorities must include them when Local Development Strategies (and similar plans) are devised.

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• Local land developers must refer to them when submitting plans for new housing/commercial/industrial etc developments.

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• They have the potential to stop the displacement of local people and the shops and services that local people use when big developers move in to gentrify a neighbourhood.

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• They have the potential to stop the disintegration of communities by maintaining and improving on spaces, facilities and services and thus limiting / disrupting the excesses of gentrification (displacement and disintegration).

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• They can be small or large in scope and can encompass a single issue or project, or a whole range of issues and projects, that's up to local people!

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Who is in Charge of a Local Place Plan?

We have an opportunity to develop a really powerful model for Local Place Plans that are truly community-led.

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In our model we want the professionals, such as planners, local authority officials, elected members, and organisations with power and capacity (such as KPC) to work for local people (not the other way round).

Local Place Plans have existed for a few years, but now the Scottish Government wants to formalise them in official planning processes

This means that because they were a looser concept prior to 2019, there are currently lots of different approaches to them.

 

• This formalisation is still happening and so lots of different people are competing to have their version adopted by ScotGov as the official model.
   

• These people generally include professionals associated with urban planning and development, community planners and developers, and political representatives like local councillors, MSPs and MPs.

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What does a Local Place Plan mean for local people?

The purpose of Local Place Plans is to make planning and development democratic ...

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...to help local people take control over what happens in our neighbourhoods and communities from traditional top-down decision makers, and those who support poor decision-making to make private financial gain.

The Scottish Government proposal should be a cross-disciplinary approach that puts Community Learning and Development (CLD) practice at the heart of Local Place Plans.

This is a good thing but:

 

• It puts community work in the lead to facilitate communities to develop plans and puts Planners and other professions in vital supporting roles, but this is different to how they are used to doing things!

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• It looks like many planners (etc) are NOT comfortable with this. and this means communities/CLD workers need to protect Local Place Plans from being dominated by the Planners and other professions.

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• Some planners (etc) have responded by 'copy-and-pasting' lots of CLD texts and bolting it on to their own pre-existing 'community engagement' talk, this is not always going to be as good as COMMUNITY-LED.

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• Many planners (etc) will prefer to maintain a leadership role (contrary to the community-led aspect). This is not to say good examples don't exist, but it demonstrates where the power lies. We need to be aware of this

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• Despite all of this. local authorities (eg Glasgow City Council) still have final (executive) power, then planners (etc), then communities.

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So we must work hard to make sure our communities get the power. And by doing so we can take a big step towards communities working in real partnership with planners and local authorities.

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What is OUR Local Place Plan?

KPC intends to proceed on the basis that this Local Place Plan will be a community-led neighbourhood blueprint.

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We found the 'Scottish Community Development Centre' guidance notes particularly helpful in adopting this position.

 

So, what do we mean by Community-led Neighbourhood Blueprint'?

 

• 'Community-led' states clearly where power needs to be. It is the 'watchword' for our Our Local Place Plan. This is why our slogan is "Because We Say So!" because that's the point!

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• 'Neighbourhood' focuses Our Local Place Plan on the public areas around our homes and workplaces. It is where our communities exist “On Our Turf, On Our Terms”. There are many communities within a neighbourhood, and they all have a stake in their neighbourhood. We want to live and work in a "20-minute Neighbourhood" where everybody's everyday needs can be met within a 20-minute walk, cycle, or (5-minute) ride on the bus or subway. [for more on 20-minute neighbourhoods *****]

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• 'Blueprint' tells us this is our masterplan, a well-thought-out plan of plans, and a strategy for implementing them.

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We have identified our needs, we know what is missing, we know what exists, and we know what we want. The Blueprint will be community-owned but shared with parties that help with its delivery, as the community sees fit. The Blueprint is also where we store ideas that may not seem possible in the next 5-10 year period but may become possible as things change.

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So Our Local Place Plan can include lots of different projects, large

and small.
Some will require the local authority to carry out, some we will need to find funds and other professionals and contractors to carry out, and some that we will carry out ourselves.

The point is Our Local Place Plan will put our local communities in the best position to achieve the goals they themselves have set for our local area.

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Our Community-led Neighbourhood Blueprint

As we can see, there is big potential in Local Place Plans, depending on how we use them.

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Our Blueprint can include everything from litter, bins, dog fouling, and parking, through to supporting new and existing groups, activities, community spaces and cultural events right up to large-scale projects that change how an area is used entirely. The crucial thing is the local authority must refer to a community's LPP before making any decisions within that community. Not just because the Scottish Government says so, but Because We Say So!

In summary LPPs have enormous potential to build power, skills and knowledge, and capacity for our communities. And this too will transform our neighbourhoods.

They cannot do so on their own of course and they must fit in with our everyday neighbourhood lives if they are to work.

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Our Blueprint will include the neighbourhoods of:

 

• Tradeston

• Kingston

• Kinning Park

• Plantation

• Cessnock

• Ibrox (East and Ibroxholm)

• plus Pacific Quay

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This makes up the eastern portion of the Govan Ward, and includes the 'Community Council' areas for Ibrox and Cessnock, Kinning Park, and the eastern portion of Govan East.

It will seek to include all of the people living in these neighbourhoods, and it will seek to represent all of the people in these neighbourhoods.

Importantly, it must give voice to everybody, especially those among us whose voice is often not heard, and even when it is, it is too often ignored. These are the voices often struggling under the complications of poverty and/or disadvantage, and Our Blueprint cannot be a success without them.

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Our Community-led Neighbourhood Blueprint will equip local people with the tools for achieving neighbourhood development.

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'Our Blueprint' will include whatever needs, wants, problems, solutions, ideas, and plans our communities have identified. Some ideas may include (as examples):

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• Making our neighbourhoods safer and cleaner eg. Solutions for littering/dumping and street lighting issues across the area (low level).

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• Making our neighbourhoods more livable eg. Identifying what services and facilities, groups, activities and projects we want and need within our area, and supporting them to get established, networked, and maintained to support the health, wellbeing, learning, and development of our local people (low / medium level).

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• Making our neighbourhoods more connected and usable eg. Linking up walking, wheeling and cycling routes to parks and other places to support local travel and local economy, while at the same time making paths and pavements safe and usable for children and other people who struggle to get-around easily (medium level).

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• Enabling the development of a '20-minute neighbourhood' to serve our communities eg. Making sure that all the everyday shops, services, and facilities that we use are within 20 minutes walk, wheel, 10-minute cycle, or 5-minute bus or subway journey (high level).

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Because We Say So!

• Our Blueprint will equip local people with the opportunities to learn, train. develop skills, and identify what help is needed and where, on our own terms.

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• Our Blueprint will equip local people with knowledge, skills, and access to resources to prove what is needed, what is possible, to draft plans and designs needed, to get funds needed, and to employ professionals and contractors needed to deliver the plans.

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• Because of this, whatever the local authority doesn't agree to carry out, we will have strong grounds to campaign for by using Our Blueprint.

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• We can also form 'Community Action Plans' within Our Blueprint. 

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• Other projects and plans that the community identify. like developing community gardens, creating a litter-picking group, or establishing a local community-currency (as examples) may be more easily achieved in the old fashioned way, but using Our Blueprint to find any funds or training that would help with these.

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Our Blueprint will be:

• Our live map of our communities, their groups, plans, projects, and activities for everyone to access and make use of.

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• Our directory of services and facilities that can help make life easier for us all.

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• Our bank of ideas and ambitions for now and the future.

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• Our strategy for achieving our goals.

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• Our directory of resources for delivering our projects.

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• On Our Turf, On Our Terms.

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What We Plan To Do

KPC will use their role as an experienced community organisation to help local people form a Local Place Plan.

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We are firmly committed to building power through knowledge, skills and capacity building within our neighbourhoods and their communities.

We see developing Our Local Place Plan as a vital tool to do this in a structured, inclusive, and powerful way.

Our aim is to set-up a local strategic system for community-led development, led by local people, for local people, to achieve the quality of neighbourhoods and communities local people want.

 

Here's what we plan to do:

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PROJECT INITIATION (February 2021 -March 2021)
KPC's Community Development Officer (Nicky Patterson) will:

• build a knowledge base for key ideas and facts about Local Place Plans

• begin to map the communities and neighbourhoods involved

• identify key stakeholders for the project

• recruit members to the Because We Say So! KPC Team to assist with the project

• recruit stakeholders to the Because We Say So! Communities Steering Group to assist with engagement and decision-making

• establish a system for collaboration, communication, planning, design, engagement, decision-making etc for the project

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PROJECT PLANNING (March 2021 -May 2021)
Because We Say So! KPC Team with assistance from Because We Say So! Communities Steering Group will form strategies:

• to engage with the public across our neighbourhoods

• to engage groups and people whose voices are marginalised within our neighbourhoods and communities

• for structured stakeholder engagement and decision making

• for learning and training opportunities open to the public across our neighbourhoods and communities

• for information distribution across our neighbourhoods and communities

• for structured community (and inter-community) dialogue

• for community collaboration with professionals (such as planners, engineers, architects, designers etc as appropriate)

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT (May 2021 -October 2021)
Because We Say So! KPC Team and Because We Say So! Communities Steering Group will:

• implement events and activities determined from Planning phase

• collate ideas from the public, from neighbourhoods, and from communities

• promote ideas and solutions coming forward around communities and neighbourhoods

• determine priorities with communities and neighbourhoods

• establish early dialogue between community and neighbourhood stakeholders and key decision makers

• facilitate learning and training opportunities for all engaged with process

• develop team and steering group capacity by recruiting from engaged parties in the process

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1st BLUEPRINT DEVELOPMENT (October 2021 - January 2022)
Because We Say So! KPC Team and Because We Say So! Communities Steering Group will:

• assess community priorities and determine action plans

• appraise plans for costings and partnership collaborations

• develop dialogue with stakeholders, professionals and decision-makers

1st BLUEPRINT PRODUCTION & EARLY IMPLEMENTATION (January 2022 - April 2022)
Because We Say So! KPC Team and Because We Say So! Communities Steering Group will:

• draft and publish the inaugural Because We Say So! Blueprint

• deliver the Blueprint to all engaged parties and to the relevant authorities

• reflect on past 15 months processes and analyse for strengths and weaknesses

• establish schedule for year April 2022 - April 2023 that reflects analysis

• begin to support the implementation of Blueprint projects

KEY OUTCOMES

 

• The Because We Say So! Communities will have published a Blueprint for how their communities and neighbourhoods will develop in the coming years.

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• The Because We Say So! Communities will have established an area-network to formalise cross-neighbourhood, inter-neighbourhood, cross-community, and inter-community dialogue, resource sharing, and decision-making.

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• The Because We Say So! Communities will have tools to assess needs and assets on a continual basis, and have resources to respond to these as appropriate.

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• The Because We Say So! Communities will have tools to analyse change, to determine what changes take place, and to hold higher powers and decision-makers to account when appropriate.

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• The Because We Say So! Communities will have tools to maintain and develop their Blueprint and their area-network.

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It is then anticipated that the BLUEPRINT would be reviewed annually (hopefully by a new local area network, if not then by an agreed organisation) and that the processes of engagement, dialogue and decision-making would be established within and across the communities and neighbourhoods to maintain updates, reviews, and amendments periodically.

 

 

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Further Reading

Here are some links to material that we have found useful and has informed our position and methodology:

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This is the SCDC's excellent critique and guidance on LPPs (this helped me enormously):
https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5943c23a440243c1fa28585f/t/5e314cbcde9c0144fe95f4f5/1580289216924/Local+Place+Plans++Challenges+and+opportunities+-+January+2020_.pdf

This is a good briefing on Local Place Plans and their potential to ‘flip the system’
https://nickwrightplanning.co.uk/lpps-scdc-sg-research.htm

This is a decent brief overview from Planning Aid Scotland (a bit dry and quite top-downy but making an attempt towards community-led planning):
https://www.pas.org.uk/localplaceplans/

This is a useful guide and case study from Renfrewshire for implementing a modest LPP:
http://www.renfrewshire.gov.uk/media/9367/Local-Place-Plans-How-To-Guide/pdf/Local_Place_Plans_How_To_Guide_SC_final.pdf?m=1552467699503

The Place Standard tool provides a simple framework to structure conversations about place. It allows you to think about the physical elements of a place (for example its buildings, spaces, and transport links) as well as the social aspects (for example whether people feel they have a say in decision making).
The tool provides prompts for discussions, allowing you to consider all the elements of a place in a methodical way. The tool pinpoints the assets of a place as well as areas where a place could improve.
https://www.placestandard.scot/

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