Scottish Government

Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning 2003

Application form

This application form can either be completed by hand or electronically (pdf version) on the Planning homepage at www.scotland.gov.uk/planning . Please complete all four questions. The deadline is 12 September 2003. An acknowledgement letter will be sent to the person who has completed this form.

Please provide a name and contact details of the organisation responsible for this work. If partners were involved, identify the lead organisation, and then list the other partners/bodies who had a key role.

Name of key partners (if appropriate)

Please complete the form by providing a brief summary (in no more than the space provided) of the piece of work you have entered. You must also conclude, with a key reason, as to why you think this work merits an Award.

Please tick the key criteria which relate to this entry:

You must describe in your written submission (below) how the criteria which you have ticked relates to your project.

Description of project

The Stategy for the city centre seeks to provide a framework for action to guide the future development of Edinburgh City Centre over the next five years. It was recognised that there are many activities already being undertaken by a range of bodies and the Plan does not seek to duplicate this, but rather to pull all of he existing activities and new actions into a single co-ordinated document.

Key themes which the Action Plan promotes are.

• the need to respect the importance of the City Centre's world heritage site designation;
• the need to operate as a contemporary capital city, attractive to business, residents, visitors and investors;
• the need to have a high quality public realm to reflect the City's quality built environment.

Importantly the Plan provides a strong base for the management of change. It states the priority of the project and sets out the preferred timescale this allows clear performance indicators to demonstrate progress towards achieving the vision. In terms of clarity it also sets out the key agency who will be charged with delivering the action and the agencies who will support this work.

The Cockburn Association have submitted this to the Awards Scheme due to the extensive consultation that has taken place throughout the development of the Action Plan. Workshops have taken place at which people have been able to express their views and the local community has been given access to these meetings and have been able to discuss their concerns and aspirations with business, the council and other representatives.

It is an essential part of the document that it has been prepared on behalf of the wide range of public agencies and businesses operating in the City Centre and is intended to reflect jointly identified issues and priorities. Too often in consultation exercises the different groups are separated and are not allowed this opportunity to discuss issues. A 'them and us' culture then prospers and the community tends to feel isolated and business consider groups to be unrealistic. This innovative approach allowed a much better understanding of the position of different sectors but also allowed an appreciation of where agreement exists.

For the Council, the Plan contains proposed actions which have direct relevance for the land use and transportation planning and economic development of the city centre. The plan has also been tested through a vigorous scenario planning exercise, which also involved representatives from partner organisations and stakeholder groups.

Timescale (over which the project has developed)

The Edinburgh City Centre Management Company was launched in November 2000.

The Edinburgh City Centre Audit was published in September 2001.

In Spring 2002 a ECC hosted a breakfast workshop that involved over 50 key stakeholders in the city.

In Summer 2002 two one day workshops were held to develop the scenarios or aspirations for the City Centre. These sessions were guided substantially by the issues raised at the breakfast workshop. The second session moved on to identifying the actions required to address these issues, and the individuals who should be responsible for delivering the actions.

In January 2003 DTZ Pieda reported back on the results of the work and provided an opportunity to discuss the conclusions.

In February 2003 the Strategy and Action Plan was approved by the Executive of the City of Edinburgh Council and was referred to the Scrutiny Panel in March.

'A Strategy and Action Plan for Edinburgh City Centre' was publicly launched on 24th June 2003.

Context (the problem which had to be addressed)

The Edinburgh City Centre Management Company was set up in November 2000 with the key objectives that include

• to develop a Strategic Framework for the enhancement of the City Centre.
• to provide an efficient and respected liaison and communciation fulcrum for the City Centre stakeholders.

It was considered essential that the role of the City Centre was recognised in the economic growth of the city and that measures were put in place to ensure it evolves at a pace consistent with the needs and expectations a vibrant and dynamic economy. ECCMC was set up to achieve this by encouraging the public, private and voluntary sectors to work together for the future promotion and development of the City Centre.

As a first step the company commissioned DTZ Pieda to produce the 'Edinburgh City Centre Audit' this examined all the existing material that existed. Indeed there were over 300 documents, which included strategies, studies and development proposals, that were identified as relating to all or part of the study area.

DTZ Pieda considered that national planning policy and practice (NPPG1 and PAN 59) emphasises the growing importance of the link between the long term vitality and viability of town and city centres and the development of visionary partnerships. Their Audit concluded that there was an absence of a formal strategy and there was no Vision for the City Centre. Indeed there was no statement of what the City Centre aspires to e or seeks to achieve. They considered that the absence of this is damaging and leads to a lack of focus for partnership commitment.

DTZ Pieda stated that the 'Delivery of the Strategy is dependent upon the achievement of a broadly based partnership. This will require a major engagement exercise embracing both external stakeholders and those representing the internal partner organisations.

They considered that Edinburgh City Centre Management Company would be the appropriate facilitator of this process.

Action taken

The Edinburgh City Centre Management Company led a steering group to oversee a study to agree the long term future for Edinburgh's City Centre. The steering group included representatives from the City of Edinburgh Council, Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian, Edinburgh World Heritage Trust and Historic Scotland. This group worked to produce the 'Edinburgh City Centre Audit' and then continued to publish 'A Strategy and Action Plan for Edinburgh City Centre'.

DTZ Pieda were commissioned to do this work and a series of four workshops were convened (two breakfast meetings and two full day sessions). The workshops were guided substantially by the issues raised at the first breakfast workshop and moved on to identify the actions required to address these issues, and the agencies hat should be responsible for delivering them. The final meeting reported on the results and conclusions of the work and the key issue was regarding the actual implementation and delivery of the projects contained in the

The document has now been formally approved by the City of Edinburgh Council, the board of the Edinburgh City Centre Management Company and Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian.

Results achieved

The completion and publication of 'A Strategy and Action plan for Edinburgh City Centre' is the result that we would like to promote.

However it must be recognised that results are already being achieved against a number of the action points.

Funding has been secured through the Review of City's Fund that will enable the completion of phase 1 of he public realm improvements. Match funding has been secured from Scottish Enterprise Edinburgh & Lothian. The Planning Committee has also expanded the powers of the Streetscape Working Group to allow it o undertake its functions effectively. This will be especially useful to combat the increase of clutter on the streets.

other example is the production of a framework for the redevelopment of Prlnces Street by Malcolm Fraser Architects in conjunction with the Cockburn Association. This framework sets out the possibilities of increasing the quality and quality of retail in the city centre. The Planning Committee have already supported this by consulting on design guidelines for new building on Princes Street.

Conclusion - Why does this piece of work merit an Award?

The Cockburn Association has put this document forward for an award due to the innovative consultation process that was adopted by the Edinburgh City Centre Management Company, in conjunction with the City Council and the enterprise company. Further it has produced a belief that through partnership we can actually achieve more than if we all simply work on our pet projects in isolation.

The Scottish Executive and local planning authorities are currently struggling to produce meaningful consultation in the production of key documents. Too often decisions are taken and proposals written prior to he beginning of a consultation process. The production of this Action Plan turned this all around and waited until a year of consultation and been undertaken before the contents of the document were decided.

This then produces meaningful partnership as al stakeholders can take ownership of the Vision and work gether to complete the Action points to the timescale This is boosted by the fact that the plan has a clear timeframe, which is an interesting comparison with Local Plans that seem to run indefinitely.

We also consider it important to recognise that the planning authority is not the lead body and this work has helped to prove that planning is not an insular activity. It must interact with a large number of stakeholders within its boundaries and also recognise that much can be achieved outside the statutory planning process.

Date

10 September 2003