Scottish Government

Name

Ruth Findlay

Job title

Planning Officer

Organisation

South Lanarkshire Council

Address

Montrose House, 154 Montrose Crescent, Hamilton ML3 6LB

Telephone

01698 455943

Fax

01698 455948

Email

Ruth.Findlay@southlanarkshire.gov.uk

1 SLC - Education Services

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Development Plans Development Management Development on the Ground Community Involvement

Title of entry

Junior Planners 'Getting young people involved in Planning'

Professional knowledge Innovation Management Sustainable development

Partnership Community interest Regeneration Customer satisfaction

Young people in South Lanarkshire were involved in an innovative 'cognitive mapping' project designed to help the Council to shape its new Local Plan. Using a process developed in the US in the 1960s, youngsters aged 11-18 took on the role of 'junior planners' and were encouraged to share their personal knowledge of their communities to help develop the future of their Council area.

In preparing South Lanarkshire Local Plan extensive consultation was undertaken with the community and local businesses in the conventional methods such as conferences and evening meetings. It tends to be the same people from particular age groups and socio-economic backgrounds that make representation or comment on the plans. It was therefore proposed to engage with younger people who do not normally comment or inform the local plan in an innovative way. The approach that the Planning department of South Lanarkshire Council took was in the form of the 'Cognitive Mapping' exercise.

A pilot study was undertaken with first year pupils in John Ogilvie High School in 2004. Following the success of the pilot study, the Planning department worked in partnership with the Education Department to co-ordinate the exercise. The Local Planning Officers delivered the session, with support from the teaching staff in each school. South Lanarkshire Youth Council also participated in a session which produced very informative and interesting results, and given this group were slightly older than the Junior Planners they had a different perspective of their local environment.

The innovative approach to involving 11-18 year olds in the local plan process and using their knowledge to inform policies and proposals was a success, through working with the community and contributing to promoting sustainable development.

To raise awareness among young people of the planning process and the importance of producing a local plan which is relevant for them.

To understand the views of young people that would not be expressed through the normal consultation process and using them to inform the local plan policies and proposals.

To involve young people in the Local Plan process through partnership working between the Councils Planning and Education departments.

To promote sustainability through involving the community in the local plan process.

A pilot study was undertaken in June 2004 and a number of schools were visited between October 2004 and April 2005. The information gathered informed the local plan, and following a consultative draft in October 2005 the finalised local plan was prepared in August 2006.

The technique that was adopted to assist the Junior Planners was developed the 1960's in America and allows people to map their perception of where they live and what is important to them. The results from this technique gave the Planning Officers preparing the local plan, an insight into particular issues within a community which guided the development of relevant policies and proposals within the local plan.

The exercise itself took about 2 -3 hours and involved the school pupils drawing maps of where they lived. A group of approximately 20 Junior Planners worked in teams and individually. Although the initial work was done with 1 ^st years, a range of pupils from 1 ^st to 6 ^th years gave a wider range of issues. The cognitive mapping technique is also identified as a tool in thinking, problem solving and memory improvement, which are valuable skills for the Junior Planners to develop.

The Local Planners aim was to devise a mechanism to involve groups within the community who would not normally be part of the statutory consultation process or indeed would not necessarily understand what a Local Plan is and what implications it has for the future.

Through the planners spatial geography education the academic technique of cognitive mapping was known. The planners made the lateral leap to think of adapting the technique for neighbourhood planning consultation. The Junior Planners were given large sheets of paper, coloured pencils, post-it notes etc and asked to draw where they lived, identifying the things that are important to them such as parks, shops, cinemas, how they get to various places such as school, bus routes, walkways.

To date the following schools have taken part in the project:

John Ogilvie High School, Hamilton
Stonelaw High School, Rutherglen
St Andrews High School, East Kilbride
Claremont High School, East Kilbride
Duncanrig High School, East Kilbride
Hunter High School, East Kilbride
Blantyre High School, Blantyre
Lanark Grammar School, Lanark

140 'cognitive maps' were produced by the Junior Planners, and were assessed against policies particularly relating to open space, leisure, transport and retail facilities and movement between their houses and schools. In addition, through this project information was gathered on perceived accident black spots, areas where anti-social behaviour is rife and where there are health & safety issues which were used to raise awareness of particular issues within communities and could assist in the prepartion of wider Council plans.

The key partners in the project were South Lanarkshire Council Education department who enabled the exercise to be undertaken within schools across South Lanarkshire. The Planning department worked closely with Education who agreed to co-ordinate the project through Active Breaks. South Lanarkshire Youth Council also played a role in contributing to this project through undertaking the cognitive mapping exercise.

Junior Planners 'Getting young people involved in planning' - This project achieved a number of results:

• Enabled young people to understand more about the planning process, the function of a local plan and allowed them to help shape the future development of their area.
• Furthermore this valuable information was gained through an innovative approach - cognitive mapping, which was both enjoyable for the Junior Planners and productive for the preparation of the Local Plan.
• Developed good partnership working between South Lanarkshire's Planning and Education departments.
• Community involvment in the lcoal plan process encouraged sustainablity.
• Provided insight into a range of issues within communities that the wider Council could look to address
• Junior Planners developed skills in problem solving and memory improvement through participating in the cognitive mapping exercise.

Junior Planners 'Getting young people involved in planning' project merits an Award as :

• This project was a major departure for the Council from the standard methods of consultation and represents a really innovative approach to engaging with future generations on a subject which will closely affect them.
• The project has given the Local Plan team insight to issues that effect a particular age groups and have allowed particular policies to be formulated to help address some of the issues raised
• It successfully broke down barriers to what can appear to be a complicated or technical process and opened up new and continuing channels of communication between the Planning Service and our schools and young people.
• It also ensured that the experiences of our young people and their thoughts and aspirations about future development were able to effectively and genuinely inform the Local Plan Process, giving them a sense of inclusion;
• The above ensured sustainable development through working with the community
• Embedded good partnership working with other Council Resources
• The project is now being used as a benchmark for other Resources within the Council to communicate with, and seek the views of young people, particularly in some of the more remote settlements of South Lanarkshire.

8/9/06