Community Asset Transfer – Implications for Property/ Community Planning and Links to Spatial Planning

Tuesday 12 June, RICS Meeting Rooms, Edinburgh

We’re delighted to have been asked to support JHPlanning in delivering this half-day conference on Community Asset Transfer, and the implications of this for those involved in property, community planning and spatial planning.

Background:

Community empowerment and inclusive growth are key Scottish Government priorities which are embedded in the 2015 Community Empowerment Act and the 2016 Land Reform Act. More recently the Planning (Scotland) Bill sets out the role of the planning system in putting people at the heart of decisions about their local communities.  In terms of community involvement, both current and emerging legislation have the potential to strengthen considerably community bodies through the ownership or control of land and buildings, and by delivering community inspired regeneration and placemaking actions through the planning system.

Against this background, the process of supporting communities to do things for themselves continues as do measures aimed at forging stronger links between community planning and spatial planning. Whilst many local authorities are making considerable headway with community asset transfer and bringing community planning and land use planning closer together, others have not made the same progress.

This event seeks to enhance knowledge and skills by capturing ongoing and emerging actions in two key areas of the journey towards greater community empowerment.  This involves taking a closer look at the mechanism for community asset transfer and the broader aim of linking community planning with land use planning.  The event is very much focused on current practice in these two important strands of the wider community empowerment landscape.

Who should come?

This event will be of value to estates/property people, town planners and community planning practitioners particularly in local government.  It will also be of relevance to community groups and other organisations and individuals with an interest in the wider implications of community empowerment.

Topics and Speakers

Asset Transfer – From Policy to Practic

Linda Gillespie, Programme Manager, The Community Ownership Support Service

From community centres to town halls, football pitches, piers and harbours, communities across Scotland are exercising their new right to request to manage,  lease or transfer ownership of publicly owned assets. This presentation will go through the process of asset transfer, highlighting good practice and examples of  where communities are using assets to deliver key services and contributing to the  regeneration of their areas.

Asset Transfer, Community Led Action Plans and Placemaking

Angela Graham, Senior Estates Surveyor, East Ayrshire Council; John Semple,  Regeneration Project Officer, East Ayrshire Council

Sharing experience from an estates and planning perspective. EAC has handled over 170 requests for asset transfer and approved 44 of these. The council area has 18 active community led action plans and is embarking on integrating these and developing plans with a placemaking programme for 30 settlements over the next 3 years.  The session will look at experience, practicalities and problems of doing this.

Linking Community Planning with Spatial Planning – Knitting it Together – A Local Authority Experience

Neale McIlvanney, Strategic Planning Manager, North Ayrshire Council

The Council’s journey towards using locality-based planning to achieve better outcomes for communities. Includes use of the place standard to frame locality priorities and development sites to feature in the Local Development Plan. The process and close relationship between the Community Planning Partnership and LDP is providing a robust platform to consult equitably throughout the Council area.

Community Assets and Community Led Development

Pippa Robertson, Consultant, Aurora Planning

Challenging the perception of planning as a system that pits communities against   developers, genuine community empowerment and control of assets allows  communities to become developers themselves, and to deliver the development that they want to see on the ground. At the same time, this can encourage meaningful  engagement in land use planning at an early stage in the process. Drawing on experience of working on a number of community led development projects, this will  showcase examples, explore some of the issues that come up, and look at how these have been dealt with in practice.

Further details

Where:                        RICS Meeting Rooms, 125 Princes Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4AD

When:                         Tuesday 12 June 2018.

Registration and light lunch 1.00 – 1.30.

Finish 4.00pm

Cost:                           £40

Enquiries/to book:    Joyce Hartley: 07896 058343: joyce@jhplanning.co.uk

Thanks for reading, and hope to see you there!

Pippa and Maggie

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