This article was published in the Scottish Planner (August 2013), the journal of RTPI Scotland. I was RTPI Scotland’s representative on the Fraser Review of town centres, which reported to the Scot...

Over the last five years, co-production and collaboration have become popular – the concepts of people and organisations working together to make better places, with a focus on action. For some exa...

In the last couple of days, I’ve twice come across the thought that towns and neighbourhoods that have ‘outlived their economic usefulness’ should have a policy of ‘managed decline’. For years I’v...

The Scottish Government is currently consulting on its proposed Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill; this paper is a contribution to that discussion. It has been jointly written with Hugh Moore,...

Working with Kevin Murray Associates, WMUD, Hamilton-Baillie Associates and VivID Ideas & Solutions, we’ve recently completed The Biggar Agenda: a community strategy for the next ten years. This is...

Glasgow City Council has just launched a public consultation on its City Vision for 2061 – its vision to shape the city’s future. This should be big news. It will shape what kind of city Glasgow w...

Most of us are familiar with the idea of starchitects – get Norman Foster to design your Reichstag dome, or Frank Gehry to design you a new Guggenheim museum, and your city will get an economic s...

Over the last year, Seamus Lalor and I have been running a series of 17 seminars for ACSEF in and around Aberdeen. The title of the seminars was Getting the best out of planning. ACSEF commission...

This article originally appeared on the Public Art Scotland website in March 2011, the first in a new occasional series of Thoughts and Responses in which two different specialists are encouraged t...

I've been co-facilitating a series of workshops in Aberdeen with Seamus Lalor Associates over the last year or so, for ACSEF in Aberdeen city and shire - as I explained in this earlier post. The...

This excellent report deserves to be widely read. Launched by Alex Neil MSP, Minister for Housing and Communities, at the end of January, Delivering Better Places in Scotland: a guide to learning...

At the Delivering Better Places in Scotland launch last week (more of which in another post soon), the need for more leadership in planning was a strong theme - possibly the dominant theme. This...

“...think of your city as if it were a living work of art where citizens can involve and engage themselves in the creation of a transformed place ... ordinary people can make the extraordinary happ...

I'm in favour of the Big Society. I like the ideas of civil society and local responsibility that underpin it, which are on the policy agenda in Scotland as well as in Westminster. But I also bel...

At the Community Development Alliance Scotland’s conference this week, a recurring theme was the need to change attitudes and behaviours if communities are to become more engaged and empowered in...

As you may already know, I’m interested in how community empowerment can contribute to good placemaking. Not simply consulting or engaging communities about the design and management of places, b...

We are witnessing two trends in Scottish planning. On the one hand, government planning reforms are - quite rightly - urging the planning system and profession to create better places, play a more...

The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment hosted a conference last week in Perth about new approaches to street design which are now policy in Scotland, thanks to the Scottish Government’s ...

With Sèamus Lalor of sèamus lalor associates, I'm facilitating a series of events in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire for ACSEF, the Aberdeen City and Shire Economic Forum. The events are half-day discu...

This article was written for the Kinharvie Facilitation Network, in my role as a member of the Network's steering group. Although written for facilitators, it is just as relevant for planners. Kinh...