Scottish Place Standard Tool Training Workshop
Belfast Healthy Cities hosted a workshop on the Scottish Place Standard Tool on Thursday 3 May at Clifton House. The one day event examined the possibility of rolling out the Scottish tool to towns and cities in Northern Ireland.
The workshop has three aims: 1) to inform policymakers, communities and other Place making advocates in Northern Ireland about the background and objectives of the Scottish Place Standard Tool; 2) to pilot the Tool in a number of pilot areas within Belfast in order to demonstrate the practical use of the Tool; and 3) to explore the potential roll-out of the Tool throughout Belfast/Northern Ireland.
The Scottish Place Standard Tool is a tool developed jointly by the Scottish Government, NHS Health Scotland and Architecture & Design Scotland to support inclusive decision making and community engagement on place. The focus of the tool is seeking the views of local people on the quality of their living environment and how this could be affected by a range of policies that are relevant to spatial planning, physical and social regeneration. The findings from the tool can be used to inform decision making at policy as well as operational level, and the tool can also be used to increase mutual understanding between policymakers and local communities.
Over 35 local policy makers from a range of institutions such as the Public Health Agency, Department for Infrastructure, Northern Ireland Housing Executive and Belfast City Council attended the event which was chaired by Carol Ramsey, former Director of Strategic Planning Division in Department for Infrastructure. Attendees learned about the background of the tool from representatives of NHS Health Scotland and heard from various local policymakers about the potential ways the tool might be linked to ongoing NI government efforts to improve general well-being and good-quality living environments in Northern Ireland.
As part of the event, attendees also had the chance to test the practical application of the Tool through participation in walks guided by community representatives through several areas across Belfast.
Initial feedback has indicated that attendees feel encouraged to use the tool as part of their current work and that there is interest in linking up the Tool with government policies in the future.
The presentations from Angus Kerr, Diane McIntyre, John Howie, Andrew Haley and Etive Currie are now available.