ALLIANCE responds to 20 minute neighbourhood planning guidance
- Area of Work: The ALLIANCE
- Type: News Item
- Published: 20th July 2023
The response welcomes the core of the guidance, whilst calling for it to offer clarity on diversity and inclusion within planning.
The ALLIANCE has submitted a response to the Scottish Government consultation on the ‘Local living and 20 minute neighbourhoods’ planning guidance, which outlines the key considerations planners should take into account when seeking to implement the 20 minute neighbourhood concept.
The Academy programme at the ALLIANCE previously ran an event series, ‘Exploring Scotland’s 20-minute neighbourhoods’, in partnership with Disability Equality Scotland and the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland. Through the series, we heard that people were generally positive about the concept of 20-minute neighbourhoods, but that care had to be taken to ensure that the particular needs of rural communities, and groups including disabled people and social care workers, were met.
Our response to the planning guidance draws upon the calls for action contained within the final report from that series. Overall, the guidance reflects many of the recommendations previously made. In our response, the ALLIANCE:
- Welcome the explicit recognition of climate action and reducing health inequalities as core aims and benefits of 20 minute neighbourhoods.
- Call for careful consideration of how “local hubs” for services in rural areas are delivered, including ensuring the principle of “digital as a choice” is adhered to.
- Welcome commitments to collaboration and consultation, whilst encouraging greater clarity that groups including disabled people, people living with long term conditions, unpaid carers and older people should be priorities for proactive engagement.
- Call for the guidance to more generally reflect how these groups should be accounted for in planning, including clarity on blue badge parking spaces.
- Call for more clarity on how developments should be reviewed, with a view to measuring progress against other Scottish Government strategies, climate action, and action on health inequalities.
The full response is available via the resource links below.
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