Scalloway Making Places Initiative, Shetland

Client: Shetland Islands Council
Location: Scotland
Discipline(s):

Ongoing consultancy work to develop a vision for Scalloway, Shetland, through a community-led design process that is based on community engagement and participative design workshops.

Project requirements
The Shetland Local Development Plan was adopted in September 2014. It sets out the Council’s land use strategy and policies which will apply to any new development and to protect historic assets such as those found in Scalloway. Shetland have a target to replace this plan with LDP2 by autumn 2019 and as a result are currently establishing and updating the evidence base and engaging with communities to assemble the main issues report. It is anticipated that the vision, report and action plan put together by GL Hearn with input from the Scalloway community will inform the LDP2.

The Issue
Multiple stakeholders such as Shetland Islands Council, local business owners, local residents, local schools, North Atlantic Fisheries and visit Scotland have an interest in the vision and their views have to be taken into consideration and managed in relation to the strategy and delivery plan. The remote location of the settlement also raises challenges in terms of access, housing supply and community facilities.

The approach requires leadership, unity of purpose, agreement, alignment and understanding in order to provide a vision and action plan to be used by the community to develop a Local Place Plan.

The GL Hearn Solution
GL Hearn working in partnership with Iglu Studio will draw upon previous experience in successful stakeholder engagement to engage in pre-consultation activity and public awareness building through online and offline channels in partnership with Shetland Islands Council. They will then facilitate effective initial workshops and follow up design studios with key stakeholders, local residents and local schools. The responses will then be reviewed and analysed to feed into the vision and action plan which will meet both the needs of residents, businesses and tourists visiting Scalloway. The area’s unique selling points will identified and exploited in order to identify funding opportunities and delivery partners and problem areas identified and solutions sought. Workshops with key stakeholders will achieve community buy in and will inform the resulting vision and delivery plan which will ensure that community led actions are proposed for the short, medium and long term and the community can successfully take over the project to deliver one of Scotland’s first Local Place Plans.