At the Scottish Government’s prestigious Scottish Awards for Quality in Planning received Awards last Tuesday night (8th November) Dumfries and Galloway Council were delighted to win awards with all three of our submissions. This is a tremendous achievement and actually represented the greatest number of awards received by any Scottish planning authority this year.
The event celebrates achievements in planning, right from the detail of processing through to the bigger picture of creating places which will become legacies for the future.
This year’s awards reflected the 2016 Year of Innovation, Architecture and Design and attracted a record high number of applications – over 60 in total of which 32 were shortlisted.
The three projects from Dumfries and Galloway won two awards in the ‘Plans’ category: ‘Dark Skies Friendly Lighting Guidance and Raising Design Standards Across The Region. In the ‘Process’ category we won an award with our ‘Householder Application Performance improvement Project’.
Householder application Performance Improvement Project
The Council sought to improve performance, efficiency and consistency of planning application decision-making in general, but for householder applications in particular.
The Judges rated this project highly, which was purely due to the sheer impact of change which has taken place within development management. The turnaround resulted in the Council moving from one of the worst performers to one of the best. Change has all taken place through staff involvement and integrated a new way of working for everyone. The Judges commented: ‘Overall, a job well done.’
Dark Skies Friendly Lighting Guidance
This project promoted two pieces of guidance in relation to dark sky friendly lighting in the Galloway Forest Dark Sky Park and Moffat (the first dark sky community in Europe).
The Judges said they were: ‘enthused by this adventurous project because it felt new and innovative.’ It made them’ appreciate the value of the night time landscape and how changes could be implemented to maximise (minimise??) the impact of lighting on places, not to mention the quality, and pleasure, of the stars and planets above.’ They went on to say’ In understanding the significance of the guidance, the planning authority illustrated its open-minded thinking to support the ambitions of its staff.’ The long term aim is to continue to see how this policy can link to further tourism opportunities in the area.
Raising Design Standards Across The Region
This project set out to improve architectural design across the region. It involved the production of three separate supplementary guidance documents that work together, namely Design Quality of New Development, Alterations and Extensions to Houses, and the Conversion of Traditional Agricultural Properties. These documents were supported by the creation of our first Design Awards.
The Judges said that ‘this was a bold attempt to set out what was good for their place and to make a determined effort to raise the bar for housing developments’.
Colin Smyth, Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council’s Economy, Environment and Infrastructure committee commented: “Securing three pretiguous awards- more than any other council – is a fantastic achievement. It proves that all the hard work staff have put into these projects has been worthwhile and is being recognised on the national stage. Planning makes a huge difference to the local economy so it’s important we do all we can to deliver best practise. At a time the council is facing huge cuts and we have seen a major reduction in staff, it is a real credit to everyone involved that they are continuing to deliver an excellent service in increasingly challenging circumstances”.
Photo attached:
l-r – Jessica Taylor, Team Leader Minor Applications & Enforcement: Chair of D&G EEI Committee, Cllr Colin Smyth: Steve Rogers, Head of Planning and Regulatory Services: David Suttie,Planning & Building Standards Manager : Shona McCoy, Team Leader Local Development Plan
