Help us support more communities to campaign for their local countryside
We want to provide more support for communities and individuals campaigning for their local green belts and countryside. Help us raise the money to provide more expert advice and support. If you are able to support our appeal to raise money for more staff time to help individuals and communities please donate via Just giving or get in touch with the APRS Director kat@aprs.scot to discuss.
We already help communities and individuals campaigning in their local areas, especially Green Belts, giving specific planning advice and support. However we are a really tiny organisation with only two permanent staff and three project staff, all part-time, and so we have very limited capacity while the threats to our countryside continue to increase.
When APRS was founded in 1926, we campaigned to establish a planning system for Scotland and the network of Green Belts, which we achieved in the 1930s and 40s. Since then we have continued to champion the importance of Green Belts and speak up for the rights of communities to have a say in local planning decisions.
As we approach our centenary we want to be able to put more resource into this area of work – it is a vital time to support communities to be involved in local planning decisions. Please help us pay for extra days of staff time to provide this support and help to individuals and communities.
Communities have no right of appeal, unlike developers, if they disagree with a planning decision, and so it is vital that they can be involved at an early stage of development planning. Development plans are currently being drawn up in each local authority and they will guide the direction of development and planning decisions for a decade. Help us support communities to have their say.