This is a review and evaluation of our work to support communities and individual campaigners working on planning issues. It covers the period April 2024 to end March 2025

Summary  

Last year, we evaluated our work supporting grassroots and community groups and individuals to engage with the planning system. It related to a period when we had a staff member working on this area two days per week supported with 20 days paid time contracted from Planning Democracy. The work was delivered through a combination of online guidance, webinars and training, an in-person event with networking and bespoke advice on campaigners’ specific projects.  Our aims in this work had been:  Firstly equipping people with greater understanding and knowledge of the planning system. And secondly to give people greater confidence to intervene in land-use decision making locally. A third, longer term aim was to influence legislation and policy around land-use and development planning that supports good decision making, including listening to community voice.

A volunteer-led evaluation found that, with an additional day of staff time (doubling our resource), we responded to around 60 planning enquiries across 18 local authorities, half related to Green Belts. Our online guidance was accessed over 700 times. Key community concerns included greenspace loss (20%), wellbeing (18%), and environmental impacts (18%). Our webinars and events reached 168 people live, with over 200 hours of online views. Attendees reported greater understanding of the planning system and a 32% increase in confidence to act. We also achieved a major win from a long term project to change how the planning system worked and, as a result, five local campaigns we had been supporting for as long as nine years, won their cases.

Impact and Goals Achieved

In order to measure impact of our work more effectively we have had an evaluation volunteer this year who has assessed, specifically, our work related to our support of communities engaging with the planning process. 

1. Support and Bespoke Advice to Campaigners:

During the year we fielded around 60 new or follow-up enquiries, this is around twice as many as in the previous year when we only had one day a week. We responded to these in a range of ways including signposting to further information, tailored guidance, assistance with drafting objections, calls, meetings or workshops, and research. Very occasionally we intervened in a case directly.

We estimate that around a third of enquiries are from individuals, a third from Community groups and a third from Community councils.

We had enquiries from 18 of the 34 Planning Authorities in Scotland: North Lanarkshire, Perth & Kinross, Renfrewshire, Scottish Borders, East Dunbartonshire, Argyll & Bute, Fife, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian, Angus, Glasgow, Stirling, Highland, Moray, North Ayrshire with around 50% of enquiries being related to Green Belts. 

As well as responding directly to enquiries we know people are accessing our resources online. Using google analytics we can see that our Green belts advice note has been viewed  428 times, and our energy and landscape FAQs, 306 times over the past year.

The concerns people report include: 20% loss of greenspace, 18% impact on the wellbeing of the community and 18% the impact on wildlife or environment (eg peat). Other concerns include: loss of prime agricultural land, landscape impact, loss of access, transport safety and sustainability, lack of infrastructure or services required for development.

In order to measure the impact of our work in terms of outcomes of the community campaigns we would need to look over more than a year, however we were pleased to receive some news from one of the groups we had been advising that the development planned on an unallocated site in the Green Belt, which should have been protected, had been turned down.

 ‘Thank you for your help.  We have received the Dullatur Final from planning detailing that the recommendation is to refuse as it is contrary to the Development Plan and the reasoned justification explains all in detail’, Campaigner in Craigmarloch near Cumbernauld.

We also, during the period of this grant, received news that three long-running campaigns (3-5 years of work) that we had been supporting, were turned down. Unusually we had got involved directly and objected to the developments ourselves. We had got so involved with these cases because we had seen them as test cases in new planning policy put in place by the Scottish Government to better protect Green Belts. And this was a policy that we had campaigned for over many years. So this was very gratifying news to receive, and the result means that there is now far greater protection for all Green Belts.

2. Winter Webinar Series

From November 2024 to February 2025, APRS hosted a webinar series in partnership with Planning Democracy. This 4-part series included topics centered around Biodiversity and Planning.

The webinars reached 168 unique individuals, with 40-80 attendees at each. While the intended audience for the series was community activists, attendees also included local authorities, Planning Aid, the Improvement Service, and planning consultants. 

Based on two in-webinar surveys, attendees indicated diverse involvement in relation to planning, including Community Members (18%), Community Organizers (25%) and Professionals in Related Field (37%).

Impact

For this webinar series, APRS had two main impact goals it aimed to measure: 1) Build Awareness and 2) Empower Action. Initial learnings for each are summarized below:

Build Awareness

Across the four topics, the webinars brought in more than 10 different experts across various fields and professions. Survey respondents emphasized the benefit of these webinars in helping them gain a better understanding of the topics, including hearing current information directly from experts and considering different perspectives within a complex system.

• 42% of post-webinar survey comments highlighted the webinars as an important source for clear, up-to-date, factual information. 
• 33% of comments specifically emphasized the importance of the webinars in helping to provide clarity in navigating a complex planning system.

“The Webinars provide the public with the most valid and current facts to help us to contribute effectively to planning procedures” 

“The webinars give valuable insights and overviews of often complex topics. Having the opportunity to ask questions of experts is really helpful”

Empower Action

The webinars reached a diverse set of individuals interested in and connected to the topics of Biodiversity and Planning. Attendees indicated appreciation for the webinars creating a sense of community across attendees, emphasizing this as a driver of connection & empowerment.

“The webinar has helped me be up-to-date with what is going on and feel part of a wider community. The feeling of unity is especially important as it’s easy to feel worn down.”

Attendees also emphasized that the webinars included actionable steps, and that the information shared helped them feel more confident in taking action. Attendees were asked to rate how prepared they felt to engage in issues around biodiversity and planning on a scale of 1 to 5 (1 being not prepared, 5 being very prepared).

At the post-series survey, respondents rated an average 3.6, compared to 2.7 at the initial survey during the first webinar. This represents a 32% increase in feelings of preparedness to engage in issues discussed in the webinars. 

“The webinars were a real incentive to be more involved in taking action in different ways, from wildlife recording to commenting on conditions once planning is given. This gave me more confidence to confront people and in one instance succeeded in helping to stop tree felling and destruction of a wetland.”

The webinars and associated resources and materials were made available on our website www.aprs.scot/events and more than 200 hours of these webinars have been watched since we uploaded them.   

3. The in-person event ‘The Nature of Planning’:

We interviewed participants at the in-person webinar to look at the impact that we had. You can see a theme in terms of the issues people are facing and how our events have helped people.

You can watch the video by clicking on the image or read the comments below:

Paul Ede, RTPI Planner and volunteer at our in-person event at Palacerigg Country park, March 2025

“For anyone, but perhaps especially community members and leaders invested in shaping their own place for the better, there is an incredibly steep learning curve to understand how to interact with the planning system.  APRS and Planning Democracy are providing support and build capacity for a whole variety of community leaders from across Scotland.  In the event I attended, in addition to excellent practical training sessions, attendees had the opportunity to join several consultation slots with myself and another volunteer planner to ask coaching questions and advice around their interactions with the planning system.”

Attendee at the In Person day ‘The Nature of Planning’

“Communities that take on a big planning challenge it’s very much a David and Goliath situation. Today we’ve been in an excellent event all day, we’ve had professionals here. we’ve had so much expertise shared with us, from volunteers as well as professionals. And it is so reassuring to know that there is help out there and that there are strategies and tools that you can use.”

Beryl Leatherland – CLP Action (charleston, Limekilns and Pattismuir Action) talking about the event and other support received:

“We get so much support, so much professional advice and attention, and it’s this support and meeting other people from different areas and realising that we are all in the same boat, that is so good. 

If you give people the tools and the support and you help them with the processes and the timing and the different stages, what appears a massive daunting task can become something that is really quite manageable.

And whoever we are, whatever expertise we have, if we are challenging a major development, it is a fight and it does take over your life.  But it can be a good fight if you’ve got support and you’ve got someone to share your issues with.”

Kate Fromings, Carbrain and Hillcrest and community council

“Not enough people know how the planning system works. The help we need is in upskilling and getting engagement from the community because people feel so distanced from it they think that’s someone elses job when really we are custodians of the land and we are the ones that should be working with the council to better it for our future.”

… APRS and Planning democracy seem to break everything down in a way that is relevant. So I can then take that and take it to other community groups and they would be able to work on that in the future. It’s giving people life skills. What Planning Democracy and APRS are helping us with is developing the next generation of people who will ask ‘What will this do for the future of our town?’ and I think that’s the most important thing.”

Helena Paul, Friends of Kingscross, Arran

“The difficulty is that we have not got the same tools in our toolbox, and if we can get those tools or get access to those tools, it then makes it a much fairer battle and we might get a better outcome.”

Making a difference for those we support with advice

The webinars on biodiversity and planning tackled a new area of policy, both to us, and to Scotland in general due to the changes in the most recent planning framework (NPF4) that centred biodiversity and the climate crisis. 

The work we are doing was one of the only places people could find out about the new changes to planning policy around biodiversity.  We were told that the webinars were regarded as cutting edge. We are now planning to produce written guidance based on the content of the webinars, which we hope to complete in the summer if we are able to raise money to keep our Green Belts and Planning Advisor Nikki employed in the role.  

In addition to this, many of our members and donors come to us through receiving support for a planning issue they are working on. With doubling of capacity in this area we have been able to help more people and some have joined. Here is an extract from an email received that shows the link between these things. We find that, once people join APRS, they tend to remain members for decades.  For the long term viability of our work we need to recruit members and donors and so this is especially valuable for us. 

“Many thanks for your reply with which I was much impressed. I do understand that you are a charity with limited resources so much appreciate the effort taken with your  reply.

As you are a charity I would like to make a gift aided donation of £40 and perhaps you can advise me how to do this”

The impact on those served by the grants is best explained by reproducing some of the comments we have received from the people at our webinars, our in-person events, or received as unsolicited thanks after we have helped them with a planning issue after they approached us for help.

Unsolicited Feedback on our help with Planning Enquiries:

‘This is a belated ENORMOUS thank you for taking the time to look into this, pass on to your colleague, and get back to me….your response was very much appreciated as was tying myself in knots trying to find the answer.’  

‘Thank you for this advice, we certainly will use this in our objections. This is one of the main reasons for signing up to the new series of webinars so we can ensure that we hold the council and developers to account and I am really looking forward to watching and taking part in them.. Your webinars on NPF4 have been invaluable in helping us navigate through the maze of planning’

Comments after the webinars:

What this report is based on: 

The report has been compiled from three surveys throughout webinar series, including start, midpoint, and end:

December: In-Webinar Survey at start of Webinar 1 (48 respondents)

January: In-Webinar Survey at start of Webinar 3  (26 respondents)

February: Post-Webinar Survey (14 respondents) — quotes are from this survey’s comments

Interviews with participants in the in-person webinar

Comments sent unsolicited from people we have given advice to