Scottish government launches Making Places

The Scottish government has launched a new £325,000 scheme to help communities regenerate their local neighbourhoods.

The Making Places Initiative has grown out of the Charette Mainstreaming programme, which teamed people with designers to look at what could be done to improve their places and communities.

The Charette programme supported 61 projects in communities across Scotland and has now been broadened into the Making Places Initiative.

Under the extended programme, communities will be offered advice, support and guidance from Architecture and Design Scotland and other organisations to help them have ‘meaningful discussions about place, and set their priorities’, according to a Holyrood briefing note.

Details of how to apply for this community capacity building element of the programme will be announced shortly on www.ads.org.uk.

Match-funded grants will also be available under the programme to help community groups, charities and local authorities to take forward design projects.

According to the briefing note, all proposed projects must ‘allow communities to either lead the process, or to participate fully and be central to decision-making on future plans for the place’.

The note states the level of the grant will depend on the nature of the project, but in most cases, the Scottish government will fund half of the total cost.

The Making Places Initiative will also offer community delivery support with support and guidance again from Architecture and Design Scotland.

The support will help communities with the development and delivery of ideas, which have arisen through previous community-led design events.

The briefing note states such support will be ‘tailored’, according to the individual needs of the community.

‘From the Borders to the Western Isles, the people who live, work and socialise in our communities have the best local knowledge to consider how that place should evolve and regenerate and I would encourage people across the country to consider applying,’ said Scottish local government minister, Kevin Stewart.

‘This new Making Places Initiative allows more opportunities for communities to choose what works for them. It takes the success we’ve seen through community collaboration and increases the focus on encouraging and enabling more and more people to become involved.’