SCAPE Scotland Case Study hero Dunkeld Road Corridor

Perth & Kinross Council Perth People Place - Dunkeld Road Corridor Neighbourhood

Working collaboratively with Arup through the SCAPE Scotland framework allowed us to co-develop quickly and efficiently a brief and commission a wide-ranging engagement programme that responded to both the Council’s and the community’s needs. The Arup team were committed and enthusiastic throughout the commission and showed a real passion to ensuring that the Council can deliver real change and improve sustainable transport options for all."

Niall Moran | Transportation & Development Team Leader, Perth & Kinross Council

Completed

200

Approximately 200 responses for the online survey

500

Approximately 500 people engaged

in-person events/workshops, supported by numerous virtual meetings.

Perth People Place will make significant improvements to sustainable transport and active travel.

This project outlines the positive relationship Arup has with Perth & Kinross Council and funding partners Sustrans, alongside current experience of Sustrans’ project stages and associated requirements.

Perth People Place (PPP) is a programme developed by Perth & Kinross Council (PKC) to make significant improvements to sustainable transport and active travel through a place-based approach. PPP will create more sustainable travel routes between rural areas, edge of city neighbourhoods and Perth City Centre, as well as develop "liveable neighbourhoods" where amenities and services are accessible or located within a 20-minute return walk, wheel or cycle from home.

Working closely with Sustrans, Arup is currently undertaking community and stakeholder engagement along with feasibility work on behalf of PKC for the Dunkeld Road Corridor Neighbourhood (DRCN) scheme, the first project to be developed through the PPP programme.

Guidance for Sustrans’ Places for Everyone requires that engagement is carried out amongst various communities and includes seldom heard groups or those with protected characteristics as defined in the Equality Act 2010. The project brief placed emphasis on working with communities to ‘co-design’ the project so it was vital that every effort was made to engage with an inclusive and representative cross section of the community. Furthermore, this ensured that a diverse and robust qualitative dataset was gathered on how communities use the area and captured their needs, aspirations, desires and visions.

Arup and PKC developed a methodology which sought an inclusive and representative cross section of the community through the engagement to secure a high level of responses. This was delivered with a primary focus on dedicated engagement amongst a variety of selected groups, representatives of protected characteristics, local businesses and traders, as well as community representatives from the project area neighbourhoods. This was also supported with a community-wide engagement to ensure that members of the community that didn’t fall into any of the above categories also had the opportunity to have their say.

The project was delivered in a hybrid manner, with a combination of virtual and in-person engagement. Whilst the value of in-person interactions was being embraced by the project team, Arup also utilised innovative digital tools and methods which supported the site audit and engagement process. The engagement also informed the scope and brief of future technical design stages.