Place Standard

How Good is Our Place?

www.placestandard.scot

Anthea Coulter

What is it?The Place Standard is a tool to assessthe quality of a place. It asks people toconsider 14 questions about importantaspects of a place. The questions covera broad range of both physical andsocial characteristics.

The Place Standard

Place Standard – How Good is Our Place?

What is place?

Physical Environment Social Environment

Each place is unique, complex and built from the interlinking relationships between the

people and their surroundings.

Why is place important?

Place Standard – How Good is Our Place?

Users consider each question in turn rating a place on a scale of 1 to 7.

1 = a lot of room for improvement7 = little need for improvement - the quality is as good as it can be.

Then you plot the ratings on the compass and join the dots to make a ‘spider’ diagram.

1

2

Who is it for?

The Place Standard has been designed for a wide range of users.

It can be used by:• Community groups• Community Planning Partnerships• Local residents• Developers• The third sector• Architects

Where can it be used?

The Place Standard can be used to assessanywhere. It can be used in places thatare well-established, undergoing change,or still being planned.

It can be used in urban, sub-urban orrural settings and at different scales; theboundary of the place will be defined bythose using the tool.

street

neighbourhood

district

city

region

What is it like to live here?

When can it be used?

The Place Standard can be used at any time.

• Early stages – identifying needs and assets, aligning priorities and investment.

• During design and development stages – action planning

• For continuous improvement – monitoring changes and shared learning

Importantly, the tool allows assessment to be consistent andcomparable over time.

How we used the tool…

Community Justice Partnership

The objective of this project was to interview people withprotected characteristics and other disadvantaged groups, toprovide usable and accessible information for improvementopportunities and required changes.

The information gathered can provide a quantitative benchmarkand qualitative evidence to support community planning.

Project Overview

- The project took place between May 2018 and August 2018

- Aimed to gather the views of people that have been involved in the justice system, whether that be victims, perpetrators, family members, as well as those potentially at risk.

- 24 one-to-one interviews, and 2 group interviews were conducted

- Interviews lasted from 30 minutes to 2.5 hours.

Groups that were involved:

• Women’s Aid• ACE• Recovery Café• Women’s Group • Community Payback• Man Up• Oor Voices • Apex• People First

Group sessions

Demographics

Gathered further demographic information • to ensure we were collecting a representative sample

of specific groups• to analyse the data based on specific characteristics

- Ethnicity- Religion- Disability- Caring Responsibilities- Sexual orientation

Demographics

3

5

6

4 4

2

20 andunder

21-30 31-40 41-50 51-60 61-70

Age of Respondents

Male54%

Female46%

Respondents by Gender

Male

Female

• Across all participants

• Gender

• People with a disability

Findings

Data for all participants

Average score for all participants

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic and parking

Streets and spaces

Natural Space

Play and recreation

Facilities and amneties

Work and local economy

Housing and community

Social interaction

Identity and belonging

Feeling safe

Care and maintenance

Influence and sense of control

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic and parking

Streets and spaces

Natural Space

Play and recreation

Facilities and amneties

Work and local economy

Housing and community

Social interaction

Identity and belonging

Feeling safe

Care and maintenance

Influence and sense of control

Average score for all participants

3.50

3.12

3.15

Top three priority action areas

0

6

5

3

0

7

3

14

7

12

6

11

2 2

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

Num

ber

of

part

icip

ants

Aspects of Clackmannanshire

Social interaction

- Money and transport issues impact

social interactions

- Hawkhill provides opportunities to meet

people

- Only places to socialise are cafes and

pubs

- Need more youth clubs

Feeling safe

- Judgement due to being homeless impacts

feeling of safety

- Don’t go out as don’t feel safe (isolated)

- Feel intimidated. People pick on me and

feel threatened.

- Lack of safety is specifically because of my

stalker

- Drug and alcohol use in public is scary and

intimidating

- Bus station in town is a problem

Work and local economy

- Hard to get jobs nowadays locally

- Limited options of places to work – takeaways, cafes, bookies

- Worse off working, staying on benefits.

- Employers have a stigma (mental health, previous offenders)

- Plenty of volunteering opportunities

- Lots of job competition

- Public transport limits work

Gender

Average score - males and females

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic & parking

Streets & spaces

Natural Space

Play & recreation

Facilities & amneties

Work & local economy

Housing & community

Social interaction

Identity & belonging

Feeling safe

Care & maintenance

Influence & sense of control

Female Male

Males – Lowest scored themes

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic & parking

Streets & spaces

Natural Space

Play & recreation

Facilities & amneties

Work & local economy

Housing & community

Social interaction

Identity & belonging

Feeling safe

Care & maintenance

Influence & sense of control

Female Male

Males – Lowest scored themes

Feeling Safe

Social InteractionWork & Local Economy

Female – Lowest scored themes

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic & parking

Streets & spaces

Natural Space

Play & recreation

Facilities & amneties

Work & local economy

Housing & community

Social interaction

Identity & belonging

Feeling safe

Care & maintenance

Influence & sense of control

Female Male

Females – Lowest scored themes

Housing & Community

Social InteractionWork & Local Economy

Disability

Average scores – disables / non-disabled

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

Moving around

Public transport

Traffic & parking

Streets & spaces

Natural Space

Play & recreation

Facilities & amneties

Work & local economy

Housing & community

Social interaction

Identity & belonging

Feeling safe

Care & maintenance

Influence & sense of control

Non-disabled Disabled

Qualitative responses from those with a disability

Traffic and Parking

- In town, people park wherever in

the blue badge spaces

- No traffic wardens which is a big

problem

Public transport:

- Buses can run late, which really

affects my anxiety

- Multiple buses are needed to get

to destinations

- Alloa bus station is a scary place

- Routes are bad at the weekend,

once an hour from the Hillfoots.

Housing and Community

- There needs to be more homeless

shelters that are safe and work with

mental health.

- I cannot afford to rent, it is expensive

- Not enough homes in the community

- Council properties are not properly

repaired

Further work

Town centre

• Averages overall quite low• Highest –

• moving around (4.64) • natural spaces (4.34)

• Lowest –• Work & Local Economy (3.36) • Feeling Safe (3.48)• Influence and Sense of Control

(3.33)• Care and Maintenance (3.33)

Place Standard – How Good is Our Place?

❑ Lovely green spaces ❑ Increased number of cafes to

socialise in❑ Rich history and heritage❑ Lots of cycle/walk ways❑ Travel easy for commuters❑ Free parking❑ Lots of volunteering

opportunities

So…lots of potential. Beautiful area.

Need to make appealing to tourists, and a place locals are proud of.

❑ Maintenance of green spaces not happening❑ Don’t feel safe after dark❑ Lack of accessibility for services that are there❑ Town Centre not appealing – litter, lots of closed

shops❑ Dog waste❑ Feeling that not enough being made of local

history ❑ Lack of employment opportunities ❑ Travel for Alloa good, but difficult to get further

afield (college, work)❑ Lack of lighting

So… reflects the scoring. People see things they think need changed, but don’t feel they have the power to influence. Lack of jobs. Despite being a beautiful place, not maintained.

Place Standard – How Good is Our Place?