Open Space Strategy - Update
North Lanarkshire Council · 16 March 2023
Back to Policy and Strategy Committee — 16 March 2023 and its agenda
Text extracted from the council's PDF. Layout and reading order may differ from the original.
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North Lanarkshire Council Report Policy and Strategy Committee Does this report require to be approved? ☐ Yes ☒ No Ref Date 16/03/23 Open Space Strategy - Update From Pamela Humphries, Chief Officer of Place E-mail mckennam@northlan.gov.uk Telephone Moira McKenna Dell 07583 123089 Executive Summary The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced new statutory duties upon councils to prepare and publish an Open Space Strategy (OSS) and Play Sufficiency Assessment (PSA) to assess the sufficiency of play opportunities for children in their area. An open space strategy must contain an audit of existing open space provision and an assessment of current and future requirements. The Act also introduces a requirement for planning authorities to carry out a play sufficiency assessment. Work is underway on the development of the council’s OSS which will set out a strategic framework for the future development, maintenance, and use of open spaces and green networks. This report provides an update on the progress of the Open Space Strategy (OSS) and of the steps taken in developing an operating framework that will enable the audit to be undertaken. Recommendations It is recommended that the Committee: 1) Endorse the approach being taken to develop an Open Space Strategy, including the arrangements for undertaking the open space audit and play sufficiency assessment. The Plan for North Lanarkshire Priority All priorities Ambition statement (15) Encourage the health and wellbeing of people through a range of social, cultural, and leisure activities (16) Transform our natural environment to support wellbeing and inward investment and enhance it for current and future generations
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1. Background 1.1 The Planning (Scotland) Act 2019 introduced a new duty on planning authorities to publish an Open Space Strategy (OSS), supported by an audit of open spaces in their areas, and to assess the sufficiency of play opportunities for children and young people. Planning authorities must have an approved OSS and carried out Play Sufficiency Assessments (PSAs) prior to publishing the Evidence Report as part of the preparation of Local Development Plans. 1.2 The Scottish Government published draft Regulations setting out proposed requirements for Open Space Strategies and Play Sufficiency Assessments in December 2021. Following this consultation, the Regulations remain in draft form. 1.3 In order to progress the development of the OSS, the council established an OSS and PSA Board, including senior officers from relevant services, chaired by the Chief Officer of Place, and an OSS and PSA Steering Group, including representatives from relevant services and external partners (e.g., public health colleagues at NHS Lanarkshire). 1.4 The development of an Open Space Strategy is not only a statutory requirement but will also enable the council (and partners) to make better informed and more effective decisions around asset and land management, and will inform future investment programmes, including Town and Community Hubs and delivery of our town visions. The OSS will also align with, and be informed by, the Sports Pitch Strategy which is currently in development. The OSS will also be a material consideration in assessing future planning applications. 1.5 A small project team has therefore been established to deliver the audit and strategy development phase of the OSS and PSA. This work has been supported by Greenspace Scotland, a social enterprise which is the national lead for improving urban environments and which has significant experience in developing assessments and strategies of this nature. 2. Report 2.1 The project team, with the support of Greenspace Scotland, have been progressing the necessary preparatory work for undertaking the open space audit, including: • Audit scope and methodology for data gathering • Identifying / mapping all sites • Undertaking pilot audit to test methodology, data input and mapping processes (17) Ensure we keep our environment clean, safe, and attractive (20) Improve the involvement of communities in the decisions, and development of services and supports, that affect them (20) Improve the involvement of communities in the decisions, and development of services and supports, that affect them (24) Review and design services around people, communities, and shared resources (25) Ensure intelligent use of data and information to support fully evidence based decision making and future planning
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2.2 As guided by the draft OSS regulations, the audit will include all open spaces in North Lanarkshire that are 0.2 hectares or greater. Smaller spaces will be included where considered appropriate, such as where a smaller space is recognised as being of particular value to the community or makes a significant contribution to particular outcomes (These can range from, flood water management purposes to habitat connection purposes). 2.3 The draft Regulations define ‘open space’ as space within and on the edge of settlements comprising green space or civic areas such as squares, marketplaces and other paved or hard landscaped areas with a civic function. The OSS will also incorporate the Sports Pitch Strategy currently being prepared. 2.4 Work to date has included collaboration with Greenspace Scotland and Clyde Valley Green Network to inform the scope and methodology to be applied to ensure a robust and consistent approach to establish the quantity, quality and accessibility of open space in North Lanarkshire. The use of technology will also assist with efficient recording of data and will link with the council’s GIS mapping system to establish a baseline of all the open space in North Lanarkshire, and enable it to be updated in the future. 2.5 The team are currently in the process of mapping all the sites that fall within the scope of the open space audit scope. This exercise identified more than 700 sites that would fall into the scope of the audit. 2.6 Having developed processes and a system to allow the OSS audit to be undertaken, a pilot exercise was carried out over a period of several weeks to gather all feedback on what worked and what needed further development. The feedback given has been taken on board and the changes are being made. This valuable step that will give confidence in the steps taken and the information gathered. 2.7 The open space audit is now underway, and it is anticipated this will be completed by late Autumn 2023. An update on the Open Space Audit and draft Open Space Strategy will be provided to committee in Cycle 4. 2.8 In addition to preparation of the open space audit, early partner stakeholder engagement has also taken place to explore how the OSS can support a broad range of council services and partner organisations to deliver a variety of benefits for North Lanarkshire’s communities. The partner engagement will help inform our approach in developing the North Lanarkshire Council Open Space Strategy. The areas of particular importance that were identified include: • Community involvement • Engagement with young people • Accessibility (not only physical, but also considering social/cultural barriers, connected spaces that can also provide links for nature, and jargon free information) • Maintenance • Safety 2.9 It is important to emphasise that community engagement is a central part of the process to develop an OSS and this will inevitably be resource intensive and take time. In line with the council’s Delivering for Communities operating model, a community engagement plan is being developed aligned to the Community Board and related community engagement arrangements. The opportunity to use digital technology through interactive smart maps is also being developed, to compliment traditional
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engagement methods, and enable us to gather feedback more effectively about the existing quality and level of provision of open space, and how well it meets their needs. 2.10 It is anticipated that community engagement on quantity, quality and accessibility of open space and play will take place between April – June 2023, with the Draft Open Space Strategy being produced by Autumn 2023, and statutory 12 week consultation period taking place winter 2023 and the final strategy being presented for approval in cycle 2 2024. Briefings will be arranged for elected members at key points in the process, in advance of the community consultation periods. 3. Measures of success 3.1 Open Space Audit and Open Space Strategy completed which accords with statutory requirements, can demonstrate meaningful stakeholder engagement, and provides an effective framework to inform future planning and investment decisions for the future provision and management of open space making best use of available resources. 4. Supporting documentation n/a Pamela Humphries Chief Officer (Place)
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5. Impacts 5.1 Public Sector Equality Duty and Fairer Scotland Duty Does the report contain information that has an impact as a result of the Public Sector Equality Duty and/or Fairer Scotland Duty? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? An quality impact assessment will be carried out as part of the development of the OSS. If Yes, has an assessment been carried out and published on the council’s website? https://www.northlanarkshire.gov.uk/your-community/equalities/equality- and-fairer-scotland-duty-impact-assessments Yes ☐ No ☒ 5.2 Financial impact Does the report contain any financial impacts? Yes ☒ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant financial impacts have been discussed and agreed with Finance? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? Financial provision has been made to support the delivery of the Open Space Audit and Open Space Strategy. 5.3 HR policy impact Does the report contain any HR policy or procedure impacts? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant HR impacts have been discussed and agreed with People Resources? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.4 Legal impact Does the report contain any legal impacts (such as general legal matters, statutory considerations (including employment law considerations), or new legislation)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, have all relevant legal impacts have been discussed and agreed with Legal and Democratic? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? 5.5 Data protection impact Does the report / project / practice contain or involve the processing of personal data? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, is the processing of this personal data likely to result in a high risk to the data subject? Yes ☐ No ☐ If Yes, has a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) been carried out and e- mailed to dataprotection@northlan.gov.uk Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.6 Technology / Digital impact Does the report contain information that has an impact on either technology, digital transformation, service redesign / business change processes, data management, or connectivity / broadband / Wi-Fi?
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Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? There has been close collaboration with the Business and Digital Team to progress the IT requirements for the OSA. The council’s existing ‘Confirm’ asset management system is being utilised for OSS audit use. A module within the system was designed and developed at pace to meet the needs of the audit. Where the impact identifies a requirement for significant technology change, has an assessment been carried out (or is scheduled to be carried out) by the Enterprise Architecture Governance Group (EAGG)? Yes ☐ No ☐ 5.7 Environmental / Carbon impact Does the report / project / practice contain information that has an impact on any environmental or carbon matters? Yes ☒ No ☐ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? The Open Space strategy will help identify and inform future priorities to enhance and protect biodiversity and, potentially, mitigate the impact of climate change. 5.8 Communications impact Does the report contain any information that has an impact on the council’s communications activities? Yes ☒ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the impact? There will be opportunities for community and stakeholder engagement at key stages during the process. 5.9 Risk impact Is there a risk impact? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the key risks and potential impacts, highlighting where the risk(s) are assessed and recorded (e.g. Corporate or Service or Project Risk Registers), and how they are managed? 5.10 Armed Forces Covenant Duty Does the report require to take due regard of the Armed Forces Covenant Duty (i.e. does it relate to healthcare, housing, or education services for in-Service or ex- Service personnel, or their families, or widow(er)s)? Yes ☐ No ☒ If Yes, please provide a brief summary of the provision which has been made to ensure there has been appropriate consideration of the particular needs of the Armed Forces community to make sure that they do not face disadvantage compared to other citizens in the provision of public services.