background to the conference

 

The Home Zones Scotland Network was formed in 1999 to raise awareness of and campaign for the development of 'home zones' in Scotland. Home zones are residential streets that accommodate cars, but give priority to people, thereby encouraging safe and sociable neighbourhoods. The idea originated in the Netherlands and is now ordinary practice in much of Northern Europe. A pilot UK home zone initiative started in 1998 did not include Scotland. However, following the first Home Zones Scotland Network conference in November 1999, the Scottish Executive announced a pilot scheme involving the monitoring and evaluation of projects in four local authority areas: Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Dundee and Highland (Thurso).

 

The Scottish Executive's home zones pilot projects have not been a resounding success. Of the four schemes, the Aberdeen project is proceeding very slowly while the Edinburgh project has been put into abeyance due to a lack of funds. However Dundee, the only new build scheme, is well on the way to completion while Thurso, the improvement of an existing extremely barren and windswept local authority housing estate, is now progressing due to the dogged commitment of Ormlie Community Association and new funds made available byHighland Council.

 

'Better Places to Live', the third conference organised by the Home Zones Scotland Network, was hosted by the Scottish Executive at its Victoria Quay headquarters, in Edinburgh, on 9th February 2004. The title and programme of this third conference put home zones in a wider context of urban design and transport policies. The conference focused upon new residential development in terms of home zones and general improvement of residential areas in terms of quality of life for residents. Professionals such as planners, roads engineers, urban designers, building company representatives and housing association staff attended. The general interest in home zones was well demonstrated by the rapidity with which the 100 delegate places at the conference were booked by people representing every relevant dicipline.

 

speakers

 

The conference proceedings were chaired by David Spaven from TRANSform Scotland. First to present was Hans Monderman, Manager of the Spatial, Landscape and Traffic Planning Integration programme for the Northern Netherland Provinces. His talk was interesting first of all because the idea of home zones originated in the Netherlands and because of the wealth of experience and good practice that was shared with the audience. This was supported by excellent slides showing innovative roads engineering solutions to a variety of problems that were preventing people from having priority use of streets. He made an interesting comparison between social behaviour and traffic behaviour and highlighted how the difference between the two results in a conflict of interests. Focusing the design of the streets on a social model was seen to help redress the balance.

 

Wayne Hemingway gave an inspirational talk about the flagship George Wimpey development in Gateshead, an 800 home project which he had designed. He was keen to impress upon the delegates how much people like green space as demonstrated in the huge popularity of TV gardening programmes. He therefore provided little "pocket parks" throughout his development, some of which had fixed play equipment within them. Potential purchasers could choose which house they would prefer in relation to the nearest little park area. This was interesting as it addressed the ongoing issue in many developments where residents approve of play areas but do not want them to be near their property. In this development you can choose to live beside a play park or an attractive area of general green amenity space.

 

Sue Stirling and Phil Jones from the Scottish Executive outlined the future standards in terms of residential development and road design that the Scottish Executive is striving towards. Examples of both good rural and urban design were shown such as Culross in Fife and the Drum development in Bo'ness and throughout there was an emphasis on integrating development with the surrounding environment. The Executive's 'Better Streets, Better Places' document was explained and the importance of a girded network of streets connecting places and people was emphasized.

 

Mike Galloway, the Director of Planning and Transportation at Dundee City Council, talked about the experiences of the Dundee home zone pilot project and very much addressed an issue which kept on re-appearing throughout the day which was the importance of communication between the multitude of professionals that are all necessary in the planning of home zones. He felt that because his department included both transport and planning professionals, Dundee was well placed to further develop better streets and neighbourhoods where families would chose to live.

 

Nicol Stephen MSP, the Minister for Transport, addressed the delegates and his message comprised a plea for better standards in design. He was asked about the lack of funding for home zones in Scotland in comparison to England where there is a specific fund set aside to finance pilot schemes, and although no promise was given, he did agree to look into this possibility which was encouraging.

 

Lesley Malkin, Capital Assets Manager at Stirling Council and Steve Lloyd, director of Ogilive Homes, outlined the hugely ambitious plans for the re-development of the Raploch estate in Stirling. The impressing thing about this talk was the level of community consultation that was involved and how the plans have been shaped by it. This was described as a lengthy but worthwhile process and we were reminded about how necessary it is if we want to respond to community needs.

 

Ray Walkinshaw from Southside Housing Association presented their safer street scheme where they are attempting to improve a local street and make it safer for children and families. This involves changing parking arrangements, implementing traffic calming measures and planting trees. Although this seems a straightforward scheme, the difficulty in financing the project was a reminder to everyone about how expensive these schemes can be.

 

The day finished by a short talk from Adrian Sinclair, director of Heads Together Productions, and then the screening of the short version their latest video 'Home Zones – the UK Experience'. This was a nice end to the day as the video focused upon people and how home zones had changed family life, play experiences, and communities for the better.

 

conclusions

 

It was encouraging to hear about work that's going on on the ground, such as Wayne Hemingway's innovative collaboration with developers George Wimpey. Away from the Scottish Executive’s pilot projects, interest and involvement in home zones is growing regardless. A survey conducted by the Home Zone Scotland Network has revealed 17 more projects in 10 different local authority areas being actively planned and in come cases implemented, and there were presentations on two of these in Raploch, Stirling, and in McCulloch Street, Glasgow at the conference.

 

Two speakers in particular, Hans Monderman and Mike Galloway, emphasised the importance of genuine multi-diciplinary working in creating people-friendly places, while acknowledging how difficult this is in practice. Mike Galloway threw out a challenge to the various professions involved, particularly to road engineers to "get out of their boxes" and start really communicating with each other. This plea was echoed by Sue Stirling, who highlighted the gaps in the way we train planners, road engineers, architects and others; she suggested that joint training of such diciplines would assist in delivering projects such as home zones.

presentation by
Hans Monderman