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Policy Activity
Research Activity
Working Group Activity
Press Releases
Policy Activity
Research Activity
Working
Group Activity
Urban Design Working Group
The Urban Design Working Group (UDWG) has taken as its starting
point the work of the Urban Design Alliance in Scotland, which had previously
signaled its intention to disband in favour of the UDWG. There
is currently a lack of inter-disciplinary focus on urban design issues at a
strategic level within Scotland. To address this gap, the group will explore
issues associated with urban design, focussing in particular on practical
aspects, and promote these issues to a wide audience of stakeholders including
non-governmental organisations, civil servants and MSPs in Scotland. The group
re-constituted in June 2006, and has identified the following key areas of
activity:
- Arrange study visits with multi-disciplinary attendance to develop
awareness and promote best practice
- Arrange workshops with multi-disciplinary attendance to discuss
issues of common interest
- Maintain a reactive role in responding as a BEFS cross-disciplinary
working group to government consultations with implications for urban
design
- Develop discrete project activities.
In 2001,
the publication of the Scottish Environment LINK Historic Environment Audit
concluded that there were many areas of concern in terms of the way we care for
and use the historic environment in Scotland. The taskforce has been working
ever since to seek Ministerial support for the preparation of a wide-ranging,
independent review of the historic environment in Scotland. In
February 2004, the taskforce led a series of three Scoping
Meetings to explore issues surrounding the historic environment in relation to
People, Economics and Managing Change. The aim of the meetings was to gather information
and views on the need for a Review of the Historic Environment in Scotland, and
in part to feed into the work of the Historic Environment Advisory Council for
Scotland (HEACS). Notes of the meetings are available on this website on the
Archive page. Views were gathered
together in a campaign document called ‘The Bigger Picture’ which was supported
by 26 organisations and launched to an audience of stakeholders, civil servants
and MSPs in June 2004, along with a series of pages of information
linked from this website. The document called for the introduction of a new
system of Historic Environment Auditing in order that we can better quantify
and understand the contribution that the historic environment makes to society
in Scotland. HERT was very pleased to see in May 2005 a Ministerial
announcement supporting the creation of a new system of Historic Environment
Audit. HERT is now keeping a watching brief on the process of developing the
Audit. The Audit is being led by Historic Scotland, in collaboration with a
Stakeholder Advisory Group representing key stakeholder interests, including
BEFS.
Sustainable Development Working
Group
The
purpose of the Sustainable Development Working Group is to promote the built
environment within the sustainable development agenda of governance and to
promote the importance of sustainable development to built environment
organisations, interests and delivery agents. In pursuit of this objective, the
group facilitated a workshop in June 2005, which gathered views from
stakeholders on the primary role of a sustainable built environment. The event
gathered views from a wide range of participants which were fed into the
drafting of Scotland’s Sustainable Development Strategy: Choosing Our Future,
published in December 2005.