Cross Party Group for Towns and Town Centres - Liveable Neighbourhoods

Previously advertised as a hybrid event. The meeting will be held online only.

🌍 Continue the Conversation in Holyrood: Liveable Neighbourhoods & the Future of Our Towns

Following on from the powerful dialogue at our Liveable Neighbourhoods learning event on 10 June, we invite you to keep the momentum going at the next meeting of the Cross Party Group on Towns and Town Centres.

This special session—open to all stakeholders - explores what makes a neighbourhood truly liveable—now and into the future and brings the conversation into the heart of Scottish democracy. Join MSPs, community leaders, planners, housing experts, and regeneration advocates to reflect on key takeaways and explore how we can turn insights into action across Scotland’s places.

Whether you attended the first event or are new to the discussion, this is your opportunity to engage directly with decision-makers and peers as we shape policies and partnerships for thriving, inclusive, and sustainable neighbourhoods.

Through the lens of key conditions of success - Leadership & Collaboration, Holistic Planning & Placemaking , Funding & Resources, Local Engagement & Partnership and Risk Mitigation - meeting contributors will touch on core principles shaping liveable places, including:

• Creating a holistic vision for thriving neighbourhoods

• The role of town centre living in driving local economic resilience

• Advancing 20-minute neighbourhood principles

• Strategies for community wealth building and innovation

• Responding to Housing to 2040 and the housing emergency

• Embedding sustainable policy and practice

• Unlocking the hidden benefits of well-designed towns—from health and education to social cohesion

Agenda

17:30 CPG Business: Megan Gallacher MSP, Convener

17:40 Discussion Introduction: Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland’s Towns Partnership
Kimberley sets the scene, through the wider context of development work happening across Scotland's local authorities, as well as sharing her experience of a recent study visit to Oldham - all strengthened by five key conditions of success - Leadership & Collaboration, Holistic Planning & Placemaking. Funding & Resources, Local Engagement & Partnership, and Risk Mitigation.

17:50 Housing That Works: Fresh Ideas for Scottish Tenures

Pamela Clifford MRTPI, Chief Planning Officer, East Ayrshire Council and Chair of Heads of Planning (Scotland) 2024-25

18:00 Bringing Life Back to Town Centre Upper Floors
Ross Grant, Senior Project Manager, Aberdeen Inspired

Ross will share plans to revitalise the upper floors of Union Street, aiming to create a vibrant, liveable neighbourhood in Aberdeen’s city centre.

18:10 Discussion

18:20 Any Other Competent Business

18:30 Close of Meeting

Meeting Contributors

Kimberley Guthrie, Chief Officer, Scotland’s Towns Partnership

Kimberley brings over 25 years of senior management experience across the retail and business sectors. As a company director and founder, she has led a successful consultancy and retail business for 17 years, specialising in marketing, consumer strategy, and business transformation. At Scotland’s Towns Partnership, she drives change through cross-sector collaboration.

Pamela Clifford MRTPI, Chief Planning Officer, East Ayrshire Council and Chair of Heads of Planning (Scotland) 2024-25

Pamela is currently Chief Planning Officer at East Ayrshire Council and has previously worked for West Dunbartonshire Council. Pamela is Chair of Heads of Planning Scotland (HOPS) and a past convener of Scottish RTPI (2024). She represents RTPI Scotland on the Planning Aid board. She is passionate about creating high quality places and buildings.

Ross Grant, Senior Project Manager, Aberdeen Inspired

Ross has been with Aberdeen Inspired since 2013 having graduated from the University of Aberdeen with an MA in Politics and International Relations. Ross has held various roles within the organisation, initially as a street ambassador and project manager, and now as a senior project manager and has played an instrumental part in bringing the Painted Doors project and Nuart Aberdeen festival to the granite city as well as overseeing a wide range of other projects including ensuring the delivery of city centre way showing, earlier purple flag accreditations and creative lighting projects.

Privacy

To support networking and help you get the most out of our event, we will provide those coming with a list of the names and organisational affiliation of those attending.

Furthermore, we typically take photographs of proceedings in order to highlight or showcase STP’s activities.

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