Place Standard and its use by Linstone Housing Association

In 2017, Linstone Housing became aware of the Place Standard tool (PST) through a Renfrewshire Community Planning Partnership locality planning public event. Following this, Linstone Housing attended the Place Standard Alliance Event in Glasgow in 2018 and subsequently the Place Standard tool was used as a benchmarking and evaluation tool in a funding application for the Scottish Government and European Social Economic Growth Funding Stream. The Linstone Housing 20/20 project was awarded £230,000 for 18 months to provide: • better connected communities • more connected working • enhanced digital inclusion • more accessible community based services • improved opportunities for all. The Place Standard tool was used as an engagement tool that allowed the Linstone Housing 20/20 Community Engagement team to establish what was working well for residents in Linwood and Johnstone, what could be even better, and the areas that needed improvement. In Linwood and Johnstone, over 400 people filled in a questionnaire from different demographics, from older adults to young people and families. These individuals were contacted through a variety of settings, including:

• community events such as drop-in sessions at the community hubs and visiting other clubs and
• meetings like the seniors’ forum
• in Linwood High School, following instructions given by their teachers, individual pupils from several classes completed a questionnaire. A session was then delivered by two staff members in which the Place Standard tool was discussed, and the young people were asked two questions to
• further reflect on their answers
• one to one home visits to Linstone Housing tenants 
• community activities such as the WW1 centenary celebration and a stall at the Christmas lights switch on
• targeted localised consultation in partnership with Keep Scotland Beautiful
• an online version of the tool was shared on social media.

The main problem areas that were identified from the use of the Place Standard tool in both towns were:

• lack of good public transport links
• bad condition of pavements
• poor street lighting
• lack of youth activities (Linwood)
• dog fouling and littering
• lack of green spaces for play and recreation.

The findings from this engagement allowed the Linstone Housing 20/20 team to provide a timetable of events and services, provided from the Linstone Housing Community Hubs, and also community access to funding in order to tackle the main issues raised during the consultation:

• Public transport: Linstone Housing partnered with different organisations to establish a community transport initiative that had a lot of support before it had to be postponed in March 2020. Linstone Housing also had existing Car Club provision via a single hybrid car with Local Energy Action Plan (LEAP) but feedback, following use of the Place Standard tool, meant that two further localities were identified, and two additional full electric Car Club cars and charging points were installed, with subsidised memberships available to community members. Linstone Housing IS currently working with LEAP and Cycle Scotland to install and launch an electric bike scheme that will link Linwood with Paisley Gilmour Street station.
• Lack of youth activities: Linstone Housing is working with Create Paisley and other local community groups to establish a new youth space in Linwood. A space that is being designed by young people.
• Dog fouling: Linstone Housing staff linked in with the council and sprayed messages in high visible areas to encourage responsible dog ownership, reminding owners of their responsibility to pick up after their pet. Linstone Housing has organised and encouraged community groups to organise regular litter picking activities in the local area.
• Lack of green spaces for play and recreation: Two of Linstone Housing Tenants and Residents Associations are working on developing community gardens in their local area and have been supported to successfully bid for funding.

Key to sustainability was that the team at Linstone Housing delivered very little themselves, instead acting as a broker to connect people with places and existing services in order to create opportunities. The approach was so successful that Linstone was named runner up in the keenly contested National Good Practice Awards 2019, run by the Tenant Participatory Advisory Service Scotland (TPAS), in the category of ‘Best Practice in Developing Communities’.

Linstone Housing learned how to adapt the Place Standard tool to its community development practice. It is a powerful tool, but full completion can be lengthy and off-putting for the respondent. To mitigate this, Linstone used a variety of approaches, including:

• holding conversations to ask the different questions, instead of using an interview technique 
• only using part of the tool to help the community reflect on aspects of their area and to inform specific projects such as SPACE (a youth space for young people in Linwood) or the Village Garden (a community garden being developed in Linwood)

Finally, the Place Standard tool helped Linstone Housing to understand the needs of the community and then broker relationships with other organisations better placed to meet that need.