Aberdeenshire town centre health checks published
Aberdeenshire Council has published the findings from its latest town centre health checks which were carried out across the region last year.
Aberdeenshire Council has published the findings from the town centre health checks which were carried out across the region last year.
The checks enable the council to analyse the factors which contribute to successful town centres and indicate good standards of vitality and viability.
The vitality of a centre is a measure of how lively and busy it is, while viability is a measure of its centre’s capacity to attract ongoing investment.
We all know that Aberdeenshire is an extremely attractive area with a variety of coastal and rural environments, commuter towns, high levels of employment, with considerable new housing and employment land planned for the near future.
Maintaining town centres’ attractiveness, activeness and accessibility is therefore vital for the region to be able to continue to thrive.
The health checks help mould and shape the council’s town centre strategies focusing on areas of strength and those which require further development.
Last year, 22 health checks were undertaken in the following communities:
• 10 mains towns undertaken annually – Banchory, Banff, Ellon, Fraserburgh, Huntly, Inverurie, Macduff, Peterhead, Stonehaven and Turriff
• 8 academy towns undertaken biennially – Aboyne, Alford, Kemnay, Laurencekirk, Mintlaw; Oldmeldrum, Portlethen and Westhill
• 4 additional non-academy towns surveyed for the first time – Insch, Kintore, Newmachar and Portsoy
Aberdeenshire Council’s Planning Information and Delivery Team has now produced the final reports which use the Storymaps online system to provide a more interactive output for the user while continuing to build a clear picture of the health of a particular town.
Paul Macari, Head of Planning and Economy, said: “Regular health checks provide us with a meaningful local evidence base of the strengths and weaknesses of our town centres, this is used in several ways including informing our development plans and decision-making on future planning applications. It’s heartening to see that out of the 18 towns which have been surveyed previously, 10 towns have a lower vacancy rate than when previously health checked.”
You can access the findings of the health checks for last year’s participating town centres here
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