Loch Lomond and the Trossachs National Park - Welcome

Action Planning

The Community Futures Action Planning process provides communities with a way of thinking about and planning their future. It enables communities to put together a well thought through community action plan which states and makes a case for the things that the community thinks are important and wishes to make happen.

Importantly, Community Futures aims to help generate more involvement and interest in the community from local residents, local organisations and businesses and other stakeholders.

It does so by making sure that the Community Futures plan is put together in a participatory way and that views from different parts of the community are listened to, discussed and taken into account.

The upshot is that people not only become involved in sharing their views in the Plan but in subsequent action to make the Plan and its priorities a reality. In so doing, Community Futures helps to strengthen local democracy and foster active citizenship.

The Small Town and Rural Development Group (STAR) was commissioned in 2001 to design a programme of Community Futures in the National Park, primarily to support every community to develop a Community Action Plan, using the Community Futures participatory planning process.

From 2001-2003, 24 communities in and around the Park prepared their first Action Plans, with very high levels of participation.

The Community Action Plans provided key input to the first National Park Plan - building a strategic plan from the bottom up. The National Park Community Futures programme was commended by the RTPI/Scottish Government for community involvement in planning.

In 2007, the National Park launched the second Community Futures Action Planning programme –offering communities the support, training and resources to prepare new Action Plans. Eighteen communities to date have completed these new Plans for the period 2008 – 2011. To view the Action Plans for these communities visit Our Communites web pages.

The Action Plan planning work in each community includes:

  • Gathering facts, figures and views about their community
  • Developing a clear set of priorities for their community over the next 3-5 years
  • Ensuring that there is a strong community mandate for projects and actions
  • Offering opportunities for new people to be involved and new ideas to flourish
  • Enabling informed community input to the National Park Local Plan, and other
    strategies and partnerships

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