Category: DCT-Policy

Dundee Civic Trust welcomes the City Council’s review of the 2019 Local Development Plan. The previous plan had some strengths, but it no longer reflects current national policy or the city’s needs. We argue that the next plan should be more ambitious, coherent and adaptable, with flexible planning frameworks rather than rigid masterplans. Dundee’s tightly drawn boundaries significantly limit the city’s potential and should be expanded outwards to strengthen the city’s role as a regional hub.

Dundee’s UNESCO City of Design status should play a far greater role in shaping development, supported by clearer design policies, stronger guidance and a new multidisciplinary review panel. Higher‑density living, reuse of vacant buildings and better housing data are highlighted as essential, along with improved design standards and more mixed‑use neighbourhoods.

For the city centre, the Trust emphasises the importance of increasing the residential population to support activity throughout the day and evening, alongside improvements to major sites, public transport and mixed‑use development. We also call for a shift toward regenerative design, expanded biodiversity, better flood planning and a more resilient energy strategy. On transport, we stress the need for better bus services, improved rail connections, a relocated bus station and safer, more practical cycling routes.

Read a summary of our response to the Call for Ideas Stage here and our full report here.

Despite being Scotland’s fourth-largest city, Dundee is the country’s smallest local authority by land area; and by quite a considerable margin.

Dundee Civic Trust considers that the city’s boundaries are too small and limiting for efficient government. There are conflicts in education, planning decisions, transport planning, housing policy, social work and even bin collections that must be resolved. The neighbouring local authority areas of Angus and Perth & Kinross contain a significant amount of housing and commercial development immediately adjacent to the city boundary. This, we feel, negatively affects the efficient operation of Dundee City, without contributing to its tax income or business profits. It also denies the residents of those places the opportunity to vote in the local elections for the urban area to which they are physically connected.

The Trust believes the city boundaries should be expanded to come closer to the area covered by the former City of Dundee District under regionalisation between 1975 and 1996. Immediately adjacent built-up villages such as Monifieth and Invergowrie should be incorporated, along with the surrounding areas.

Read more here.

Dundee’s Waterfront development area is approaching thirty years since its inception. Dundee Civic Trust has been concerned that the city’s central area is blighted due to the seven remaining key sites that have remained undeveloped for this whole time, empty and neglected, and surrounded by ugly hoardings. There seems to be little progress.

We believe it is the right time to offer a new approach to the development of this area, and we are delighted to present a new policy discussion document which outlines a potential way forward, and which we hope will inspire and stimulate wider discussion and fresh thinking. The document can be found here.

Dundee Civic Trust, working with the Dundee Institute of Architects (DIA), organised successful housing design workshops that took place in June 2023 in the University of Dundee Department of Architecture and Urban Planning. The workshops’ aims were to achieve better design of housing in the city and to develop a template for developers, taking into account the need for compliance with the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). Numerous other organisations and professions contributed to the workshops: architects; planners; private and social housing developers; community groups; Scottish Water and others.

The outcome was a report with recommendations for housing design standards that the Trust and DIA would wish to see included in the new Dundee Local Development Plan 3, the preparation of which is now underway with a view to adoption in 2028.

29 recommendations have been refined from the workshops and will in due course be submitted to the city planners as part of the consultation for the above Plan. We expect the call for such contributions to be made in the spring of 2024.

The first three recommendations are fundamental to all proposed housing developments and their wider context. The remaining 26 relate to the basic principles of NPF4, which must be adopted by all Local Development Plans and applied in consideration of planning applications: transition to net zero emissions; conserving and recycling assets; local liveability; compact urban growth; and rebalancing development to create opportunities in areas of past decline whilst managing development in areas of high demand.

These recommendations challenge “the business as usual” approach we have seen in many of the housing developments in Dundee. Preliminary discussions have been held by the Trust and DIA with the City planners and we expect a lively debate to follow with stakeholders in the development and retrofit of housing.

We must insist that new housing developments are worthy of the City’s status as the only UK UNESCO City of Design.

Read our recommendations here.

The Trust’s Vision for Dundee in 2040:

• a diversified city centre with strengthened city neighbourhoods as places for people to live, work, learn and visit;
• A ’20-minute city’, where everyone can walk or cycle for essential needs and one that is compact with limits to
  the expansion of the built-up area;
• a well-connected city with opportunities for all its people, achieved by developing skills, fostering business innovation and supporting our learning institutions and attractions;
• a city where the best in design is encouraged to enhance our unique environmental setting and heritage.

These are aspirations; and with cooperation and foresight many of them will be achievable in the
timeframe that we are considering.

Read the full Vision document here.

The Trust believes that a radical new strategy is needed for the city centre, led by the Council, to tackle the increasing number of shop vacancies and empty upper floor premises.  We are now pleased to see the Council has produced a consultation document, “Our Future City Centre – Strategic Investment Plan 2020-2050”, to which the Trust is responding.

We think that the retail core area will inevitably shrink due to competition from online sales and that other uses need to be encouraged.  Promoting residential development, whether new or through building conversion, will bring more business to shops and restaurants while ensuring that cultural and civic activities are focussed in the centre will help make it the “must go” place for citizens and visitors.

The Trust supports the overall development principles of the Central Waterfront Masterplan and welcomes new investment to the city.  We will continue our regular dialogue with the Council and developers, however, to argue for a higher quality of design in future developments than has been achieved on site 6 opposite V&A Dundee and the railway station.   We are anxious that new development at the waterfront does not come at the expense of investment in the core city centre and urge that an appropriate balance be struck so that the central waterfront becomes a seamless extension of the city centre.