Empowering Young Voices: The Children and Teenagers’ Westside Plan with Shetland Islands Council

by Anna Gaffney | 2 Jun, 2025 | Climate and environment, Project updates, Urban planning

At A Place in Childhood (APiC), we believe that children and teenagers are not just future citizens – they are active contributors to their communities today. This belief is shared by Shetland Islands Council and is at the heart of the Children and Teenagers Living...

Co-Creating the Future of North Yell with Children

by Anna Gaffney | 24 Apr, 2025 | Climate and environment, Outdoor learning, Urban planning

At A Place in Childhood, we’re always thrilled to see our ‘How To Guide’ in action. This guest blog comes from our colleague Kate Lonsdale at North Yell Development Council (NYDC), one of Shetland’s most established and inspiring community organisations. We were...

Exploring Urban Design with Young People Through Cities: Skylines. Part 2: What Makes a 20-Minute Neighbourhood?

by Anna Gaffney | 17 Feb, 2023 | Climate and environment, Urban planning

Last week, we reported on an exciting project APiC co-led with Sustrans Scotland, using the game Cities: Skylines to explore urban design with pupils at Tynecastle High School in Edinburgh. We discovered a wide range of uses for Cities Skylines in the classroom, which...

Exploring Urban Design with Young People Through Cities: Skylines. Part 1: Why and How

by Anna Gaffney | 10 Feb, 2023 | Climate and environment, Urban planning

In December 2022, we had the pleasure of working with Sustrans Scotland and the Edinburgh & Lothians Developing Young Workforce team to deliver a session on urban design at Tynecastle High School. The was to introduce young people to the idea of a 20 minute...

Our Vision for an Inclusive and Effective National Planning Framework 4

by Jenny Wood | 12 Apr, 2022 | Climate and environment, Urban planning

We recently submitted a consultation response to Scottish Government’s draft National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4). NPF4 is a document that sets out the spatial and land use planning approach of Scottish Government up to 2045. In this blog, we lay out a summary of the...

Event: Children, Young People, and The National Planning Framework 4

by Jenny Wood | 12 Jan, 2022 | Climate and environment, Events, Urban planning

Play Scotland and A Place in Childhood are inviting representatives of organisations that work with children and young people to a discussion on planning, to help inform responses from the sector to the National Planning Framework 4 (NPF4) draft, released by Scottish...