Postgraduate student Freya Austin has approached us. She is a postgraduate student at the University of Dundee completing her dissertation for an MSc in Spatial Planning and Sustainable Urban Design. Her research examines women’s participation in Local Place Plans (LPPs) in Scotland, and specifically whether this legislation has meaningfully improved women’s involvement in community engagement and the wider planning process.
She is writing to ask whether our community members would be willing to take part in a short questionnaire.
The questionnaire takes around 5–10 minutes to complete and focuses on experiences of community engagement in the local area. Importantly, you do not need to have been involved in a Local Place Plan, or even be a member of a community group, to take part — it is open to anyone and everyone. While the research centres on women’s experiences, responses from all community members are warmly welcomed — the more perspectives gathered, the richer the findings.
Although this is academic research rather than an official council or government study, it aims to address a genuine gap in our understanding of community participation in planning. The hope is that findings will contribute towards a more inclusive planning system — particularly for women, who have historically been underrepresented in these processes.
A Participant Information Sheet is attached with full details of the research. Informed consent is collected at the start of the questionnaire and must be confirmed before proceeding.
The link to the questionnaire is below:
https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/dundee/woman-s-participation-in-lpps