This Plan is an opportunity to significantly improve rural towns. Dereliction should be tackled as a priority in particular in those towns that have a high level of derelict sites and a strong need for town-health checks and place-making interventions. These should be done in an empowering way with communities, buiding capacity through improvement processes that will be delivered with the new Plan.
Our analysis for our development plan in terms of place-making includes demographics but not talk about inequalities, or socio-spatial disadvantages. Yet this is a key factor in ensuring just and inclusive spaces that achieves the goals of fair and sustainable planning. Spatial justice involves “the fair and equitable distribution in space of socially valued resources and opportunities to use them” (Soja, 2009). In developing the new Plan, a lens of socio-spatial advantage/disadvantage is critical to achieving fairness. It would be good to see this articulated in the adopted plan.