Inspiring the Learning Locally project: lessons from Armadale

At the end of October, our Senior Design Officer Laura Hainey visited Armadale in West Lothian to support the delivery of a workshop which would inform our project "Learning Locally: Co-designing Sustainable Learning Settings" through which we will work with a number of primary schools in the town to support the delivery of the "Learning for Sustainability Policy".

The workshop, hosted by Armadale's community anchor organisation the Dale Hub, explored the Place Standard with a Climate Lens – a tool to help people understand how climate change might play out in their local area and support them to design their future place with climate in mind.

A collaboration between West Lothian Council, the Dale Hub, Public Health Scotland and Architecture and Design Scotland, the workshop was attended by approximately 20 local residents. Participants were taken on a theoretical tour around the place standard wheel and a physical tour around the Dale Hub – with each of the four stations hosting an associated activity to get the discussion started.

In ‘the Den’ outside, participants explored the themes of moving around, public transport and traffic and parking, with questions led by Dougie Grierson from West Lothian Council. Then, using an interactive map, stickers, fuzzy ball, googly eyes and pipe-cleaners, Luke Collins from Linlithgow Community Development Trust guided participants through an exploration of how they move through – and access what they need – in Armadale. The key issue that emerged was the lack of joined up public transport routes, particularly to Livingston, which encouraged a dependency on cars.  

Luke Collins said: “For me in my role, in active travel and active travel projects in Linlithgow or other partner towns across West Lothian, it’s incredibly useful to hear people’s direct lived experience and to understand just how much, in a town like Armadale, the default option becomes the car because of the lack of integrated network of alternative options.” 

Further up the garden, participants planted up some wooden planters which would stay at the Dale Hub to commemorate the day. Led by the Dale Hub’s Willie Caruthers, participants worked together to agree a series of plants and bulbs appropriate for the planting box, with discussions about symmetry ensuing. Building on this, Scott McKillop from West Lothian Council asked the group some prompt questions from the Place Standard Tool (p.22) on the themes of natural space, play and recreation, and streets and spaces. These spaces were then marked on a large map of Armadale. As a whole, participants reflected that Armadale had a good amount of green space which was well distributed throughout the town.

“I attended today to get an idea of what was to come for the development of the town, especially the face of the cuts the town has been afflicted by over the past 12 months. I definitely enjoyed today’s event, it was good to meet people from across the different sectors of the community and to hear and share their views. So I took quite a bit out of today. I just hope that the resources can be made available to deliver on a lot of the ideas that were put forward today.”  Bill Baird, President of Armadale Thistle Football Club and member of Armadale Community Council 

After all that outdoor work, participants headed to the kitchen where Tuesday Walker from the Dale Hub introduced some air fryer cookery (cinnamon swirls) and Susan Gordon of West Lothian Council facilitated questions. Interspersed with cooking tasks, the discussions in this activity covered the themes of housing and community. Key themes that were discussed, linking well with energy efficient cookery, were energy at home, heating the home, and using the car less to get around locally.

Tuesday Walker said: “Days like this are really, really important because they give a feel for what people in the community are looking for – and what they need – in an informal and fun way. This means people can be a bit more comfortable. It also allows us to invite people from different areas and different backgrounds in the town”. 

The final activity in the playroom began with a game, before Sam Whitmore from Public Health Scotland led a discussion on the themes of feeling safe, identity and belonging, care and maintenance and influence and sense of control. Admittedly, these were the hardest themes to link to climate action, so the focus was on the community’s ability to come together around the topic of climate change. A central issue from the discussion was a large, recently constructed housing development to the south of Armadale, which the group felt had impacted on the sense of identity and belonging, resulting in a somewhat fractured a sense of control.

Sam Whitmore said: "The recognition of the importance that climate change will make on people’s lives in the near future was evident in our discussions."

After some excellent soup for lunch, everyone gathered in the playroom to consider how Armadale had scored in each of the elements of the Place Standard Tool and, more importantly, share views and ideas from the day. The earlier activities had helped to relax people and galvanise opinions and it was beneficial to discuss elements as a whole room – with many laughs defusing the few matters of contention.  

Community members coming together for the day and sharing their opinions will inform the work of West Lothian Council, the Dale Hub and Architecture and Design Scotland as we continue work on the ‘Learning Locally: Co-designing Sustainable Learning Settings’ project in the town. 

Reflecting on the day Luke Collins said: “The Place Framework touches on a broader, more holistic approach to people’s lives. And I think the only way you can achieve that is by doing it in partnerships with a multi-service approach. Fundamentally, the solutions we can offer are structured at such top level that it has to be something that’s integrated in partnership.”