Stevenson Says Thinking Small Could Bring Big Changes for Regeneration

Stewart Stevenson, SNP MSP for Banffshire & Buchan Coast took a different approach when discussing the delivery of regeneration in Scotland in a parliamentary debate yesterday proposing that people evaluate community needs and the benefits of small projects.

Mr Stevenson said:

“Allowing regeneration projects to be on a smaller community scale generates creativity in solving the problem and reduces the size of failure when it occurs, thus encouraging further successes.

“There is enormous capacity out there and we have just not allowed it the space. There is one word that the people in our communities must never hear—it is, of course, particularly relevant this year—and that word is no.”

Mr Stevenson added that a joined-up approach was not always the best way to tackle regeneration. He said:

“We do not always want a joined-up approach, because a joined-up approach means waiting for someone else. If we do it ourselves in a granular way, we will succeed or fail in small steps, and then the little grains can join together and build their successes from the community upwards. The joined-up approach is the enemy of effective community regeneration.”