In this first blog we meet Graham Marchbank, a retired planner who has volunteered with us for 10 years. Graham has been involved in all aspects of Planning Aid Scotland – from being on our board, to helping at events and to more recently working on cases for our Advice Service. Read on to hear about his experience!

Tell us a bit about yourself

I’m Graham and I stay in Leith. I’m retired but still volunteer with Planning Aid Scotland, RTPI Scotland, and the City of Edinburgh Council’s design panel. After graduating, I had a spell in Surrey then London in the 1980s. I studied on day release for a planning diploma while working on airports, housing supply, minerals and waste, then surveys and lots of number crunching. I spent 25 years in Scottish Government on all things planning.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I play tennis and watch the footie. I’m a keen photographer (currently on concrete and brutalist buildings around Edinburgh). I enjoy the visual arts and do a bit of painting. My musical tastes have evolved to focus on live Americana and jazz (it’s an age thing!).

How did you get involved with Planning Aid Scotland?

I learned of Planning Aid Scotland at Scottish Government in the 2000s as I knew David [our Director of Operations] and former Chief Executive Petra from events we hosted on waste management. I didn’t think it wise to come to a full stop on retirement. I started volunteering about 10 years ago: on the board, the advice service, and helping at events. I think transferable skills are worth their weight in salt, so I like the volunteer outlet and the opportunity to help people navigate the system and channel their ideas on place-making. Locals often know best.

What has been your favourite experience as a volunteer?

The Advice Service without a doubt! In most cases you learn something new. The feedback makes it worthwhile. Community events are fun too – it’s a question of knowing your audience, keeping to the script, listening, summarising, and reporting the outcomes. The Home Shows are worthwhile testing grounds for volunteers.

Any top tips you’ve learnt from volunteering with Planning Aid Scotland?

1. Always check the diary! We set up for an evening event in a village hall and nobody showed up. Turned out there was another meeting taking place about a new housing development and they stole our audience!
2. To provide accurate advice, I’m a big fan of digitised datasets in map-based tools like SEPA flood risks, Historic Environment Scotland designations, and local authority planning portals.
3. Not everything turns out as expected. We held a great event in Dunbartonshire. Sadly, the lead consultants went into liquidation and momentum was lost. As volunteers we can only do our utmost, led by our enthusiastic full-time staff.

What do you find inspiring about planning in Scotland?

I’m more and more impressed by the way planners, designers, architects, and communities co-design land and buildings to create good places. That’s reflected by the many quality awards competitions. Requirements for biodiversity gains, climate change adaptation, and energy resilience are now reconfiguring development in new ways. We could do more for places that suffer from poor investment or dull design. Then it’s down to buy-in, after-care and better management. Just look at the number of friends groups or trusts that look after parks and rivers.

Any fun facts about planning?

• Family fact: My late father-in-law was Chief Planner in Mauritius!
• Planning hint: I hankered after one of those American mailboxes you see in the movies. In an upstate New York hardware store, I asked if they had them. I didn’t know there were two designs. The storekeeper said town or rural? I said what’s the difference? He said… well rural’s kinda in the countryside!
• Music tip: I’m exploring vinyl again and probably shouldn’t be buying more, like Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan electronica by town planner Gordon Chapman-Fox!

We want to hear from you! If you’re interested in doing a profile for our blog, please get in touch with Jo.