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Pitlochry: Crown or Clone?

Pitlochry is a mature, stable town with a population of a little over 2000. Its reputation as a tourist town has been built over many decades by the many hard working tourist businesses. The last half year has seen a flurry of pending new developments by outside speculators - there are numerous high density amenity-less small flats, a total reshaping of a town centre space to take flats, a Premier Inn and a Tesco Express and, lately, Sainsbury’s plans for the outskirts.

A shortage of affordable homes has always been an issue in tourist towns because of competition for holiday lets and second homes. Will current affordable home quotas follow this pattern without legislation?

The move is on now to build many flats on numerous sites, a safe speculation during economically uncertain times. But are they the sort of thing that will preserve the integrity of the town for its people? Pitlochry needs to work for everyone.

There are small-flat complexes that work. Highbury Quadrant in Inner London is one of those that has become ‘the estate that nobody wants to leave’. Built in the 50’s, its success as a high density neighbourhood is attributed to the fact that, although the flats are very small, great care was taken to design the outdoor spaces.

Council built, but with design care for ‘liveability’, the flats now have a wide mix of tenants – some original council, recent council, privately rented and owner occupied. Car parking was relegated to tertiary status to allow for car-free safe walking and outside communal spaces. Over 50 years on, all ages, nationalities and economic groups live side by side harmoniously. It is safe to walk there at night and there is no crime, graffiti, drug problems or noise. Its success was due to the simple care to design around ‘liveability’, the ‘physiology’ and not just the building ‘anatomy’.

Planning Limitations

Current planning legislation can influence design ‘anatomy’ but not the essential social ‘physiology’. It often denies the essential element of human ecology.  All a community can do is proffer technical objection. Crucial local knowledge and understanding has no weight. This is despite many decades of experience and learning from failed social neighbourhood design. The wealth of experience available from successful practice is untapped. There is no community opportunity to influence better design, civic vision and subsequent improvement. Developers can appeal but community cannot.

In a triangle of relationship of government, business and community, community has the weakest position. The balance between government business and community needs to be restored. Until then, the result is clone towns, hollowed out high streets and the replication of poor generic design led by narrow developer motives.

Faustian Bargain

All these lead to poorly functioning neighbourhoods, economic decay and alienated communities. Affordable housing is reduced to questions of how high, how many and how much tarmac. Allowing high density housing further pushes up land prices to artificial heights, and hence further diminishes affordability and future good design.

The issue then becomes a ‘Faustian bargain’, which does nothing for good stewardship of community. In turn, high land prices, perpetuate a false debt economy that serves the few rather than society. Our property prices are the highest in Europe, an unnecessary burden that leaves us open, inevitably, to further crises.

City vs Rural Town Living

Small rural town flats may suit some people very well. But there is a big difference between living in a small-town flat and a city flat, especially on a low income. Cities have cheap, frequent transport, which lessens the need for a car or a second car. There are nursery and child care choices, a wider range of social and recreational activities, job variety and small business opportunities.

Small rural towns can isolate families, and especially mothers, in ways similar to peripheral city estates. Social interaction opportunities are substantially less, be it at the school gates, the empty play park or lack of child-friendly cafes to meet in.

Positive Visions

If we want well designed neighbourhoods that foster a sense of place and belonging, communities need to be heard. Rural town dense housing without amenities needs to be seen for its shortcomings. If such schemes continue to be approved then we are not only failing the growing number that will need affordable housing, since supermarket jobs are low paid, but also the tourist businesses.

Is Pitlochry to be the crown of Highland Perthshire or just a mere clone of myriad other small towns throughout the country?  To be a thriving, living and working environment it needs integrated communities and good, all round design, along with positive visions and wide township considerations.

by Liz Hodgson