On 23rd April 2026, over 80 people gathered in Stranraer, travelling from far and wide to join What We Do Now (WWDN) at LABS Creative Neighbourhoods: A Blueprint for Local Placemaking.
Creative Neighbourhoods marked our second LABS event, following our initial gathering on Community Wealth Building and the national kNOw One Place forum in 2022—the UK’s first creative placemaking conference. Together, these gatherings ask a simple but urgent question: How do we move from ambition to action, and from policy to place?
Why Neighbourhoods? Why Now?
Across Scotland, there is a growing expectation that decisions about places should be shaped locally, with communities supported to lead. National priorities—from Community Wealth Building and Local Place Plans to the Culture Strategy for Scotland—are increasingly aligned around fairness, wellbeing, and local agency.
But while much of this thinking happens at a town, city, or regional level, everyday life is organised much closer to home.
This LABS session took the ambition of local decision-making straight to the neighbourhood scale. Together, we asked: What support, resources, and structures need to be in place so communities can genuinely influence and lead how their places grow?
Across the Two Days
To explore the practical essentials that underpin confident, resilient communities, we welcomed nine national contributors alongside three brilliant Stranraer-based organisations to facilitate our two-day programme:
Breakout Sessions | Mapping & Strategy Understanding the March Hill Neighbourhood & Building the Blueprint for Local Placemaking.
‘Go See’ Visits | Local Inspiration Experiencing local impact firsthand with Creative Stranraer, The Unexpected Garden, and the Stranraer Water Sports Association.
What’s Next?
A massive thank you to everyone who contributed, facilitated, and participated. It was incredibly energising to have so many inspiring voices in one room, all exploring what it truly takes for a neighbourhood to shape its own future.
This is just the beginning of the conversation. Over the coming weeks, we will be sharing the full outcomes of the event, including:
- The official Blueprint for Local Placemaking
- Event video highlights
- Key toolkits and resources for local activists and planners
Images by Stage Two Imaging
