We support communities to articulate shared aims, deliver local change and confidently take their place at the table of Scotland's civic life.
Paul Ede (MRTPI) is founder and principal at Place at the Table.
He has significant experience in all aspects of community-led plan delivery, including:
- community leadership
- community engagement
- project management
- development management and spatial planning
- community development
Why Place at the Table?
Place at the Table undertakes all forms of community engagement work for community, public sector and commercial bodies.
Place at the Table specialises in project management and delivery of Community Action Plans and Local Place Plans alongside community groups.
Training programmes for communities and public sector bodies in community-led Local Place Plan and Community Action Plans production are available. We are skilled in interpersonal mediation, group facilitation, and planning policy.
Paul has 25 years’ experience as a volunteer community leader, planning case officer in a local authority, trainer (including academia), community engagement and project management.
Place At The Table pursues four values to guide its community development and place-making work
Building Relationships
Strong relationships form the foundation of community-led planning. Trust is essential—beginning within the steering group and extending to the wider community.
By prioritising transparency and fostering trust early, we create a solid base that grows stronger throughout the process.
Practising Humility
Effective place-making requires openness to different perspectives and a willingness to learn and adapt.
Acknowledging the complexity of community needs and creating space for everyone’s contributions ensures the process is inclusive and resilient.
Valuing diverse viewpoints helps build solutions that reflect and serve the entire community.
Encouraging Boldness
Community-led plans need to be ambitious and exciting, finding the right balance between realism and energising vision. We can over-estimate what we can do in a month but underestimate what can be achieved in a year or ten.
Change is happening fast all around us. Pioneering new ways of living and working in our places often means having the courage to embrace the new and the untried.
Cultivating Resilience
Addressing tough challenges takes time and persistence. By staying open-minded and supporting one another, we can maintain momentum even during difficult moments.
A commitment to shared purpose and positive energy sustains progress over the long term.
Process
A Local Place Plan process broadly consists of the following six stages. A Community Action plan process follows the same steps but step 5 (Information Notice) is not required.
Place at the Table provides services at every stage of this process.
Please see our Services page which lists the services we can provide at each stage.
Local Place Plan Routemap
A 6 step journey
Who we work with
We work with Community Councils, Anchor Organisations, community groups, businesses and the private sector, Local Authorities and national charities.
- We serve community groups located in any part of Scotland, urban or rural
- Usually at neighbourhood, village or town scale.
Examples of organisations Paul has served in the past include
- Struan Community Council (Isle of Skye)
- North Berwick Community Council (East Lothian)
- Cupar Development Trust (Fife)
- Verture (formerly Sniffer) (a national climate charity)
- Fife Council
Videos
View our free-to-access Local Place Plan training videos
"Thank you for the course — it was truly a Masterclass!"
Liam Coyle, Kintyre
Testimonials
"Good planning is about navigating through competing interests - and my experience with Paul over several years is that he is totally committed to ensuring that local communities get their place at the table. And because he has solid experience in both local authority planning and community development, he's the ideal person to help communities make the most of that opportunity."
Nick Wright
Nick Wright Planning
Services
We provide all the services required to deliver a community-led planning process from quotation to report – and beyond, for both Community Action Plans and Local Place Plans.
