Ansons Consulting, in partnership with Land Use Consultants, were commissioned by Strathfillan Community Development Trust to undertake a comprehensive feasibility study for a shared-use path between Killin and Kirkton Farm, near Tyndrum. This work was funded by Sustrans.
The goal of the study was to identify the most feasible route for a path that could be used by people wishing to walk, wheel and cycle between Killin and Kirkton. Ansons role was to support Land Use Consultants—who carried out the route appraisal, an initial ecological appraisal and a costed delivery plan — by designing and implementing a comprehensive programme of stakeholder engagement.
Ansons applied our extensive stakeholder engagement experience by first conducting a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify relevant parties, and understand how best to engage with them. Once identified, landowners were approached and interviewed to collect their views on the possible routes, while an in-person consultation day was held to enable further interaction with interested members of the public. We also designed and launched an online public survey, which allowed people to express their opinions on a set of mapped route options, in addition to an online business survey aimed at understanding the potential impacts of a path on local businesses.
Our work to understand diverse perspectives will help ensure that the feasibility study accurately reflects the views of the community, increasing the likelihood of positive outcomes for the development of the path, and the future experiences of both path users and other stakeholders alike.
“The shared use path has been an aspiration of our community for over 25 years and the project had stalled for a number of reasons. We invited Ansons together with LUC to undertake a comprehensive feasibility study into this proposed path.
Where we had previously struggled to fully engage with stakeholders and landowners we found that employing Ansons expertise was invaluable. The community engagement we got from their online survey far exceeded our expectations. Acting as a third party they were able to discuss the proposed route with landowners in a measured way and have helped to build relationships within the wider community.
We are delighted by the way Ansons and LUC complimented each other to deliver such a comprehensive feasibility study and we are sure that this will be the document that will finally get the project underway.
There is no doubt that we would work with Ansons in the future.”
Ellen Cattanach, Trustee, Strathfillan Community Development Trust
