A conference run by the Department of Urban Studies at the University of Glasgow to be held this Friday 3 September, will examine issues of sustainable development and what this means for communities and approaches to regeneration.

Minister for Communities, Margaret Curran, is the closing speaker at the conference to be held at the Teacher Building, at the Scottish Engineering Centre at St Enoch Square.

Other speakers include Raymond Young, Commissioner, Sustainable Communities Development and Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Glasgow; John Markland, the chair of Scottish Natural Heritage; and Angiolina Foster, Chief Executive of Communities Scotland.

'This conference will examine sustainable development and the challenges faced by governments in this area,' explains Raymond Young.

'Social-economic issues are well addressed within this country, but this conference is really opening up where the environment sits with these issues. The challenge to environmental agencies is how they fit with national social-economic objectives and a sense of joined up thinking.'

The agenda of the conference, entitled 'Sustainable Communities: Bringing the Environment in from the Cold?' will be set by three recent reports:

ﾷ Economic and Social Research Council / Office of the Deputy Prime Minister report on Sustainable Communities - Dimensions and Challenges by Professors Ade Kearns and Ivan Turok from the University of Glasgow;

ﾷ The Sustainable Development Commission / CASE report 23 by Professor Anne Power (London School of Economics / Sustainable Development Comission) reviewing the Communities Plan;

ﾷ The Sustainable Development Commission's report on 'Mainstreaming Sustainable Development'.

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

For further details on the conference please see: Urban Studies Website.

To register for the conference please log onto: Urban Studies Events Site.

For more details please contact Mike Findlay, the University Press Officer on 0141 330-3535.

First published: 2 September 2004