Celebrating its 20th anniversary, the event is one of the government’s most prestigious awards and celebrates achievements in planning, right from the detail of processing through to the bigger picture of creating places which will become the legacy of professionalism.

Highland Council won awards across two of the five categories and was shortlisted in another.

The full list of categories are:

• Partnership – innovation in working collaboratively, at any stage, within the planning process.
• People – innovation in the participation of a person or people (whether young or old) making a demonstrable effect on the transformation of a place or within the planning system.
• Place – innovation in any architectural building or place (built or natural) - Highland Council was shortlisted for New Council offices, Fort William and Raining Stairs
• Plans – innovation in development planning ranging from strategic to settlements. – Highland Council won an award for Fort William 2040.
• Process – innovation in improving, or simplifying, any type of processes. Highland Council won three awards in the process category: Historic Environment Record Online, Developer Contributions and Housing Delivery Team and was also shortlisted for Modernising Monitoring.

Stuart Black, Highland Council, executive chief officer transformation and economy, said: “We are delighted to have had had such a successful night which reflects the hard work of all our the staff across the service which is one of the busiest in Scotland. It’s particularly pleasing to see awards for process improvements, place-making and development planning work.”