Digital Towns

This sections contains information on Digital Towns, including the Digital Towns Pilot Programme and Digital Towns Guidance.

New WiFi Toolkit for Scotland's Public Bodies

Published November 2020, this new report provides public bodies with a best-practice WiFi toolkit, containing pragmatic guidance on how wireless connectivity schemes can be designed and deployed.

The contents include:

the benefits of public WiFi schemes, drawing upon digital town case studies.
the challenges of deploying public WiFi schemes.
an overview of additional factors that need to be taken into consideration.
a summary of best practice delivery models for future wireless schemes.

This report was written by Intelligens Consulting Ltd. The report was commissioned by Scotland’s Towns Partnership on behalf of the Scottish Government, with input from Boston Networks.

Read the WiFi Toolkit report here.

Cupar Now Digital Improvement District: Case Study, Toolkit & Programme Update

This report introduces and walks through the process that has been used in Cupar, Fife to create the UK's first Digital Improvement District, Cupar Now. The DID uses the same mechanism as a traditional Business Improvement District to create a ‘single focus delivery’ - utilising digital and social media platforms, free public realm Wi-Fi and data analytics.

This document has been created by Destination Digital Ltd, the company formed as a collaboration between Destination66 Ltd and Rapier Systems Ltd – two companies appointed by the Scottish Government & Digital Scotland to deliver consultancy for the Digital Towns Programme 2017-18 (see below for more).

The document begins with a programme update presentation. The case study and toolkit sections can be viewed in the appendix, from page 56.

Read the Cupar Now Programme Update, Case Study and Toolkit here.

Digital Towns Pilot Programme 2017-2018

The Digital Towns programme ran during 2017 and was funded by the Scottish Government and delivered by Scotland’s Towns Partnership. The aim of the programme was to encourage Towns to think more creatively, allowing towns to think about smarter concepts, including using digital to manage parking, smart lighting and waste collection, and using the infrastructure in towns to deliver education, digital heritage and tourism and entrepreneurship hubs.

A summary report on findings from some of the pilots in this programme was produced in March 2018 by Destination Digital and Rapier Systems, and can be read here.

Towns supported under the Digital Towns Pilot Programme were:

Aberdeen City
Banff
Barrhead
Clarkston
Cumbrae
Dumbarton
Dunoon
Elgin
Falkirk
Galashiels
Glasgow Byers Road and Lanes
Granton on Spey
Greenock
Hamilton
Inverness
Inverurie
Lanark
Linlithgow
Loreburn
Moffat
Newbattle
Oban
Peterhead
Prestwick
Rothesay
Shawlands
South Ayrshire
Stirling
Stornoway

Findings from each of these pilots were produced into case studies for attention of policy-makers. A summary report on findings from some of the pilots in this programme was produced in March 2018 by Destination Digital and Rapier Systems, and can be read here.

Digital Towns Guidance

Published in March 2017, this guidance document from Scotland's Towns Partnership aims to help improve the digital infrastructure, skills, strategic implementation and understanding of Digital in the context of Scotland’s Towns and Town Centres.

The guidance builds upon the themes within the Town Centre Action Plan and the approach promoted within the Public Wireless Programme. It aims to provide best practice, forward-thinking and guidance to stimulate a new approach towards Digital implementation which could make a step change to the future prosperity and functionality of our towns. The document can be downloaded below.

Scotland's Towns Partnership Digital Towns Guidance