Agenda item

Note outline of proposals for community engagement over future service delivery.  Link to Council report:

https://scottishborders.moderngov.co.uk/documents/s49976/Item%20No.%2011%20-%20Place%20Making%20Report.pdf

James Lamb, SBC Portfolio Manager, joined the meeting and gave a presentation on the Council’s proposals for Place Making.  Rather than engaging on the Built Estates, the focus would be on Service Redesign.  This was a more joined-up, collaborative, and participative approach to services, land and buildings, across all sectors within a place, enabling better outcomes for everyone and increased opportunities for people and communities to shape their own lives.  Place making would be carried out in four phases, with Phase 1 being preparation and planning (up to July 2021); Phase 2 the initial place making engagement (from August to October 2021); Phase 3 developing the place programmes (September to November 2021); and Phase 4 delivery, monitoring and review (November 2021 into 2022).  A workshop would be held at the end of March/beginning of April, to consider alignment, narrative, timescales, themes, governance and best use of resources.  During April, high level principles would be drafted, including the criteria for the selection of communities, and initial testing of the engagement plan.  Support was being requested from communities for the approach and direction of travel, including making it happen, and linking – over time – Place Planning with Strategic and Service Planning cycles.  Feedback could be given at the meeting or later via email.  This linked in very well with the development of the Area Partnership and in response to a question about how this would be prioritised, Mr Lamb confirmed that this would be carried out in all localities and then one or two places would be selected in each locality to take things forward.  This was not just the Council but its partners, including South of Scotland Enterprise Agency.  Juliana Amaral of BAVS advised that that exercise was already happening in Berwickshire with conversations with communities so it was important to bear that in mind and have joint exercises where possible.  Keith Dickinson commented on the workshop and high level plan, and whether a better option would be to support plans at a lower level, which were currently in place or under development, which could feed into a high level plan.  It was important that community representatives were involved in the development of the high level plan, rather than having it imposed on communities.  Mr Lamb gave assurance that input was being sought from everyone.  Councillor Rowley commented that in an ideal world, every village and community would have its own plan and that would be aggregated up.  A gate check was in place for each of the 4 phases so the Council would receive a report at each stage for approval before moving on to the next stage.  This was a fantastic engagement opportunity.  There was also a balancing act between those communities which already had plans in place and these needed to be weighed up as some of them were ready to go.  Andrew Mitchell supported the concerns expressed by Keith Dickinson about a top-down approach, referring to the development of the Community Plan and Locality Plan, so it was essential that communities’ views were given primacy.