Agenda item

Presentation by the Communities & Partnerships Team, Strategic Policy Unit, Scottish Borders Council.

6.1       The Chairman welcomed Clare Malster, SBC’s Strategic Community Engagement Officer to the meeting to give a presentation on the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015.  In her introduction Ms Malster explained that although the Act had received Royal Assent on 24 July 2015 it had been recognised that further regulations and guidance would be required for most parts of the legislation.  Ms Malster advised that the Act comprised 11 parts in total but that she would highlight a few sections which would have immediate relevance to local communities.  Part 2 related to Community Planning and more specifically, local organisations working to benefit the local community.  This would be done through joint working, agreeing joint policies and making sure that all partners knew what the others was doing.  A number of Community Planning Partners had a statutory duty in terms of Community Planning, namely Scottish Fire and Rescue Service, Police Scotland, NHS Borders, Scottish Enterprise and Scottish Borders Council.  The Local Outcomes Improvement Plan (LOIP) which replaced Single Outcome Agreements under the new Act, would include the outcomes for the Scottish Borders which had been identified as priority areas for the Community Planning Partnership.  Appropriate community groups must be consulted when developing the LOIP and subject to approval of the Scottish Parliament, the legislation would come into force on 20 December 2016.

6.2       In addition to the LOIP, Locality Plans would focus on smaller areas ie the Area Forum regions and again appropriate community groups would be consulted during development of the Plans which would be published by the end of October 2017. Part 3 of the Act dealt with Participation Requests which were requests from the community that asked for them to be involved in a process that would improve an outcome which they would specify.  It was noted that that all Participation Requests would be reported to the Scottish Government.  Community Right to Buy had existed for some time and had now been extended under Part 4 of the Act.  Communities with populations over 10,000 would now be able to use Community Right to Buy, thus enabling more community groups to purchase land in this way.  Part 5 of the Act dealt with Asset Transfer Requests.  The definition of an asset was land or buildings owned by public authorities and under the Act, public authorities would be required to publish a register of their assets.  Groups which met the criteria would then be able to make a request for the transfer of ownership of such assets.  Requests to lease any land or building owned by a public authority could be made by groups that met the relevant criteria, ie they had a written constitution; were open to all members of that community; were community-led; comprised mostly of members from that community; was for the benefit of the served community; and used surplus funds/assets within the community.  Subject to approval of the Scottish Parliament, the legislation would come into force on 23January 2017.  It was noted that SBC currently published its Register of Assets on the Council website and that it was not required to include roads and sewage works.  The presentation also included a list of public organisations to which Asset Transfer requests could be made.  With regard to Common Good property, Part 8 of the Act states that all Councils would have to create and publish a list of all common good property and would be required to consult with Community Councils and other community groups before selling or changing the use of any common good property.  Part 9 of the Act covered allotments, the way in which applications for use could be made and set the standard size for each unit to be 250 square metres.  Public decision making was covered in Part 10 of the Act and laid down that Scottish Ministers would have the power to require that public authorities, such as Scottish Borders Council, promoted and supported the involvement of the community in the decisions and activities of the organisation.  At the present time, Ministers had not set out exactly what this would mean but reserved the right to do so at a later date. In response to a question about guidance  or regulations for pricing Asset Transfers, Ms Malster advised that the public authority could determine this to be a notional amount if this was deemed appropriate.  Ms Malster also clarified that for the purpose of the Act, “Community” could apply to Berwickshire as a whole, as well as much smaller communities within the area.  The Council’s website at scotborders.gov.uk/communityempowerment contained a wide range of information on the new Act, including links to further data and to other organisations.  Communities and individuals were encouraged to access this information or to contact  the Community Engagement Team at communityengagement@scotborders.gov.uk or 01835 826626.  The Chairman thanked Ms Malster for her attendance and suggested that further detail would be presented to the Forum at a later date.

DECISION

NOTED the presentation.