The Official Report is a written record of public meetings of the Parliament and committees.
All Official Reports of meetings in the Debating Chamber of the Scottish Parliament.
All Official Reports of public meetings of committees.
Displaying 4623 contributions
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
Brilliant. That is amazing.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
That sounds great. I am interested in that issue, and I have been racking my brains about how to get young people engaged, so there are a couple of things that I would be interested to hear your views on. I am going to open up the discussion as we move to a close, so you do not necessarily have to respond to what I say—there might be other things that you want to add.
One thought that I had was about collaboration with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. People are going through its scheme, and it has a community aspect. Also, I have been wondering about the idea of universal basic income, although I know that that would be a big thing that might involve the rebuilding of the whole of Scotland. We have talked about the amount of time that people have to put in to do this properly. If people had some kind of fundamental financial support, a more diverse group would be able to participate much more in what we need to do, which is helping Scotland plc do its thing and provide for our communities.
Along with that, I have been thinking about how the Improvement Service provides training once people are in a community council, and I wonder whether we need to teach young people at high school about facilitation skills, decision making, proposal making and how to go into situations of tension with people with whom they do not agree—how to move through that process rather than getting stuck in being adversarial. I feel that teenagers should learn those kinds of skills. My sense is that, at the moment, schools still tend to teach just to the job. Of course, it is not totally limited to that but, if we taught to the community—how to be a member of a community and civil society—that would be great for people in their job, but they would also have the underpinnings to be part of the community.
I have been racking my brains about those issues, but maybe you think differently from me, as you are actually involved in those experiences.
Who wants to come in on that briefly? Debra Duke’s hand shot up.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
That point about technical support for planning is critical.
Steve Kerr wants to come in.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
That is what we are going for with this question.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
That is fantastic. Those are the things that we want to hear—tremendous.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thanks very much for that. Does anyone online want to come in on the perspective of strengths? Does no one have anything to add? No strengths? Gosh!
I am going to weave my next two questions together. We have started to touch on them a little bit. What are your views around the support that you receive from local authorities where you are? Are they good relationships? What are your views on the community council liaison officers and on national support? Is there enough training, grants from the Scottish Government and support from the Improvement Service? What are your thoughts about the Scottish community council website and the knowledge hub?
There are a couple of things there on working with the local authorities and also that national support. We have some people in the room who you will be commenting on but, as we know, all feedback is constructive and it all helps us to develop in a good way.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
I live in Moray and I have had that experience of very early engagement on the next local development plan. It has been tremendous.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
That is a good point.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
Thanks very much. On the questions on working with local authorities and/or reflections on the support that you get at a national level, Donald Stavert wants to come in.
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee
Meeting date: 23 May 2023
Ariane Burgess
We move on to questions from Miles Briggs.