Seòmar agus comataidhean

That is a great offer, and thanks for some of the insight.

Do you think that the food strategies that exist are doing enough to demonstrate how allotment and community growing space provision is meeting the needs of all communities, including those experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage?

Thank you. I have been in the community growing movement for a long time, and when you called it “our sector”, I wondered where that came from, so it is great to hear where it emerged. That is another benefit from our challenging time in the pandemic.

I thank all the witnesses for a rich discussion. I close the public part of today’s meeting.

Do you have a sense of how that is being measured in any way?

We have lots of questions.

That is a very good suggestion. Lou Evans wants to come in at this point.

I will bring in Paul McLennan on the theme of community organisations, volunteering and planning. The time is 11:33, so we will probably go on for another 10 or 15 minutes before concluding.

Richard Crawford is keen to come in. It is hard for witnesses in the virtual space to come in, so I will let him get his wedge in. Come on in, Richard.

Good morning and welcome to the 17th meeting in 2022 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. I ask all members and witnesses to ensure that their mobile phones are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on our agenda today is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Is that agreed?

Members indicated agreement.

Let us move on, because we have quite a lot to get through. I am sure that we will be asking a question where you can bring in all those bits and pieces. I want to get to what we are here to talk about today, which is part 9 of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. A key aim of part 9 is to help address the demand for allotments, which Richard Crawford touched on. I am interested to hear whether you think that that legislation has made a difference in addressing the demand. That is for whoever wants to pick it up.

Of course, sitting and listening to the birds has value in the benefits that it brings to mental health and wellbeing .