Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning to our second panel. Thanks for joining us here and online today. What difference has part 9 of the 2015 act made to access to new allotments? Where have you seen access to community growing expand, for those who are looking for that rather than an allotment? That is for Sinclair Laing and anyone else who wants to come in afterwards.

It does—thank you. You covered quite a lot of points there.

You mentioned individuals who do not want a full-size allotment but want to start growing, and community growing especially. Has the demand for that been assessed, especially as we come out of the pandemic, when people have wanted such spaces? Is a different model needed? On our visits, we saw raised beds being provided, and people getting small spaces to see whether they are able to sustain them. Could that approach be developed on new sites to allow communities of people who are in the same position to start out and develop?

You touched on how the act has been interpreted by local authorities. On the subject of allotments, you two are obviously the living embodiment of the councils that you work in. We know that Highland Council does not run or allocate sites despite having large waiting lists for private sites in the Inverness area. Peter, you mentioned the honeymoon period. Has that prevented people in local authorities from needing to act and thinking about the waiting lists that have built up? Have they seen it as something that is coming rather than as something that they have to act on now?

Good morning and thank you for joining us today. I want to ask a few questions about part 9 of the 2015 act and how it has made a difference. To what extent have the numbers of plots and sites changed over the past seven years? You have touched on some of the splitting that has taken place, and we have heard from witnesses about the assessment of waiting lists and their division into thirds. How have things changed on the ground because of part 9?

You made an important point about making this about every public sector organisation looking at their land and what they can hand over, especially if it is already fenced. I think that all my questions have been covered, so I am happy to hand back.

I should start by declaring an interest, because I am one of the 5,000 on the waiting list in Edinburgh. You have answered a couple of my questions, but I want to return to a few points, specifically on access to grants and other forms of funding. Stuart McKenzie, you said that you had received a grant for a chipper. What sort of funding streams are available to your organisation? I am specifically thinking about people who are trying to set up allotment spaces. Where would you recommend that they go to get grant funding?

Fencing seemed to come up a lot yesterday in the conversations that we had. We saw a project with a £35,000 fence—it was a deer fence, which was quite a basic fence but delivered the same outcome as a different type. It might be interesting to pursue that barrier and opportunities to get these things built more quickly. Even if the land is there, the fencing issue seems to hold back projects coming on stream.

Do you have anything to add about projects that you know have not gone forward because of that specific barrier—that is, the barrier of not being able to put up a barrier? You can let us know after the meeting if you are aware of any of those issues if you cannot do so now.

It is not a problem.

Good morning, Mr Dennis, and thank you for joining us.

I have a couple of questions on debt enforcement. Last week, we heard about protections for bank accounts and the scope to increase the protected minimum balance in accounts to £1,000. What is your view on that and, in your experience, how should that work?

On council tax debt collection, we have heard how enforcement can be inflexible and, as you have said, harsh. From your experience, what levels of unsustainable council tax debt do those whom you usually support have? I do not know if you have a percentage that you can give us.

Moreover, how could the system be reformed? Could there be, say, an earlier intervention to prevent significant council tax debt from building up? Indeed, we have heard about individuals moving properties with the debt attached. Do you have any information on that?