Local Rural Partnership Meeting

Local Rural Partnership Meeting Notes of Meeting 28 October 2014 at 10.00am Room 1, DGC Chambers, Dumfries

Present: Sam Johnston (Chair), DAGCAS Stevie Carr, Stewartry CVS Roana Clark, DGC Fiona Daubney, DGC Heather Hall, ICET Iain Howie, Stewartry CVS Shona Jessup, Third Sector Dumfries & Galloway Ron Matthews, Police Scotland Melissa McGarey, DGC, Economic Development Service Mags McGroggan, DAGCAS + The Hub David McKie, Council Member, DGC Selina McMorran, Third Sector Dumfries & Galloway Irene Penrice, Employability Team Samantha Rae, DGC Morris Service, Civic Pride John Syme, Councillor Chris Woodness, DGC 2 Reps from Ironside Farrah

Apologies: Sheila Campbell, BHC Tina Gibson, NHS Joyce Harkness, SHAX Karen Lewis, The Hub Paul McGregor Ted Thompson, DGC Ian Walker Linda Whitehall

1. WELCOME AND APOLOGIES SJ welcomed everyone to the meeting and introductions were made round the table.

Apologies NOTED above.

2. NOTE OF PREVIOUS MEETING (9 September 2014) Approved. JS advised that Kirkconnel and Kelloholm have been awarded a Silver Medal certificate in this year’s Beautiful Scotland contest.

3. MATTERS ARISING None.

4. PRESENTATION Presentation by Fiona Daubney & Chris Woodness on Creative Conversations: CLD (copy attached)

The following points were discussed:-

 Strategic Guidance for Community Planning Partnerships  What will we cover  CLD Sector  Strategic Guidance for CLD  The Strategic Guidance  Strategic Guidance for Community Planning Partnership  Empowering Communities is at the heart of this  Regulations 2013  What does this mean for us

Hard copies of Guidance Document are available and if anyone would like to discuss any of the above points in more detail contact Fiona or Chris.

Questions – JS praised the work that CLD do and without their support Upper Nithsdale being a deprived area would not have achieved what they have and CLD are vital for the area.

MS – CLD emphasis is on young people – FD advised that adults are supported and get assistance through courses to suit each individual age group.

RC – Has process for writing plan been established? FD/CW – No – CLD may be tasked to write this – assistance from NLRP may be required.

JS – Vital to engage with community.

RM – Has there been a consultation process? Not yet.

AGREED – NLRP a good vehicle to support the development plan.

4A. Presentation by Ironside Farrah on Upper Nithsdale Charrette.

The following points were discussed:-

 Engagement  Regeneration  What is a Charrette (Scottish Government initiative very intensive collaborative process/working together looking to identify support from Community Groups)  Charrettes work best (when Community well engaged in process)  Potential Limitations(timescale issues – do mini charrettes)  Development Engagement (Addressing Local Needs/drop in sessions/workshops/mapping ideas)  Other forms of Community Engagement  Our Proposed Approach for Upper Nithsdale (village walkabouts/local community meetings/Briefings with Members/Community Councillors/drop in exhibitions  Consultees (listed)  Area Community Planning Partnership (thoughts ideas/possible consultation venue)  Upper Nithsdale Regeneration

Questions/General Discussion Points

 Do people know what a charrette is?  Do more work in each community and with separate groups  Vital to engage with all 3 communities  Different area different ward members  Timeline – March 2015  Beneficial if this could link into CLD Empowerment  Regeneration programme will be set up and there will be a strategy  £750,000 allocated to support delivery/overall looking to invest £1.5M over next 3 years  Are community aware that this will be happening  Key is publicity  Broad base of Office Support  Strategic project team leading on this  Will there be named Officer contact for members of community to go direct to? Too early to say at this stage but meantime Melissa will be point of contact.  Who has ownership within community and how to balance out between wards

5. UPDATE ON COMMUNITY COUNCIL WORKING GROUP MEETING ON 21 OCTOBER

A working group has been set up to discuss the number of areas where there are no active community councils and it was agreed that the first option would be to target the Lincluden area and then look at other areas and provide support.

Discussions took place and the following points were NOTED:-

 26 fairly active and robust CC in Stewartry area  Ageing issue/need younger members  What is role for CC’s and how aware are people  All CC’s are very different and need to be tailored to suit each CC individually  Heightened expectation on CC in future  Incorporate Health into CC – to be discussed at next working group

6. ROUND TABLE UPDATES

HH The Usual Place

 The Usual Place Community Café was awarded £1.1M from Big Lottery Fund Scotland - Building Work to commence shortly although tenders have came in higher than anticipated.  Pre-Build meeting on draft lease basis on Thursday 30 October.

RC Nithsdale Area Committee Funding and Dumfries Common Good Window is now open.

 Amount of Funding not yet confirmed  No monitoring – no money  If all paperwork is not submitted then applicants will not be able to apply for funding following year  Re-arranging the Monitoring and Capacity Building meeting.

RC circulated monthly readings of Dock Park Users and highlighted the increase in users.

FD CLD Service Review Final Questions (to be circulated by Sam Rae).

MS Civic Pride

 River Clean-Up completed

Stewartry CVS

Currently working on Scottish Government projects and have agreed to attend the next LRP meeting and give the following presentations:-

 Secretaranism  De-fibrillators

The next round for funding on Defibrillators is open but will close Sunday 23 November 2014. See link for further information:- http://www.scottishambulance.com/YourCommunity/AEDScottishGovernmentFundi ng.aspx RM – Police Scotland  Police Scotland in conjunction with Ambulance Service/Fire Service recently held an Operation Safety Event targeted at Primary 7 pupils – very successful event.  Pub Watch on line – 30 pubs signed up and working well  Best Bar None Scheme – working well  Community Policing recently won an award for Wickerman, Breath Test Initiative.

MM DAGCAS & The Hub

 Citizens Advice – Rural Poverty Event 1-7 December  January 2015 – Rural Transport Event  Winter Warmth Project - leaflets circulated  Nithsdale Walking Works Programme – Now Re-cruting

SJ Third Sector Dumfries and Galloway Shona explained that this is a new role funded by Social Work Crisis Point and is still in the very early development stages.

 SCDN - Scottish Community Development Network National AGM Members Lead conference takes place Thursday 30 October in Perth. See web site for further details/informationhttp://www.scdn.org.uk/

SJ Attending Digital Information meeting next week and will update LRP at next meeting.

8. DONM Date of next was agreed as Tuesday 2 December 2014 at 10.00am but no rooms in Buccleuch Street or NWRC are available so the meeting will now take place on Tuesday 9 December at 10.00am.