Local Community Planning Group Note of Meeting of 12th June at Hospital Present: Cllr Anne Allan Buchan Community Safety Group Insp. George Cordiner Community Policing Inspector, Police Rhona Davidson Development Officer, Voluntary Action Aileen Grant CHiP Officer, Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action Cllr Jim Ingram Elected Member (Ward 4, Central Buchan) Leona Findlay Development Worker, Buchan Development Partnership Anne Kain Operations Manager – North, Foyer Arran Marshall Admin Assistant, Aberdeenshire Council PC Adam Mellis Eleanor Morris Area Project Officer, Aberdeenshire Council Sandra Ross Senior CLD Worker, Aberdeenshire Council Brian Shand Principal Landscapes Officer, Aberdeenshire Council Jill Smith Public Health Co-ordinator – North, NHS Grampian Maureen Stephen Community Planning Officer (Buchan), Aberdeenshire Council Steph Swales Community Planning Officer (Buchan), Aberdeenshire Council Diane Tait Development Officer, Buchan Development Partnership Craig Watson Partnership Analyst, Aberdeenshire Council Chris White Area Manager (Buchan), Aberdeenshire Council

Apologies: Moyra Duncan Location Manager (Central Buchan), Aberdeenshire H&SCP Cllr Alan Fakley Elected Member (Ward 6, Peterhead South and Cruden) Craig Shand Station Manager (Peterhead), Scottish Fire & Rescue Service Lynn Smith Cruden Community Council Cllr Stephen Smith Elected Member (Ward 6, Peterhead South and Cruden) Cllr Iain Sutherland Buchan Area Committee Representative

1. Welcome & Apologies Chris welcomed everyone to the meeting. Apologies received are noted above.

2. Minute of 17th April 2019 and Outstanding Actions The minute of 17th April was agreed. Partners are encouraged to progress actions assigned to them in the action sheet and the following actions were highlighted.

Volunteer Buchan Training - Diane advised that there have been 90 attendees at the Volunteer Buchan training events, not 19 – Arran will rectify the previous minute.

Free School Meals / Holiday Hunger Project – Jill and Sandra advised that partners have come together over theApproved last month looking to provide an intervention over Summer to alleviate holiday hunger. The partners are going to trial a project and want to ensure that they manage to deliver something worthwhile. To do this, they are starting small and targeting the Central School area. The head teacher Paula Musson has pledged to support the campaign and to work with the group to identify children who could benefit from the project. The project will deliver activities every Tuesday and Thursdays throughout the 6-week holidays at Central School as well as providing a packed lunch for the pupils. The trial will be evaluated with support from NHS and findings will be evaluated to see what can be done in future. Another priority throughout the 6 weeks is to help prepare pupils for going back to school. The group will encourage parents to come along during the activities and will be offering support such as looking at free school meal entitlement, uniform entitlement and more. Chris advised that Aberdeenshire Sailing Trust have recently secured funding to run a holiday programme for pupils at Buchanhaven and addressing child poverty issues relating to holiday hunger and lack of opportunities for children in the area – this may be a good link for the Central School trial project. Chris highlighted the recent child research that Joanna Haggath CLD has been working on which flags up the Pupil Equity Fund and due to a low uptake of free school meals, this results in schools such as Central School not having access to all the income under this fund that they could otherwise have access to.

Loneliness Leaflets – The leaflet has been produced by the Young Leaders from Peterhead Academy. NHS provided guidance regarding the content in the leaflet and setting up consultation opportunities for the pupils. The pupils have now left school but want the leaflet to be shared with partners and members of the public within Peterhead. If partners would like copies of the loneliness leaflet, please contact Jill.

Action(s):  Volunteer Buchan training attendee numbers - Arran to rectify previous minute  Free School Meals / Holiday Hunger – partners to look at how to address Free School Meals / Holiday Hunger in future  Loneliness Leaflets – partners can contact Jill if they would like a supply of leaflets

3. Peterhead South & Cruden Overview – Updates from Partners and Elected Members

Hatton – Anne advised that the feasibility study is underway for a walkway which Hatton Area Resident’s Association (HARA) will be fundraising for and this will include play equipment in the park. The Hatton Gala and Fun Runs are taking place on 18th August 2019.

Landscape Services – Brian advised that Landscape Services are hoping to get the Lido Playpark installed by the Summer holidays, but it is a very tight timescale. He also advised that in regard to the Peterhead Skatepark, there is no dedicated maintenance funds so there is no budget to repair/upgrade it currently. There is however the “Blueskate Peterhead” community group who recently reformed and are working together to enhance the skatepark – they have recently been awarded Shell Small Grants towards this.

Aden Country Park – The new playpark is progressing well and is on target to be partially opened for the Summer Holidays. Brian highlighted the press coverage on the ’s new playpark equipment. In 2014 a survey was done which found that the majority of equipment was DDA (Disability Discrimination Act) compliant, however wheelchair accessibility was still required. A strategy is currently being developed for fully accessible play equipment, and this is due to go to committee in the future. A few residents met with representatives from Landscape Services in Aden Park on 15th May to discuss the issue of wheelchair access and play. On the back of this meeting, Brian will be meeting with experts on disabled facilities to look at wheel-chair accessible items and hoists. He noted that the toilet facilities/car park which are close to the play park area could be a possible location for a hoist. Regarding wheelchair accessible play equipment, Landscape Services have been instructed by the Chief Executive and Head of Service to provide a piece of play equipment Approved in Aden Country Park, but are unsure if installation of the piece will make the opening of the park.

4. Development of Community Planning in Buchan  Statutory Partner Working Group Update The statutory partners have been working together to review local community planning arrangements which has included developing the format for the joint meetings as well as the local community planning framework. The joint meetings bring together the wider community planning partnership including LCPG partners, elected members and wider services and organisations who are involved in delivering local priority needs.

At the latest joint meeting held in February, the consensus of all participants was to develop local tasking hubs themed around each of the LOIP priorities – Connected and Cohesive Communities, Reducing Child Poverty and Changing Aberdeenshire’s Relationship with Alcohol (though it was noted that the statutory partners suggested replacing the latter with a more generic health and wellbeing theme).

The statutory partner working group have also looked at alignment of the multiple plans for the area including what is relevant for each tasking hub.

The Child Poverty Tasking Hub is being developed based on the attendees of the Poverty Summit which took place in March, which included various organisations, groups and front-line staff who work locally. The summit identified short-, medium- and long-term actions for attendees and partners to pursue.

In regard to the Changing Relationship with Alcohol Tasking Hub, Steph has spoken to members of the Buchan Health Improvement Group and is due to pick up with the Alcohol and Drugs Partnership (ADP) with a view to, if possible, development of an event similar to the Poverty Summit with a focus on health and wellbeing.

As part of developing the local community planning arrangements, Steph highlighted that the current community planning group could be an opportunity to develop a local tasking hub focused on connected and cohesive communities based on the partners that we have around this table and she asked if partners would be agreeable to this, which they were. Further information about the proposed changes will be taken to the next meeting.

 Discussion on Buchan Community Planning Framework It was noted that there is a cluttered amount of plans that partners work towards including the Buchan Community Plan, Health and Social Care Plan, Local Development Plan, Peterhead Regeneration Plan, Peterhead Masterplan, Local Housing Strategy and various other Aberdeenshire Council strategies to name a few. The Community Planning Partnership Board have also made clear that the Locality Plan for Peterhead should be a priority for development – it currently exists however it is due to be revised shortly. It was advised that, similar to Banff & Buchan, potential booster projects with LCPG partners would be developed around this. To assist with the development of booster projects, information from the Peterhead data zone Overview will help with this. It is anticipated that two Place Based Asset Plans (for Peterhead and Central Buchan) will supersede the Community Plan and that the Locality Plan and Regeneration Plans will be merged into one. There is currently no template for the place plans, however a place plan for Westhill is being developed and all CPOs are involved in the template development. Once this has been drafted it will be circulated to the LCPG.

 Joint Meeting – Discussion on format The statutory partner working group has looked at the framework for the LCPG and also discussed examples of best practice – it was noted that it would be worth highlighting these examples to show what is workingApproved well and making an impact. Quite a few partners have felt that they weren’t connected to the LOIP priorities or have no sense of ownership over them. Partners were asked if they would like anything particular on the August Joint Meeting agenda – it was agreed that a focus on booster projects would be good and to be able to use the session to think of all the things the LCPG could do with our limited resources. Sandra advised partners of a minipublic which took place on 11th June in Community Sports Centre which focused on engaging parents who highlighted support needs around advice and support. Feedback from attendees also advised of the benefits of personal contact e.g. a phone call or text message compared to a generic letter. 5. LOIP including Locality Plan Updates  Craig Watson, Peterhead Data Zone Overview Craig is a Council and Partnership Analyst and the author of the Peterhead Data Zone Overview. The overview is a focus on data zone areas within Peterhead. The data zones are small statistical geographies – there are 340 in Aberdeenshire and 23 are included within this document for Peterhead. It was noted that the data included is purely statistical and at this point does not include local context from partners. A full statistical overview will be made available in the future and this will be focused on the school catchment areas. Two documents for Peterhead and will be produced for this.

Craig outlined the main headlines as contained in the executive summary of the overview and this includes Peterhead’s population, which according to the data zone populations, has decreased from 2011 to 2017. Partners noted that the data zones do not include newer areas of housing such as Waterside and Richmondhill so the actual statistics will be higher than reported. Craig also highlighted Peterhead’s ageing population – with some areas containing an unusually large proportion of people over the age of 65 – and he has made recommendations which he has included to “undertake a review of services for elderly people in the town, with a focus on these data zones”.

According to the Scottish Indices of Multiple Deprivation (SIMD 2016), Peterhead is a relatively deprived area in the context of Aberdeenshire – but relatively few areas in Peterhead are extremely deprived in the context of Scotland as a whole. Some of them, however, are situated near the lower end of Scotland’s deprivation spectrum. Generally speaking, residents in the Peterhead Harbour area tend to experience worse outcomes relative to their counterparts in other parts of Peterhead and, indeed, in many areas throughout Scotland.

Partners agreed that knowing the headline figures and summaries in the appendix of the report give a real feel for each of the zones. Cllr Ingram noted that it is an excellent document with very valuable information and having one for other areas in Buchan would be beneficial – Craig noted that once the process is finished, there will be 340 data zone summaries for across Aberdeenshire. Chris noted that educational attainment is especially flagging compared to other areas and has brought this up with Craig Clement, the Head of Resources and Performance for Education & Children’s’ Services. It was again highlighted that this is where the local context would be beneficial. The flagging educational attainment could be put down to a lack of teachers, for example, as Peterhead Academy should have 5 teachers in the technical department but currently only have 2.

Another area of concern is 78 years of difference in life expectancy depending on where you live in Peterhead and there is huge diversity in the data zones in relation to the figures that have been provided. The consequences of Brexit were also highlighted, and this is something to be aware of in the future.

Partners agreed that knowing the local context and having the statistical data to back it up means we can target areas efficiently with relevant booster projects. An example of this would be Aberdeenshire Sailing Trust hosting a project for 5 weeks summer holiday sailing for pupils at Buchanhaven toApproved help address child poverty issues such as holiday hunger and lack of opportunities for children in the area. When you look at the statistics in the data zone summaries, it is evident why Buchanhaven has been prioritised over an area like Meethill due to aspects such as crime and opportunities for young people. PC Mellis agreed that anti-social behaviour in particular seems to be quite high in this area.

PC Mellis advised that the Community Policing Team are focusing on quality of life issues around town – such as perceived issues in areas like Drummer’s Corner. Police Scotland are continuing their work with housing associations and officers regarding cuckooing in the local area. There is also ongoing work with the Health and Social Care Partnership to get the Health Bus out and about to more areas in Central Buchan. Cllr Ingram noted a few concerns in Central Buchan including multiple vandalism incidents in Mintlaw which have been highlighted in the local papers. PC Mellis advised that he is attending an educational vandalism group next week focused on CCTV in the area and that Police Scotland are aware of recent incidents and are working with the Youth Justice Management Unit. Craig was thanked for attending and for the amount of information the statistical overview provides.

Action(s): Craig will update population figures for inclusion within the data zone overview and will work with partners in the future to develop full statistical overviews for Peterhead and Mintlaw/Central Buchan

 Locality Plan – Proposed Booster Projects Maureen and Steph met with Sam Rawlins, the Community Planning Officer for , regarding the Police Scotland Community Surgeries proposal which were highlighted at the January meeting by Martin McDougall. This would enable partners including Police Scotland to develop a series of engagement events throughout Buchan to provide advice and support to the community. Sam has advised that a few events have now been held in different venues in Formartine and that these have engaged with a small number of community members who have been assisted with particular needs. Maureen and Steph have discussed the possibility of piggybacking onto other events or incorporating ‘fun’ elements to the surgeries to attract a wider engagement.

 Locality Plan Review The current locality plan is web-based with 29 actions. The revised plan will see the format becoming much more focused and targeted. Chris advised that as part of refocusing the actions / priorities, to look at the information and data included in the Data Zone overview. The timescales in the newly revised locality plan will be reviewed and updated and will link into possible booster projects.

6. LCPG Annual Budget 2019/20 - Steph Swales / Maureen Stephen A request for funding from 2018/19 to be carried forward to this financial year had been submitted to Aberdeenshire Council’s Finance Team to pay for various grants. Unfortunately, the funding has had to be withdrawn by Aberdeenshire Council’s Senior Leadership Team and it has not been possible to carry forward the requested funds. As we had received invoices from Hall and the Brave Outdoors, payments have been made from the 2019/2020 budget for these, leaving an amount of £3,046.73.

Partners agreed that there are challenges in using different venues for each meeting, as there are very few which have Wi-Fi available, hot water / catering facilities and flexible seating arrangements. It was suggested that, as Wi-Fi is not always available, to buy a mobile broadband set which could be brought to every meeting, which partners agreed to – Arran will look into pricing/costs for this.

Action(s): ArranApproved will look into options for mobile Wi-Fi

7. What difference are we making?  Best Practice Examples / Evidence It was noted that it was beneficial to highlight best practice examples of current projects to let the wider community know what is going on locally and what the Group is achieving through partnership working. A question was raised about if these updates are to be posted on the OurAberdeenshire website, the LCPG’s Facebook page, individual partner pages/websites or all of these. It was suggested that official updates which come to the group can be done through the update template we have, and informal updates can be disseminated through the website and Facebook pages and that these could work in tandem. Inspector Cordiner advised that the Gadle Braes Bonfire Meeting which took place earlier in the year has been a huge effort by partners and members of the community working together and is the best example of partnership working in his estimation in a long time.

 Updates on Communications including Social Media and CP Bulletin The Buchan Live Facebook page continues to share updates from partners and gains new followers every week. The same happens with the Buchan e-bulletin, with an average of 4 new subscribers every week. Members of the public and locally elected members in and out with the Buchan area have provided ongoing positive feedback regarding the bulletin as well as requests to put information in it. It was suggested to link into popular pages such as The Only Way Is Peterhead which has 11,000 followers.

 Our Aberdeenshire - Buchan Section Development Steph has been working with Debra Campbell, the CPO in Banff & Buchan and Irina Bonavino from the central team to update the Buchan page to ensure it is a useful resource for both partners and members of the public which will then be used as a template for the other 5 areas.

8. AOCB

Aberdeenshire Voluntary Action – Rhona Davidson AVA was involved in the delivery of courses to community groups recently, at the request of BDP. BDP hosted and publicised these courses to groups operating specifically in the Buchan area. It was noted that while the interest in these courses was high, the attendance has been lower than expected

Aberdeen Foyer – Anne Kain Anne advised that it may not be possible to provide the Outreach Team service provided by the Foyer due to funding constraints, however the majority of the staff have been kept on in different positions. The Foyer will be piloting a “Foyer Families” project in NESCol over the Summer targeting young parents (19 and under). It will be a 6-week programme starting in July and it was noted that there has been high interest already. The course will focus on early engagement, City & Guilds qualifications, infant hygiene courses and more. If the project is successful, the Foyer will be looking to roll it out within different localities. They are also working in partnership with maternity services – the Foyer pay for the participant’s childcare, travel costs and food. Feedback will be given after the project is completed.

9. Date & time of next Meeting The next meeting is the Joint Meeting in St Fergus Hall, scheduled for 20th August from 9.30am to 1.30pm. Approved