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Image showing the Vital Spark berthed at Inveraray Pier
Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership Bulletin
25th October 2024
Welcome to the new look Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership Bulletin, a place for sharing items of interest between community planning partners and with our wider network of communities and groups.
In this Bulletin:
Argyll and Bute Outcomes Improvement Plan 2024-2034

Outcome 1 - Transport Infrastructure - Rural Mobility as a Service, MACS convener sought

Outcome 2 - Housing - Retrofitting homes on the islands of Argyll and Bute, Right Here Right Now - Scotland's homeless conference

Outcome 3 - Community Wellbeing - Response to Democracy Matters phase 2 consultation, Community Litter Workshop

Ongoing Partnership Work - Climate Change - Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 published

Ongoing Partnership Work - Community Wealth Building - Our Place Our Prosperity survey

Ongoing Partnership Work - Digital Inclusion - OFCOM mobile and broadband checker, Digital Switchover

Ongoing Partnership Work - Financial Inclusion - Financial Inclusion in the UK report

Community Planning Partnership news - Visitor Levy pre-consultation survey

Funding
 
Argyll and Bute Outcomes Improvement Plan 2024-2034
The Community Planning Partnership has published the Argyll and Bute Outcomes Improvement Plan 2024-2034, which will provide the focus for its work over the next ten years.

The Outcomes Improvement Plan for 2024-2034 will focus on improving:

Outcome 1: Transport Infrastructure

Outcome 2: Housing

Outcome 3: Community Wellbeing

The Community Planning Partnership Bulletin seeks to spotlight information relevant to each of these outcomes, as well as previously established partnership work.
 
 
 
 
Outcome 1: Transport Infrastructure
 
Rural Mobility as a Service

Scottish Rural and Islands Transport Community have released a report entitled "Defining and Designing Rural Mobility as a Service (RMaaS).
The publication follows a 4-year stakeholder engagement programme, including a final workshop in June, to ascertain demand for an integrated rural mobility platform.

Read the RMaaS report
MACS convener sought

A new convener is being sought for the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS), an advisory public body which represents transport accessibility and mobility issues affecting disabled people's travel needs.
The appointment will be made by the Cabinet Secretary for Transport following a public appointments process with 11th November the deadline for applications.

More information on the role and how to apply
 
Outcome 2: Housing
Retrofitting homes on the islands of Argyll and Bute

Scottish Housing News has published an interesting article on the challenges of retrofitting homes across 20 of Argyll and Bute's islands.
The reflection piece is written by Chris McGinn of Procurement for Housing Scotland and touches on aspects of community engagement and collaborative procurement as well as heat loss reduction.

Read the article
Right Here Right Now - Scotland's Homeless Conference

Homeless Network Scotland is inviting delegates to Right Here Right Now, Scotland's Homeless Conference 2024.
The conference takes place on 29th and 30th October in Perth with a focus on four key themes - Prevention, Housing Supply, Rights and Duties and Supporting People.

More information and booking tickets
 
Outcome 3: Community Wellbeing
Response to Democracy Matters phase 2 consultation

The Scottish Government has published its response to the public consultation on Democracy Matters 2 which closed in February 2024.
The consultation, which included a series of engagement events, invited communities to consider what local governance arrangements could look like and key community priorities included: Flexible and responsive local decision-making arrangements; Representative local decision-making bodies with the ability to shape services; Accessible community participatory mechanisms; Greater community capacity building and skills development.  

More information on the response to the consultation
Community Litter Workshop

Keep Scotland Beautiful is running a free Community Litter Workshop to help communities in Argyll and Bute tackle littering.
The 90-minute workshop will provide attendees with a greater understanding of the problem and its wider environmental impacts, while introducing behaviour change theory and enabling the development of a local action plan.
The workshop will be held on Zoom from 1000-1130 on 12th November.

Book a place on the workshop
 
Ongoing Partnership Work
Climate Change
Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029 published

The Scottish National Adaptation Plan highlights over 200 priority actions to help build resilience to climate change over the next five years and beyond.  The plan aims to support the ability of communities, business, public services and nature to adapt to the changing climate as part of the just transition.

Read the Scottish National Adaptation Plan 2024-2029
 
Community Wealth Building
Our Place Our Prosperity survey

Highlands and Islands Enterprise is inviting responses from local groups to a survey commissioned to develop understanding of how communities can benefit from Community Wealth Building.
The survey is aimed at capturing experiences and perspectives from not-for-profit community organisations and is open until 31st October.

Read more about the HIE survey
 
Digital Inclusion
Positive feedback from digital hub communities

The installation of state of the art digital hubs has been received positively by communities on the islands of Coll, Tiree, Iona and Islay.  Argyll and Bute Council secured funding of £100,000 from the Scottish Government's Islands Infrastructure Fund to enable the provision of video conferencing systems, laser projectors, laptops, iPads and Promethean Boards and
the new equipment is seeing regular use by a variety of community groups on each island.

Read the update to the Council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee
 
Financial Inclusion
Financial Inclusion in the UK report

A report commissioned by the Financial Inclusion Commission has suggested a national strategy to tackle financial exclusion across the UK.
The report considers which groups are most likely to be excluded financially and the products and services which are required, based on research published between 2022 and 2024.

Read the report
 
Community Planning Partnership news
CPP Full Partnership event

The Argyll and Bute Community Planning Partnership held a successful Full Partnership event in the Corran Halls, Oban, on 16th September with over 40 delegates in attendance.
As well as updates from speakers on the local Employability Partnership, Climate Change and Community Wealth Building, attendees participated in facilitated round-table discussions on the partnership's three key priorities of Transport Infrastructure, Housing and Community Wellbeing.

More information on the Full Partnership event
Visitor Levy Pre-consultation survey

The Visitor Levy (Scotland) Act 2024 gives Councils powers to introduce a visitor levy for their local area.
Argyll and Bute Council is running a pre-consultation survey to help shape a draft Visitor Levy scheme and consultation survey which will be launched in late November.
The pre-consultation survey is open until 5pm on 28th October.

Read more about the Visitor Levy pre-consultation survey
 
Funding
Funding Alert October 2024

Argyll and Bute Council's Funding Alert for October containing a wide range of funding opportunities and a separate Cost of Living Supplement is now available.

Access the October Funding Alert
We hope that you find the bulletin both interesting and informative and we welcome your feedback and contributions.
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