Looking to the future after busy year of finding my feet
With 2023 being my first full year in council, it has been a year of finding my feet, learning best procedure, and trying to deliver solutions to many of the local issues raised by constituents and community councils.
As was the case in 2022 this has also been a tough year for me as I continue to support displaced Ukrainians, both in my position within the Dnipro Kids charity and my position within council.
I have been working on setting up a twinning agreement between Perth and the Ukrainian city of Nikopol. The twinning agreement was signed on a recent trip I had to Ukraine, although it had to be signed in the city of Dnipro due to the daily shelling of Nikopol – a city just seven kilometres away from the front line of the war between Ukraine and Russia.
It has been rewarding to see some of the work put into resolving parking issues finally making some headway.
The extension to the car park in
Auchterarder is completed, providing an additional 12 spaces, and there is also progress on the delivery of parking bays on the High Street. There will also be parking restrictions implemented in a few locations in Dunning to hopefully resolve ongoing traffic issues there.
It has also been pleasing to see the work I put into a banking hub in Auchterarder was also successful. After hearing the good news about a banking hub in Crieff, I got straight onto LINK to argue the case for a banking hub in Auchterarder as well.
After putting a strong case forward, I met with a representative in Auchterarder and spent the afternoon discussing the needs of residents and businesses and sealed the argument with a walk around Auchterarder showing him the thriving businesses that would benefit greatly from the Banking Hub.
I was very pleased to hear a couple of weeks later that the report he submitted was accepted at a board meeting, and it was agreed to move onto the stage of sourcing suitable premises – something I have already started looking at with the hope of providing some options.
I continue with my vice-convener role on the learning and families committee within the council and it is a role that I find very rewarding, despite some of the very difficult challenges that are faced around such a responsible role.
Within that role I have seen progress around the delivery of a new primary school in Braco, with the purchase of the land required almost concluded and the ability to now move on to the planning process.
And, with such positive news to look forward to, I’d like to wish everyone a happy new year and all the best for 2024.
It has been pleasing to see the banking hub work being successful Cllr Steven Carr