Move to give residents say in future of communities

A NEW strategy aimed at ensuring that communities within Perth and Kinross are well maintained, safe and secure places to live will be unveiled this week.

The Neighbourhood Services Strategy aims to put residents and local communities at the heart of what the local council does, with the focus on working together to create sustainable and successful neighbourhoods.

The strategy will be discussed at a meeting of Perth and Kinross Council’s Housing and Health Committee on Wednesday.

It follows a conference in August where the council, tenants, local housing associations, landlord representatives and community planning partners met to discuss priorities for local neighbourhoods. Discussions at the conference informed the creation of the new strategy.

Committee vice- convener Councillor Alasdair Wylie said: “The strategy sets out the current position, as well as key challenges and action required over the next four years to promote the council’s vision that our neighbourhoods are vibrant, successful, safe and secure places to live.

“The theme of the strategy is working together. We will work with council tenants, private homeowners and social landlords to ensure we can deliver excellent, good-value services that benefit our local communities.

“An important aspect of the plan is empowering residents to build the confidence to help them take ownership of their environment and to influence decisions that affect them.

“The Neighbourhood Services Strategy dovetails with other work the council is doing, such as our Tenant Participation Strategy, that will see us working closely with local people to tackle the issues that are of concern to them in their communities.”

The Housing and Health Committee will be asked to agree some key actions which make up the strategy. They include the setting-up of a network of discussion groups with residents, such as an Older Tenants’ Forum and a review of garages and lock-up sites.

It also sets out proposals for a detailed assessment of the work required within each and every neighbourhood within Perth and Kinross and explores budgeting for locally-based initiatives, which would give increased control of projects to local communities.