Community Planning West Dunbartonshire – Progress on Implementing “Your Community” initiative May 2016

 

 

 

 

 

Work on the first two phases of the roll-out is progressing well with surveys carried out across the areas and initial action planning days scheduled.

The Your Dumbarton West event took place on Saturday 23rd April and the Your Parkhall, North Kilbowie and Central event took place on Saturday 7th May.

A Balloch and Haldane event is not being scheduled as we have linked into to both the charette locally and the existing local plan developed with support of the National Park team.

The phase two areas of Clydebank East, Dumbarton North and Bonhill and Dalmonach are progressing.

• Surveys are being circulated and results collated to pick up on immediate actions to be taken.
• Walkrounds are being scheduled for each area to carry out a visual audit of the area and hear directly from local residents about any concerns or opportunities.
• Following these walk rounds, development events will be scheduled.

A very successful community-led action planning day was held in Alexandria on 20 February 2016.

This event built on the excellent feedback received from the community survey and was the first step in getting a community-led action plan detailed. Around 100 people attended the drop-in session with almost half signing up to be involved in further development of the action plan.

From the day, a list of key local priorities developed and will inform the next steps of the plan development.

Significant Council support has been aligned to the roll out and sustainability of Your Community through a £1m capital investment fund detailed in the 2016/17 Strategic Budget agreed in February 2016.

This fund is intended to support the expansion of Your Community and help deliver on community-led activity and improvement in each local area. The impact of this specific Your Community investment will be enhanced through access to wider funding streams such as (i) the Council Community Capital Fund and (ii) Community Sports Fund as well as (ii) external funding sources.

The Your Community investment budget will be used to support delivery of projects identified through community-led action plans. However a proportion of the budget will also be assigned to each of the 17 Your Community areas for a participatory budgeting small grants process. This will allow community groups, organisations, and individuals to make bids against the pot for community projects, to be voted on by local residents.

Funding is available from local and national funding streams to support the Your Community aspirations at a local level.

Over and above the participatory budgeting fund available West Dunbartonshire Council has also allocated funding pots for community sports and the environment.

This is enhanced by the regeneration funding linked to the delivery of the charette action plans and national pots such as the Empowering Communities Fund.

The Your Community team will also be supporting local consultation and engagement on issues specific to local communities. Over the next few months work will take place with local residents on the future of the former St Eunan’s site, which sits within Linnvale and Drumry area, and the future use for Bruce Street Baths, sitting within the Clydebank East area.

There is an increasing drive nationally for community planning partners to work at a local community level on the design and delivery of services. The Your Community initiative also supports delivery of the strategic priorities of the Council and ensures we have an active and engaged community.

New sports facilities launched in West Dunbartonshire

The Council has officially opened new sport facilities in Alexandria and Dumbarton after investing £865,000 to help hundreds of local young people and amateur athletes.

A full size 3G synthetic pitch has been constructed in Argyll Park, Alexandria, and a new, modern 3G pitch has also been installed at East End Park in Dumbarton to replace the existing facility.

The developments by West Dunbartonshire Council are part of a major programme of sporting investment in the area.

The new facilities, which officially opened this week, have also each received major external funding.

The £565,000 all-weather floodlit pitch in Argyll Park meets FIFA and IRB standards and has been supported by £250,000 funding from sportscotland.

The park is available for use both for games and training seven days week throughout the year. Dozens of bookings have already been made by youth and amateur teams from across the authority.

The state of the art surface at East End Park has been installed in a £300,000 project in that area with Cashback for Communities contributing £150,000 and the Scottish Football Partnership contributing £25,000. The Scottish Government programme which takes funds recovered from the proceeds of crime and invests them to benefit young people.

The pitch is available for use by the community including local sports teams seven days a week.

Councillor Patrick McGlinchey, Convener for Infrastructure and Regeneration, said: “These impressive new facilities will encourage participation and increase enjoyment of sport among residents of all ages.

“The facilities provide our amateur and youth footballers and rugby players with somewhere to train and play regardless of the weather and will increase the development opportunities our local grassroots clubs and groups can provide.”

Councillor David McBride, Vice- Convener for Infrastructure and Regeneration, added: “We’re committed to improving the wellbeing of our communities and we’re delivering on that front by investing in sporting facilities across our area. These new pitches in Dumbarton and Alexandria provide the best possible playing surface for our amateur and young athletes to enjoy their sport and I’m looking forward to the development of further new sporting facilities across our area.”