Action group take Place Plan one step further following final approval
Residents of Kinlochleven and the surrounding area are all set to take control of their own destiny after their Local Place Plan was signed off at last week’s Community Council meeting.
The final version of the plan will now be submitted to Highland Council for registration.
First mooted in February 2023 developing a Local Place Plan was the idea of Kinlochleven Community Action Group (KCAG) who received Highland Council funding to progress in October last year.
There followed a Village Ideas Day, Village Solutions Day, a Business and Organisations Survey as well as visits to local schools to hear the input from the younger members of the community.
The draft Plan was published for public review in August and September, including a community café event to discuss it in person.
Then, at its monthly public meeting on Wednesday October 2 the Community Council unanimously agreed that the plan was a fair reflection of community aspirations.
Nick Wright, independent facilitator of the plan said: said: Many thanks to everyone who took the time to look at the draft Plan - particularly the 50+ pupils from the school who responded (helping to make sure it’s a plan for young people too)."
KCAG will now approach Deputy First Minister Kate Forbes to ask if she would be prepared to write a foreword as the constituency MSP.
The group anticipate submitting the plan to Highland Council for registration at the end of October or early November, with registration following hopefully within a couple of weeks.
Not everything needs to wait for the plan to be registered however and as of May 2024 progress on some of the priorities flagged up at the Village Ideas Day in January has already been made:
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LochaBus - the local community bus - has been running extra services, including regular door-to-door shopping trips to Fort William and laying on extra services when the Co-op’s chiller cabinet was broken. Better publicity is on the way so more people know about the bus.
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Village Clean-up on April 27 with drinks and cakes for all - helping to tidy up the village and give more opportunity for the community to meet up and do things together.
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New local jobs at Kinlochleven Community Trust, which has secured funding to pay for two new members of staff. That means that as a community there will be more capacity to tackle the priorities that emerged from the Ideas Day.
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Ewen’s Room are working on a new Open Doors sessions for parents and toddlers in the Leven Centre, meaning that parents will now be able to talk confidentially about their health and wellbeing. There will be young people from the school, who are studying early years education on placement, to play with the tots.
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Green health activities, such as free community weekly walks and bike rides, will be restarting soon.
"It’s great to see such progress even before the plan is put forward." added Nick.
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Childcare and Education Worker - ARB15733 - Argyll and Bute Council
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