We’re almost there… next steps to bring the Community Action Plan to life.
Last month our Community Action Plan event marked the culmination of 6 months’ worth of community consultation, engaging with over 500 people and distilling all your thoughts and ideas into six key themes for priorities.
On Saturday 2nd October the community gathered at Birnam Arts centre to discuss, debate and re-imagine what is important to the development of our community over the next five years. Each of the six themes were the subject of a workshop-type discussion to get down to the nuts and bolts of what needed to happen - and between these sessions, people could browse the information displays, write down their comments and ideas and place their all important red dots against the actions they want to see happen.
Huge thanks to everyone who turned out on the day, all the volunteers who helped to run the event and a very special thanks to Louise Watson for keeping all the children happily entertained in the play corner, so their parents could take part.
So where do we go from here?
Well, since October, we have been working on putting all of the thoughts and ideas captured at the event and subsequent discussions alongside the survey results, interviews and feedback generated since we started in April. This is all now captured in the final Community Action Plan Report, which is nearing completion. We hope to be able to publish this early in the New Year. It contains sets of actions under each of the six themes of: safe and active travel, housing for all, connectivity and care, environment and greener future, community and culture and local economy. There are some long standing issues featured such as improving traffic management, cycling infrastructure and parking and finalising A9 dualling plans, as well as a fresh look at how to solve the issue of affordable housing and a range of actions to help make our community more sustainable, greener and resilient for the future.
So far, we’ve had over fifty people express interest in becoming involved in one or more of the key themes, but if we’re to deliver the full Plan, it will take even more. So if you’d like to get involved, please contact the email address beneath.
Now that the current steering group has completed its task of facilitating the creation of a Community Action Plan, we intend to approach the Community Council with a recommendation that an interim body be established to take this work forward and to set up the appropriate structures and resources to support delivery of the Plan over the next five years. We envisage that the work of the interim body will be completed by Easter 2022, with a clear structure in place thereafter to support the Plan.
As always, if you would like to get in touch with any queries, concerns or, to express an interest in any of the issues mentioned above, please email us on ph8communitymatter@gmail.com and follow us on Facebook and Instagram @ph8communitymatters for further updates.

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