Investing in our Future
Sponsored editorial with Highland Council
Ambitious proposals equating to billions of pounds of investment over two decades for local roads, schools, housing, services and generating money from renewables were set out by Highland Council earlier this year.
While the Highland Housing Challenge looks to face up to the multibillion-pound task of providing sufficient social housing, as well as property for those who want to privately rent or buy, and a new Social Values Charter targets a significant amount of investment from renewables developers into a strategic fund, the third strand of this multi-faceted approach - the Highland Investment Plan (HIP) - is to be funded as part of the council’s annual budget setting process.
A detailed master planning approach has been developed to support community engagement and ensure that the plan maximises the potential of the available investment to truly transform communities.
The council has committed to creating a new generation of community-based facilities, out of which a more integrated service offering can be provided by partners. It sets out plans for new Points of Delivery (PODs) bringing together a range of organisations and community facilities in a much more focused, easily accessible way, often co-locating in a single building or groups of adjacent buildings.
Among the many benefits of this approach would be a reduction in the council’s property footprint, reduction of associated costs and the freeing up of sites and buildings for a new purpose in keeping with revised priorities, such as housing.
With considerable investment potential in our communities, the council has an obligation to maximise the power of that spend and the future benefits of investment.
Meaningful local engagement and a robust option appraisal process are central to the vision and the options for development are broad so that individual PODs can provide the best and most appropriate provision for each individual area.
In many cases this may take the form of a single building housing multiple facilities - particularly where they are designed at a rural or town level - but a cluster of new buildings may also be possible.
Taking a “whole life” approach aiming to bring together complementary services in a structured way to allow greater integration of provision, a typical POD at the community level could, for example, incorporate a nursery/ primary school under the same roof as GP and pharmacy, advice and employment services and even care home facilities, taking into consideration what a place already has, what it needs and what is easiest and most appropriate to combine.
There is also scope for a “network” type approach - a POD catering for a wider area beyond a single village - or for bringing more closely associated activities together, such as a POD dedicated purely to leisure provision.
Work PODs, meanwhile, could house different council functions together and/or see council services “co-locating” with other public bodies, such as police or ambulance. They could even provide shared office accommodation for the business sector while community-led PODs could be overseen by social enterprises and/or the third sector.
Discussions continue to take place with a range of potential procurement partners as well as external funding agencies such as SportScotland and other public bodies, while full engagement with communities themselves is a key part of the process, working through a process of narrowing down options through discussion, identifying and then confirming the preferred goal.
The aim is to coordinate with other activities that may already be under way in communities such as the development of area place plans, local place plans, and the Highland Local Development Plan.
The establishment of PODs is closely linked to a broader vision of modernising council service delivery with a degree of flexibility built in to ensure that individual local needs are always considered.
Dingwall and Thurso could be the first communities to benefit from the new POD arrangements, subject to member decision making.
Uniting community needs
A new generation of community facilities is envisioned for the Highlands, with Points of Delivery (PODs) seeing a range of public services brought together in a single location, in a way that better fits local needs.
PODs can take a range of forms depending on specific needs and opportunities, but could include spaces for education services being provided directly alongside health, leisure, childcare and other public support.
Thurso is in line for a new secondary school and three primaries as part of the plan, but could also benefit more widely as part of the new investment approach that sets out to consider what the opportunities are within a local area – a master-planning approach – with a new generation of community facilities proposed.Work has been done to consider the different buildings, and existing council land and services already in Thurso, along with where the need for new facilities might be and the opportunities to deliver this.
The voices of local people are being heard – and will continue to be heard – through work which looks at how people access and use different facilities, and also through developing the area place plan which will set out the shared vision and priorities for Thurso and the surrounding area.
This has assisted in shaping the potential opportunities for going forward.
Thurso would benefit from the proposed creation of a new Community POD which, given the strategic location of the town, benefits the wider community, as well as Thurso itself.
A Community POD will also address substantial disrepair issues in relation to Thurso High and other local schools, and enable rationalisation of a number of scattered local public sector offices and buildings.
The council and its partners want to hear from you now about what you think are the potential opportunities for community facilities and services in Thurso.
A number of public engagement sessions are being held for local people to see some of the ideas and opportunities that have been developed and to provide their thoughts on what they think would work best for the area.
You can find out more about the Highland Investment Plan here.
