Scottish Parliament Election – 6 May 2021

SDC has been asked to pass on the following information from the Highland Council with regard to the Scottish Parliament Election on 6th May 2021 :-

General risk assessments and specific COVID risk assessments have been carried out at every polling station and extra staff have been recruited to help make sure the voting experience is as smooth as possible as things will look different.  Changes include :-

  • There will be a limit on the number of people entering at one time so there may be queues at some polling stations at peak times
  • Face coverings will be required
  • Hand sanitiser will be available on entry and exit
  • Polling station staff will be behind protective screens but still available to help and support voters
  • There will be regular cleaning at polling stations throughout the day on a regular and frequent basis.
  • Voters will be asked to take their own pen or pencil but if they don’t have one, one will be provided from a new box of pencils for their use only

There have been changes to the location of some polling stations for this election so voters are encouraged to check their polling cards.

A video has been produced to help voters understand what to expect.  The video covers all the hygiene and physical distancing measures that will be in place.

Community Action Plan

SDC has over most of the last month been preparing tender documents for a Community Action Plan (CAP): a plan to help the community identify issues, priorities and opportunities and how to address them. 

A CAP is a road map for implementing community change and delivery of essential services by clarifying what will be done, who will do it and how it will be done. A community participates in its creation and approval. The plan describes what the community wants to achieve, what activities are required during a specified time period, what resources are needed to be successful. It becomes a framework for implementing the activities that are decided by the community itself. The focus is more on the process of understanding and overcoming problems in order to develop the whole community rather than just physical development such as building houses or recreational facilities for example.

The completion of a CAP was a key recommendation in Foundation Scotland’s review of SCBF, published in 2017. Foundation Scotland was of the view that the lack of a CAP was keenly felt in Strathnairn. Community members will be asked to participate in this process by a variety of means including surveys, face-to-face discussions (where COVID restrictions permit), online surveys and telephone discussions. There will also be an advisory panel comprising a representative section of the community to guide the consultants in their work.

Tender documents have been sent to a short list of appropriate consultants, and should be returned to SDC in a few days. Applications for funding will then be made with a view to beginning work at the end of June 2021.

SDC will also be discussing the formation of the advisory panel with key stakeholders shortly.

Community Survey

A recent survey questionnaire was sent out to each Community Group within the Strath. A couple of these e-mails do appear to have gone into people’s ‘junk’ folder. We are excited to see some of the responses start to come back. However, if you are in a group and you are not sure your group received one, please do get in touch and we will see what we can do.

Website building

We have now got our own web address! So, from that we now are creating a new website (which can be a wee bit fiddly to say the least). At the moment, is is a work in progress. We could have just set it as a ‘Coming Soon’ but we also wanted to have it where people could find it, see what we are doing and tell us what they want to see. So, if you’re reading this, you will probably keep seeing tweeks (as well as maybe some major changes). Got any thoughts? Drop us a line.