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KEEPING HIGHLAND AS "THE NATURAL
PLACE TO BE"
Launching The Second Community Plan For Highland 2004 - 2007
For Highland to remain a successful and attractive
region in the coming 10-20 years, key local agencies, working with
community groups, need to counter the worst effects of demographic change,
tackle disadvantage and upgrade infrastructure.
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Pictured at the launch of the second
Community Plan for the Highlands are members of the community planning
partnership, Highland Wellbeing Alliance, left to right: - Brian
Murray, Firemaster, Willie Roe, Chairman, Highlands and Islands
Enterprise, Karen McInnes, Voluntary Action Highland, Alison Magee,
Convener, The Highland Council, Garry Coutts, Chair, NHS Highland,
David Nicol, Communities Scotland, Ian Latimer, Chief Constable. |
This is the message from the
community planning partners of the Highland Wellbeing Alliance, who
launched their second Community Plan with a promise to work together
to develop the economy; encourage learning and support communities to
have a say in the services affecting them; improve health; increase
the housing supply; improve transport; enhance culture and the
environment; and develop safe, strong and attractive Highland
communities.
The public sector partners in the
Highland Wellbeing Alliance together have an annual budget of around
£1 billion to provide services across the Highlands. They say the
process of community planning will help inform how best to use the
money by linking national and local priorities, working together, and
with communities, to improve the quality of life for Highland
communities. |
Councillor Alison Magee, Convener of The Highland
Council and Chairman of the Wellbeing Alliance, said: "Our vision for this
Community Plan is that Highland should be seen by its residents and
recognised by those outside its borders as offering the best quality of
life available in Scotland. We want more people choosing to live, work and
learn in Highland - and to be able to do so. We want individuals and
communities feeling they are dealt with equitably. We want Highland to
have the infrastructure of a modern rural region."
The four key challenges to be met in the Highlands are:
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- Meeting the needs of a growing and ageing population
without damaging the quality of life.
- Increasing average incomes.
- Tackling the causes of rural disadvantage and
inequalities within the region.
- Achieving more sustainable development.
Councillor Magee said: "These challenges remain, but it
is still right to take a very positive view of Highland's future. A
remarkably high percentage of the resident population is satisfied or very
satisfied with Highland as a place to live, prizing its qualities and
special character.
"Highland continues to attract visitors, new residents
and businesses from outside the area, drawn to a welcoming society with a
distinctive culture. In economic terms, the region appears to be catching
up where it was previously lagging behind the rest of Scotland.
Unemployment rates in Highland have remained below the Scottish average
since early 2003. Educational achievement continues to improve, while key
indicators for health, crime, community safety and environmental quality
remain positive. The world class quality of the natural environment is
widely recognised. So is the need to follow sustainable principles and
practices in caring for the environment and working within it."
Copies of the Community Plan can be obtained from the
Policy Unit, The Highland Council, Glenurquhart Road, Inverness IV3 5NX.
It is also available via the Council's web site
www.highland.gov.uk
Go directly To the plan -
a Pdf file requires Adobe Acrobat Reader installed -
http://www.highland.gov.uk/cx/pdf/cp-highland.pdf
The Community Plan is the main strategic document for
the delivery of public services in Highland. The recently-launched
Community Safety Strategy and the Joint Health Improvement Plan, which
will be published in the near future, are just two of the family of plans
which detail actions taken under specific themes by Alliance partners.
WHAT IS COMMUNITY PLANNING?
- Community planning is the way of improving the
connection between national priorities and those at Highland, local and
neighbourhood levels.
- It is about making sure that people and communities
in the Highlands are genuinely engaged in the decisions made on public
services which affect them.
- It requires a commitment from organisations in the
Highlands to work together, not apart, in providing better public
services.
- It provides the over-arching partnership framework
for co-ordinating other initiatives and partnerships and, where
necessary, acting to rationalise and simplify public sector working
arrangements. In Highland it involves representatives of the voluntary
and business sectors as well as public sector agencies.
THE HIGHLAND WELLBEING ALLIANCE - THE COMMUNITY
PLANNING PARTNERSHIP
The Highland Wellbeing Alliance now includes -
* The Highland Council; Highlands and Islands Enterprise; NHS Highland;
Scottish Natural Heritage; Northern Constabulary; Communities Scotland;
Highland and Islands Fire Brigade; Representatives from the private
sector; Representatives from the voluntary sector |