5.1 Our Environment - Health and Well-Being - Rob Henderson
With respect to health and well-being, the Group acknowledged the six main issues identified within Section 3.2 of the draft Local Community Plan. However, a number of other issues were raised which the Group believed should be addressed. In particular, the needs of elderly members of the community were viewed as requiring consideration. In addition, the importance of improving diet, encouraging positive lifestyle change (e.g. smoking cessation, increasing levels of physical activity, etc) and promoting positive mental health were recognised.
There was also some discussion about the long-term plans of some community resources (e.g. the Janny's Hoose and MP33). The need to clarify these and take them into account when developing plans for the community was appreciated.
The Group moved on from discussing health and well-being to consider the community's environment. Again, the main issues listed within the relevant section of the draft Local Community Plan (Sec. 3.1) were recognised. There was a call to appreciate the importance of developing the whole Merkinch environment and avoid the temptation to focus solely on specific projects, with the Group believing that residents' quality of life would be enhanced by overall environmental improvement. Nevertheless, the importance of specific projects was recognised. In particular, options for developing the community's waterfront area were talked about.
The session concluded with a discussion about the challenges associated with dogs. Fouling, as outlined under Section 3.1 of the draft Local Community Plan, was recognised a problem. However, the Group felt that the issue was wider than this, and raised concerns about aggressive animals. One member gave an account of a particularly concerning incident involving a fierce dog.
5.2 Wealth Creation - Arts and Culture - Colin Downie
Colin advised the meeting that Bob Mackinnon with Anne Sutherland and Jamie McJimpsy had recently gone to Invergordon to a seminar on "Community Planning" and they were subsequently asked to present the "Merkinch Community Plan". Feedback from that meeting indicated that the Merkinch Plan was not only further advanced than that of any other areas but that it was a well presented document. Colin would therefore like to take this opportunity to record thanks to both Anne and Jamie for their hard work and obviously well spent time on this document.
Wealth Creation. Colin continued by noting that this second group had generally discussed much that is already identified within the current plan, areas that came through strongly were unemployment and job creation, particularly boat building within the area that currently benefits from riverside access.
This is associated with low skills base and an adult education requirement through to training for the unemployed perhaps through access to apprenticeships. Fiona Robb noted that apprenticeship finance is currently available.
Could employers within the area be encouraged to employ from within the community was another question, not always easy as any business must always take the best options available.
Some of the older perhaps retired community members do however have experience, including business and management experience, can this not be tapped into to assist groups such as MDV perhaps on a voluntary basis.
Arts and Culture. All felt that the proposal for the Gym Hall was a worthy project and that they were looking forward to the developments within this area. The group continued and discussed the Channel 4 Art Project and Colin asked Catherine MacNeil, AIM to take this opportunity to inform the meeting of this project that she is working on for the benefit of the community.
Catherine commenced by providing a brief outline on "Memories". The idea for a reminiscence based arts project is a way of encouraging collaboration between all the groups already creating cultural activity in the Merkinch area whilst encouraging a pride in the local area by the younger community members. It begins with a project between primary pupils and senior citizens, brings in the literary group at the second stage and develops into a community production for everyone. It's also an opportunity to show schoolchildren from outwith the area a different perspective on Merkinch than they may currently hold.
Channel 4 are asking for nominations for the creation of public art in 5 locations throughout the UK. Catherine is looking for community support from local groups for a nomination from the Merkinch area and had displayed information on the AIM display board in the foyer.
Colin thanked Catherine and concluded by noting that the possible lack of lots of comments on the community plan could be due to the very well prepared initial document that was available and presented to the meeting.
