As a community councillor with Whitehills & District I am naturally interested in local matters and iimproving aspects of our area within its remit and budget.

Earlier this year I attended an Aberdeenshire Local Community Planning Partnership get-together at Crudie School on behalf of my community council to ascertain what local community planning was, and how it was deemed to work.

A mini workshop at the Crudie School event was useful for meeting new contacts but confirmed that few, if any, of my community council associates, fully understood what Local Community Planning was all about.

Contrary to my initial thoughts, Community Planning is not about planning permission, building regulations or the like. It is all about ensuring that public organisations work together & with people in local communities. It is simply a way of working to improve people’s quality of life through more effective delivery of service.

There are nine main community planning partners: Aberdeenshire Council, Grampian Fire & Rescue Service, Grampian Police, NHS Grampian, NESTRANS, Scottish Enterprise Grampian, Aberdeenshire Community Councils, Aberdeenshire Councils for Voluntary Service & Aberdeenshire Local Rural Partnership.

This was the main reason why I volunteered my services to sit on the Local Planning Group for Banff & Buchan. I was determined to observe, listen and learn and to participate in the discussions. I have since attended two full meetings at Banff and Fraserburgh as a community council representative. There are numerous agenda items and a balance sheet which could be more user-friendly, but overall a willingness in the partners to negotiate the way ahead with mutual benefits.

The group needs more representation from the other thirteen community councils in Banff & Buchan. Community council members are locally active but as volunteers, may not want to give time & energy to Local Community Planning issues. I’ve got a full agenda but want to make sure that people and the community that I represent are genuinely involved in decisions made on public services. I provide feedback to my community council on relevant matters.

That is my honest take on the current Local Community Planning Partnership set up. I would be delighted to meet up with any community councillors wanting to participate for their locality.

Denis Askham
Whitehills & District community councillor