Lochgoil Community Action Planning update
Over 30 people came to a recent workshop at the Lochgoil Community Centre. The workshop focussed on gathering evidence to help inform the next Lochgoil Community Action Plan.
Household surveys were also done before this event, and over 20 planned stakeholder interviews will take place over the next few weeks.
Using the Place Standard tool to assess Lochgoil
During the workshop, both community members and the Community Partnership tried out the new Place Standard tool for the first time – and it seemed to be a very positive experience with lots of active participation in the event and good discussion and debate around the table.
The tool provides a simple framework to structure conversations about a place. It asks 14 questions (shown in the outer rim of the diagram below) about the physical and social elements of a place and translates the responses into an easily understandable graphic, which helps to plot the assets of a place.
During the event participants spent six minutes on each topic and then two minutes to discuss and agree on a score.
Plotting the results
The results are plotted on the diagram below, with the points closer to the centre representing those areas most in need of improvement, while those towards the edge are strengths.
To ensure that the place standard captured the more rural nature of the Lochgoil area, we slightly amended the “natural space” topic questions to consider wider land management issues.
What happens next?
Over the next few weeks more stakeholder interviews will be held and the analysis completed. The Community Partnership hope to share the findings from their evidence gathering sessions around mid-October and then start developing the new Community Action Plan.
The next event where the Community Partnership will use the Place Standard is in Killin on Saturday 23rd September.
Find out more on the work of the Community Partnership at www.thecommunitypartnership.org.uk