Seòmar agus comataidhean

Good morning, panel. I hope that you heard the discussion with the previous panel, because I want to touch base with you on the three issues that I raised then: first, how we fund this and engage the private sector in some of this work; secondly, how we strengthen our powers with regard to derelict shops and buildings in the urban landscape; and thirdly, how we redevelop our town centres in light of increasing problems with flood risk assessments.

My first question is perhaps for Caroline Brown. Yesterday, we spoke to the local people in the Celebrate Kilmarnock team and some council officials and members about the work that they are doing down in Kilmarnock, and the fact is that many of their achievements have happened without the NPF4 being in place. This is a question about funding and support, because they have achieved those things through town centre regeneration funding and common good money. As I understand it, though, there has been no private sector contribution. How do we open all this up and better embrace and engage with the private sector? After all, they, too, have a stake in the redevelopment and success of town centres. Do you have any ideas about how we can reach out and do that sort of thing better?

The issue of resourcing has been mentioned a couple of times. I will pick on Robbie Calvert, as he mentioned it. Yesterday, we had an online visit to Kilmarnock and heard from local officials and colleagues in the Celebrate Kilmarnock team who have been doing great work down there to create new public spaces for the community to enjoy. Many of those achievements are the sort of thing that are contained in NPF4, although obviously it is not finalised. They were achieved through town centre regeneration funding and some common good money, for example.

I just want to make the point that, alongside a document such as NPF4, we do not always need to have a huge great capital investment programme. As has been demonstrated in Kilmarnock, some things can be achieved through other means. Do you recognise that local authorities and communities have other means at their disposal to deliver such achievements?

Thank you. I want to ask Christina Gaiger and Ailsa Macfarlane about a third issue that came up in relation to local plans. We heard yesterday from East Ayrshire Council officials about the difficulties that they face with reusing brownfield sites in urban settings that are close to rivers, given the objections to developments that come from the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and others because of flood risk.

Christina Gaiger said that 85 per cent of existing buildings will still be here in 2045; I am prepared to bet that 100 per cent of Scotland’s towns and villages will still be beside their rivers in 2045. How on earth do we tackle the issue? Do we just continue to object to town centre developments that could help to meet the aims of NPF4, because of the flood risk, or is there a better way to tackle the issue in the short and medium terms? I will come to Ailsa Macfarlane first.

That is interesting, but what stick do we need to deploy to get a property owner even to clean their building? I have tried several times, and found that the owners have refused point blank. We have amenity notices, but they are not used widely because, ultimately, the responsibility falls back on the council if it serves such a notice and the work is not done. What on earth can we do? Some buildings are covered in graffiti or have posters stuck on them, and there are weeds growing out of pavements and doorways and so on. How do we tackle that kind of thing, with whatever carrot and whatever stick we have at our disposal?

I also namechecked Christina Gaiger. What can we do about the problem? We cannot just leave sites in our town centres that are near rivers—particularly brownfield sites—because we think that they might flood. We have to do more. What can you suggest?

Thank you, that was helpful.

Good morning. I will start by asking Paul Lowe a few questions about the mechanism for getting the census—[Inaudible.]—flip between digital and paper. You talked about that earlier, but could you give us some more details about how that will work?

Hitherto, everybody got a paper copy delivered to their house, so you could be pretty sure that everyone had it. From what you said, this way, everybody will get a letter and people who arenae connected to the digital world can phone you and get one posted to them. What happens if they do not do that? How will we know who has not bothered to engage with the process? Will you have people in place who can check and determine that, and then deliver the census to people? Can you talk us through how you will get the census into everybody’s hands?

The data that is ultimately submitted by a person in Scotland, either digitally or on paper, is not used for any purpose other than the census, is it? It is not given to third parties, and they would not have any access, or any rights, to it. It is fairly secure and is for that single purpose. Is that correct?

That is very helpful and reassuring.

Are there any new lessons to be learned from the accelerated process of disbursing public funds and safeguarding them for the future? Are there any lessons that we can learn that would offer us more protection?