On Thursday this week, we had a meeting of the Full Council. Council meetings are always a bit of an event, and so they should be. Not only are they an important opportunity to get decisions made, they also symbolise local democracy. By holding them in public and online, we ensure that decision-making is transparent and accountable. They also offer a good opportunity to see more councillors and colleagues in person and Kilmory certainly has more of a buzz about it on these days.
This meeting had a real focus on housing. We asked elected members to approve the Local Housing Strategy Annual Update. This sets out the work done to date to tackle the housing emergency; approve the Strategic Housing Investment Plan, which identifies priority housing projects that we intend to invest in; and to adopt the Local Heat and Energy Efficiency Strategy, which sets out a pathway to decarbonise how we heat our homes and building.
These reports represent an immense amount of work from our housing team and I’m pleased to say all the reports were agreed by members.
We have another opportunity on Monday to highlight housing issues when the Parliamentary Committee for Local Government, Housing and Planning visit Oban as part of their inquiry into Housing to 2040, and whether it is sufficient to meet Scotland’s needs. Together with partners from registered social landlords, community trusts and HIE we’ll be setting out our efforts and the systemic challenges faced in the area.
Housing is also a consideration in our work to settle and support refugees in the area. It is immensely rewarding to be able to help people who have had to flee their own country. I sat down with Morag Brown to talk about the most recent developments for my latest podcast. You can listen to it on the website.
Finally, I’d like to give a big shout out to everyone receiving a Learning Award today. I am always impressed by the hard work that colleagues undertaken to achieve a new qualification whilst still delivering their day job. This commitment to continuous learning helps us to achieve great outcomes for our communities. Well done and congratulations to all our Learning Award recipients.
Take care this weekend and remember to check travel conditions on our winter ready page if you need to be anywhere.
Pippa
Pippa Milne
Chief Executive
