Councillor John McNaughtan, Chair, presided.

Mike Dillon (Paisley North Community Council); Councillor Edward Grady; Councillor Cathy McEwan; John McIntyre (Ferguslie Community Council); Councillor John McIntyre; Councillor John McNaughtan; Councillor Jim Paterson; John Wilby (Paisley West & Central Community Council); and Christine Williams (REEM).

A Morrison, Head of Regeneration (Lead Officer); A Armstrong-Walter, Strategic Partnerships & Inequalities Manager, S Graham, Partnerships Planning and Development Manager and S Kraft, Planning & Policy Development Assistant (all Chief Executive’s); and T Slater, Senior Committee Services Officer and K O’Neill, Assistant Democratic Services Officer (both Finance & Resources).

A McKechnie and C Martin (Youth Steering Group).

S Airlie (Police Scotland); and K McIntyre (Engage Renfrewshire).

Councillor Paterson left the meeting during discussion of the following item.

Councillor McEwan left the meeting during discussion of the following item.

Alan Clark (CREATE Paisley); and Margaret Dymond (Maxwellton Court Tenants’ Association).

There were no declarations of interest intimated prior to the commencement of the meeting.

There was submitted for approval the Minute of the previous meeting of the Local Partnership held on 19 June 2019.

DECIDED:  That the Minute be approved.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the Celebrating Renfrewshire Youth Participatory Budgeting Exercise.

The report intimated that the Youth Challenge Fund component of the Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership Budget, renamed “Celebrating Renfrewshire: By young people for young people” had been allocated during September 2019 through a participatory budgeting exercise for young people aged 12 to 25 years.  Young people had co-produced the process of voting and 589 young people from the Paisley North, West & Central areas had voted.

The results of the Celebrating Renfrewshire Participatory Budgeting exercise was appended to the report.

A McKecknie and C Martin, members of the Youth Steering Group, gave a presentation to members on the outcome of the youth participatory budgeting process.  There followed a question and answer session.

DECIDED:

(a)  That the outcome of the youth participatory budgeting exercise for the Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership be noted; and

(b)  that the presentation be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to the local priorities agreed at the meeting of this Local Partnership held on 19 March 2019.

The report intimated that the local priorities should help develop the agenda and workplan for the Local Partnership moving forward and recommended that members discuss the local priorities and agree how they wished to progress their agenda.



It had been anticipated that the Local Partnership might want to refine their local priorities as the Local Partnership developed and this was the opportunity to review and refine the local priorities prior to the allocation of grant funding in 2020/21.

Members worked in groups to review the local priorities for the area.  After discussion, and following feedback from groups, the Local Partnership priorities remained as Community Empowerment; Tackling Social Isolation to Promote Health, Green Spaces; and Community Safety.  The Strategic Partnership & Inequalities Manager then summarised the emerging key themes within those priorities that the Local Partnership wished to concentrate on.

Members highlighted the importance of more people becoming involved with community groups, in particular young people and people from ethnic minorities.  It was proposed that a representative from Engage Renfrewshire be invited to a future meeting to discuss how this could be addressed and highlight best practice from other areas.  This was agreed.

It was noted that Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership had been undertaking work in relation to social isolation and it was proposed that a representative be invited to a future meeting to talk about this work.  This was agreed.

It was also highlighted that presentations from Police Scotland in relation to community safety and a relevant officer to discuss local transport issues would be helpful.  This was agreed.

It was proposed that the use of local greenspaces could also help tackle social isolation and it was proposed that the Council’s Senior Environment Co-ordinator be invited to a future meeting to discuss how the use of those areas could be maximised.

DECIDED:

(a) That it be agreed that the local priorities for Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership remain as Community Empowerment, Tackling Social Isolation to Promote Health, Green Spaces and Community Safety; and

(b) That arrangements be made to invite representatives from Engage Renfrewshire, Renfrewshire Health and Social Care Partnership and Police Scotland, together with the Council’s Senior Environment Co-ordinator and a relevant representative to discuss local transport issues, to future meetings of the Local Partnership.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive advising that, at the meeting of the Local Partnership held on 19 June 2019, £55,895.61 had been awarded to 41 local projects.




An infographic highlighting some of the key projects funded and indicating how those projects related to local priorities for the Local Partnership was appended to the report.

The report advised that the Local Partnership budget was overspent by £828.19.

DECIDED: That the report be noted.

There was submitted a budget monitoring report by the Director of Finance & Resources relative to the Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership for 2019/20.

DECIDED:  That the budget monitoring report be noted.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to a review of Local Partnerships.

The report intimated that following the establishment of the Local Partnerships in September 2018, it had been agreed that there would be a review of arrangements after one year of operation and it was anticipated that the review would begin in January 2020.

Since January 2019, Local Partnerships had agreed their membership, identified some initial local priorities and distributed their grant funding.  In addition, the Youth Challenge Fund had been distributed across all seven Local Partnerships using a participatory budgeting approach.

The report proposed that the Local Partnership review cover the key areas used throughout the consultation and development of the Local Partnership model.  This allowed for consistency and comparison with previous engagement and consultation exercises as well as fair consideration of the proposals implemented which included function; membership; boundaries; meetings; and grants.

It was important that a wide range of views could be heard as part of the review and the report suggested that the following methods be used in order to gather feedback: a review of all correspondence and feedback received since the establishment of the Local Partnerships; a further invitation for all Local Partnership members to input to the review on all topics in writing, with the opportunity to do this online, on paper or face-to- face; and an opportunity for wider community members to feedback online or on paper.

Local Partnership members were asked to contribute their views on the scope of the review to make sure it covered all the necessary areas.  In addition, members were asked to provide views on how the review should be carried out.

DECIDED:  That members of the Local Partnership provide views, to Community Planning, on both the proposed scope and approach for the Local Partnership review, as outlined in section 3 of the report.

There was submitted a report by the Chief Executive relative to meetings of the Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership in 2020.

The report intimated that, when formed, it was agreed that Local Partnerships would meet three times per year.  In 2019, Local Partnerships met four times, in recognition that there was additional business required to get Local Partnerships up and running.

The report proposed that meetings in 2020 be held around the months of April, August and November; that grant funding allocations for the 2020/21 financial year be made at the April meeting; that wider engagement events be held in early 2020; that an event be carried out in each Local Partnership area which would be open to the wider community to attend.

DECIDED:

(a)  That meetings of the Paisley North, West & Central Local Partnership be held around April, August and November and that members be advised of the date, time and venue for these meetings; and

(b)  That members of the Paisley North, West and Central Local Partnership provide feedback to Community Planning on the proposed approach for the engagement events in early 2020, and where appropriate and express an interest in the development of these events.