Linlithgow Aspires

Notes from the meeting held on 8^th October 2009

In Linlithgow Academy

Apologies: Ann Daly, Craig McCorriston, David Henderson, David Lees, Neil Faulds, Tom Pringle 

 JH gave a brief outline of Aspires to date. The meeting tonight is about setting regular venue, frequency of meetings, and establishing work streams.

 

1.      The group then gave a brief introduction about themselves and where their skills or interest lies:

Alan Brown                 Linlithgow climate challenge. Working in a more sustainable way.

William Ross              LCC, working with Alan above

Andy Ferguson            Professional speaker, working with the community and various groups who take leadership – wants to make a documentary on communities taking ownership and Aspires fits the bill.

Hazel Hay                   WLC tourism and town centre officer, but attends as an individual only, does not represent the council at the meetings.  Will help where ever necessary.

Michael Connarty             MP for the area, involved in politics.  Would like to be a conduit to the powers that be and sources of funding.

David Henderson            Freelance consultant on social and economic inclusion will help in that way.

Calum Hay                 wants to bring a younger person perspective and to do things for the younger people of the town

Ross Park                   Can bring something but not sure what.

Laura Hay                  Law graduate currently looking for work will bring what skills she can and hopes to gain rewards back such as work opportunities.

Clare Pollock              Member of the LBA to represent tourism.  Wants Linlithgow to be a great place for OAPs to live so will contribute where she can to the cause.

Angus Kerr                 PC Support Group- Can bring IT technology, website and promotions.

Alan McColm             working with part of the community that needs further help

Mike Vickers             would like to work on moving more small professional business into the town

John McKenzie            Partner in law firm.   To work on a brand that can be exported abroad, happy to help anywhere

John Bartlett              Hopes to bring international business to the party and hopeful to contribute and take away as well.

Janice King                does not know what she can bring, but passionate about the town and happy to help

David Tait                  Chair of the LBA. No specific skills but will work on anything that can make a positive contribution.

Brian McAlister            Sole practitioner Architect.  Interested in traditional music and dance.

John Caddle               Strawberry Bank B & B .  Not sure what he can bring but interested in town and making it the place for bringing up his family.

Alex Stewart               can offer skills in graphics, design and marketing, advertising and in any positive way.

Peter Anderson            Used to work for the National Archive Scotland now involved in L’gow Heritage trust.  Interests lies in the Historical heritage side.

David Keddie –          urban economist and will work on taking the project plan forward.  Will offer expertise to the structure and process

Jim Hay                      lived in the town for many, many years, and is passionate about it.  Has a desire and brute determination to make the town the best it can be. 

Tom Kerr                    Later arrival

Martyn Day               Later arrival 

Regular Meeting Venue

 Suggestions for possible venues were: 

• St John’s Centre
• Canal Tea Room/Education Centre
• Low Port Centre (heavily booked)
• Rugby Club (David Keddie could do the booking) 

Frequency of the meeting 

Alan Brown of Linlithgow Climate Challenge Group said that they have~:

•  a General meeting twice a month
•  a Steering group meeting once a month
•  and breakout meetings when ever needed (these are usually held in someone’s home) 

The Aspires group thought that this sounded about right. 

Work Streams

David Keddie then went on to give a brief presentation on “The Broad Approach to the way forward” based upon his many years experience in this field as an urban economist  (Presentation document attached)  and the simplified version put together by Alex Stewart and the next stage of engagement document. The team fully supported David’s proposal and it was agreed that this would be a good forward plan.  John Mackenzie asked if the “Aunty Sally” vision could be put up on the Linkedin web site for discussion along with the other documents.  It was agreed that it should be put on as it was all up for discussion.

The way forward points discussed and explained were: (read in conjunction with the attached documents)

 Essentially what needs to be done are:

Why, What, How Who and When

We are at the first stage – vision aims and objectives. 

We need to set the baseline position. This is the fundamental starting point from which everything can be measured by.

Needs and aspirations – needs to be assessed and are usually conflicting, a compromised result will be required.

What is it? Good to be aspired but what is it? What are we trying to do, how do we get there?  Concept and rational,   In Linlithgow there are different choices to be  made and there are different plans already available.  When selecting a preferred option look at what the options can be measured against.

Stage 3 – How, Who and When

How
Who – the majority of people in the town
When  – open to discussion rather than debate 

David then went on to show examples of where believing in a plan can make a difference with examples from Whistler and Gussing.  These were International examples but there are also some UK examples.

David then gave further discussion to stage 3 –
Plan of Action – try to work out what the community engagement is – consultant or You, Me, Us.
How it will pan out is to be discussed later in a community engagement document produced by Karen Cadell 

It was proposed that the timescale for setting the concepts and rationale, baselines, workstreams and workgroups was within 8 weeks, pre Christmas. 

David then used the Whistler examples of measures to show how this comes about.

How do we achieve all this?  See community engagement document attached, prepared by Karen Cadell. 

Whilst baselines are being established, other workstreams can be progressing.  We then went on to discuss some of the workstreams and people were encouraged to join into a group.  What was discussed and who signed up on the night are as follows (but there are probably others that can also be started):

Vision                                                                    Karen Cadell

                                                                                    Calum Hay

                                                                                    Laura Hay

                        Engagement                              Karen Cadell

                                                                                    Calum Hay    

                                                                                    Peter Anderson

                                                                                    David Henderson

                        Big Ideas                                       John MacKenzie

                                                                                    Jim Hay

                                                                                    Bryan McAlister

 

Strategy for Sustainability for Aspires                  Mike Vickers

                       

Quick Wins                                                   Laura Hay

                        Impact                                     Ross Park

                        Go out and ask                    Calum Hay    

 

                        Allotments    

 

Baseline

                        Where we are today                           David Keddie
                                                                                                  Hazel Hay 

                        Include views on town                David Henderson 

All Forms of PR and Communication Management

                                                                                    Alex Stewart
                                                                                    Angus Kerr
                                                                                    David Tait
                                                                                    Andy Ferguson
                                                                                    John Caddle
 

                        Web                                                    Alan Brown                                      

5.  Date of next meeting/s:
To be advised once all groups consulted and outcomes for the various meetings agreed.