We Asked, You Said, We Did

For comments on the proposed lease of a shop at 2 Noth Port, Perth.

No comments were received.

PKC proceeded with the proposed lease.

What our tenants thought the rent level increase should be for 2024/25, based on proposed investment in Housing Services and the financial pressures facing the Housing Revenue Account (HRA).

A total of 2,944 tenants responded to the consultation – 36.7% of our tenants.

Over half - 58.6% - chose a 6% rent increase from the three options presented.

As the majority of tenants preferred a 6% rent increase, this was proposed in a report to a meeting of the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee on 24th January 2024.

Councillors accepted the proposal, and a 6% rent increase will come into effect from 1st April 2024.

Your thoughts on a new Tenant Participation Strategy for Perth and Kinross.

Tenant feedback that has informed the strategy priorities, opportunities to get involved and implementation:: 

“A change is required to move away from traditional approaches including change in culture across tenants and staff”.

“We need to interest more people in getting involved through changing activities and building trust”.

“We need to find ways to make sure everyone has a say – young people or people with support needs can be hard to reach”.

“People care about their home and community. We need to sell the benefits of getting involved to more people”.

A Tenant Conference was held in January to start formulating the vision of the strategy and open to all tenants with staff representation from Falkirk Council and a tenant representative from Kingdom Housing Association attending to share best practice, knowledge and experience.

The vision that was agreed was: "Tenant participation in P&K offers everyone an opportunity to work together, be listened to and influence decisions on the issues which matter most to you to improve outcomes".

This reflects the main focus four strategy priorities; a change of Tenant Participation culture, improved communication between PKC and tenants, tenants having a say in housing decisions and working with communities to make change.

A final Steering Group meeting was held in April to provide feedback to the draft strategy, overall, it was agreed that the content of the strategy is reflective of the steering groups input and the outcomes are achievable.

It was agreed by the steering group that the annual performance review and evaluation holds all staff and elected members accountable in achieving positive outcomes for tenants, neighbourhoods and improved communication.

The new draft Tenant Participation Strategy will be considered by the Housing and Social Wellbeing Committee in June 2024.

For comments on the Lease of Perth Museum (formerly Perth City Hall) St John's Place, Perth by PKC to Culture Perth & Kinross.

No comments were received.

The lease was agreed.

The Council and RPS consulted with the community on:

• The risk of flooding in south Kinross
• The Council's proposals for a flood scheme
• Other action to raise awareness of flood risk and improve flood resilience

The response to the consultation was generally positive with the majority of the community being supportive of the proposed outline design for the flood scheme.

The public consultation on the outline design is now complete and a public consultation report has been produced to highlight how feedback ahs been addressed. The flood scheme will therefore be published under the Flood Risk Management (Scotland) Act in 2020 and the Council will notify all affected landowners and residents at that time.

For comments on the proposed sale of Wellmeadow House, Gas Brae, Blairgowrie.

No comments were received.

The Council completed the proposed sale of Wellmeadow House.

For your views on the principle of introducing a short-term let control area for Highland Perthshire and parts of Eastern Perthshire, and whether you had any suggestions on how to improve the draft guidance.

A wide range of views on the principle of a short-term let control area and on the draft guidance were received from individuals, businesses and organisations.

Several changes were made to the guidance following the consultation and the finalised guidance was approved by the Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee on 1 November 2023. This will now be used to help assess and determine planning applications for changes of use from a house or flat to a short-term let. A further report on the principle and evidence for designating a short-term let control area will go to the Committee early in 2024.

For your views on the draft Supplementary Guidance for Developer Contributions & Affordable Housing to support Local Development Plan 2 (2019) policy 5 and policy 20.

A range of comments, broadly supportive of the proposed guidance, which largely carries forward the existing Supplementary Guidance (adopted in 2020).

Some changes were made to the guidance following the consultation and the finalised guidance was approved by the Environment, Infrastructure and Economic Development Committee on 20 September 2023. The revised Guidance (as presented to Committee) has now been submitted to Scottish Ministers for consideration. Further updates will be published on the Supplementary Guidance webpage for Developer Contributions & Affordable Housing.

We asked the Craigie Burn catchment community about:

• the flood risk from the Craigie Burn (and other tributaries/sources)
• the findings of the Craigie Burn flood study
• other actions to raise awareness and improve community flood resilience

A significant volume of feedback was received and has been captured in a public consultation report. This sets out the feedback received, and the Council's answers to the questions posed. 

The recommended option has been submitted to SEPA for prioritisation and will hopefully be included within the national priority list of flood schemes. The scheme has been put forward for inclusion within the next Tay Flood Risk Management Strategy and Local Flood Risk Management Plan (covering the period from 2028 to 2034), subject to suitable funding being in place. The feedback received will be considered further during future work on the study recommendations.

We asked the public to comment on a draft licensing policy statement.

Five consultation responses were received on a variety of issues contained within the draft licensing policy statement.

A Report was prepared and placed before Perth and Kinross Licensing Board on 27 September. That report included all consultation responses. The Board then decided the full terms of its Licensing Policy Statement to apply from 5 November 2023 to 5 November 2028.

What your priorities were for rent spending for the period 2024/25.

A total of 469 tenants responded. 

You can read the results below.

The feedback was discussed with tenants at our Tenant Summer Roadshow events in June 2023.

All the comments received then fed into proposals for three rent level options which we consulted tenants on in November and December 2023.

For the public to comment on the proposal for a lease to be granted to Taste Talk Limited for the commercial property at 2 North Port, Perth.  

There were no responses received.  

Taste Talk Ltd have not progressed to enter into a lease of the property.  

To help us prepare a new Management Plan for Black Spout Wood, we asked local residents and visitors how often they used the woods, what they liked to do while they were there, what they liked and disliked about the woods at present and how we might make improvements.  

We received 98 responses to the consultation. Most respondents were local residents and visited the woods on foot. Many were dog walkers. We received lots of positive feedback about the site and the way it is now. There was also useful feedback about providing information to help get around the site, the paths, and the management of the site more generally.

All the feedback received will help us to put together a new Management Plan to take us forward to 2028.  In due course, those of you who asked to be kept informed will be consulted again once we've put together a draft Management Plan. 

At the time of this initial consultation the Pitlochry & Moulin Community Council was in abeyance.  It's hoped that we can engage with the new Community Council so as to review the draft Management Plan once it's ready.

To help us prepare a new Management Plan for Rumbling Bridge, we asked local residents and visitors how often they used the woods, what they liked to do while they were there, what they liked and disliked about the woods at present and how we might make improvements.  

We received 128 responses to the consultation. Most respondents were local residents and visited the woods on foot.  We received lots of positive feedback about the gorge but there are clearly aspects which could be better. There was useful feedback covering a number of issues including several responses relating to access to and accessibility within the site.                    

All the feedback received will help us to put together a new Management Plan to take us forward to 2028.  In due course, those of you who asked to be kept informed will be consulted again once we've put together a draft Management Plan.

For comments on the Council’s draft Common Good Register. Under the terms of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, every Local Authority in Scotland is duty bound to prepare and publish a comprehensive register of all Common Good assets within their ownership.

The Council received five responses. The Council received three responses from members of the public, and a further two responses from community/elected representatives. The Council considered these responses and revised the draft Register to account for any amendments suggested to the draft by the public.

The Council completed the Common Good Register and published it online. The Register is to be updated every five years, and it is the Council’s intention to include moveable property in the Register in the near future.

We asked the residents of Cavendish Avenue, Gray Street and the surrounding area about:

• the risk of flooding in  the area
• the findings of the flood study
• other actions to raise awareness and improve community flood resilience

Comments were received regarding:

• the maintenance and further provision of road drains;
• provision of sandbags, emergency response and clean up assistance
• low-cost / temporary mitigations

A Question and Answer (Q&A) Report was produced and uploaded to the hub in May 2023. The flood study has been finalised and the findings will now be reported to the next Climate Change & Sustainability Committee on 31 May 2023.

For input from the local community and other residents of Perth with regard to the proposed grant of the servitude rights over the Servitude Areas at Low Road.

We received a large response concerned about flooding issues in this location.  Responses were individually acknowledged. 

The Council have decided that in light of the anticipated Planning Application being made by Craigie Hill Golf Club for the redevelopment of the golf course, it would be premature for a decision to be made on the proposal to grant servitude rights at Low Road at this time.  The Common Good Committee will therefore not be asked to make a decision on the granting of servitude rights at Low Road at this time.

The servitude application will only be considered once the outcome of the planning process is known, if appropriate.

We asked the community of Dunkeld and the surrounding area about:

• the risk of flooding in Dunkeld
• the findings of the flood study
• other actions to raise awareness and improve community flood resilience

Comments were received regarding:

• what impact the proposed flood scheme would have on existing planting
• how options were assessed, including economic appraisal
• the consideration of natural flood management measures

A Question and Answer (Q&A) Report was produced and issued in April 2023 to those that attended the community drop-in session or submitted a comment form. The flood study has been finalised and the findings will now be reported to the next Climate Change & Sustainability Committee on 31 May 2023.

We asked residents to provide information on their experiences of surface water flooding in Blairgowrie and Rattray to help inform the development of a surface water management plan.

Residents provided a wide range of useful information on the flooding experienced in the area, including photographs and videos.

We collated the feedback received and this was passed over to our consulting engineers (RSK) to inform the development of the Blairgowrie Surface Water Management Plan, which is expected to be compelted by early 2024.

We requested your views on our draft Corporate Plan 2022/3 to 2027/8. We asked if you thought that the vision, outcomes and priorities in the Plan will improve the lives of people living in Perth and Kinross. If not, then we asked what should we be focussing on instead.

To inform budget setting for 2023-2024 we asked for your feedback on what is most important to you/your community, council tax, where we should invest for the future and where you would prefer the budget savings to come from. 

Corporate Plan:

Issues raised primarily related to language used in the Plan. There were also issues raised by fewer people, but which were particularly relevant within the context and purpose of the document.

Common themes included:

• More clarity needed on what ‘sustainability’ means in multiple places
• Climate change/ environmental importance not clear in outcomes
• Be bolder and more ambitious, particularly around business/ economy
• Ordering of priorities suggest some are more important than others and does not make interdependencies clear
• Reduce Perth-centrism
• More focus/reference needed to communities of interest as well as place and commitments to equality and diversity
• More clarity needed about how this will be delivered/assessed

Budget 2023-2024

• Overall, 70% of respondents opted for an increase in Council Tax of some kind rather than no change.
• As would be expected, those services which most respondents specified for a reduction in standard or frequency were mirrored by those selected for reduction or even stop delivering. These were council-run events, how you access the Council, adult learning, repair and maintenance of Council owned buildings and Cultural activity.
• The top 3 priorities for investment overall were “support for the growth of the local economy”, “create opportunities for young people”  and “improve or grow our school learning estate”.
• 75% of respondents agreed that Perth & Kinross Council should encourage and support local people and communities to deliver certain services.
• 71% of respondents agreed that we should help people to help themselves more so they have less reliance on publicly funded services.
• You gave us your comments on a wide rage of topics. Common themes were council run events, council tax, use of council buildings, street cleaning and winter maintenance, roads maintenance, biodiversity, public transport, car parking, leisure and council, support for business, cost of living, community/third sector support, energy efficiency and education.

Corporate Plan

As a result of public feedback, we have made some changes to the Corporate Plan 2022/23 – 2027/8. We have now made changes to the following:

From “People and businesses thrive in an inclusive and sustainable local economy across Perth and Kinross” to “People and businesses are increasingly able to prosper in a local economy which supports low carbon ambitions and offers opportunities for all.”

The second outcome of our vision to change is “Perth and Kinross is a sustainable and safe place for this and future generations” to “Perth and Kinross is a safe and vibrant place, mitigating the impact of climate and environmental change for this and future generations.”

In relation to the key priorities, there are two changes. We have moved away from “Placing communities at the heart of how we work” to “Working in partnership with communities” which was felt to be more about joint and collaborative working. In addition, “Growing a sustainable and inclusive local economy” has been amended to “Developing a resilient, stronger and greener local economy.” We also had feedback that it would be fairer to show our key priorities visually rather than by simply listing them. We have now included a diagram which sets a summary of our priorities around a circle in rank order. The full text of the priorities has been retained in a list which also supports accessibility.

Budget 2023-2024

The responses received in the budget consultation exercise have been taken into consideration when developing budget proposals.  Almost all the service areas which participants indicated were of lowest priority for investment and subsequently highest for reducing the standard, frequency, or stopping altogether, have been included as savings proposals, including Council-run events, Customer Service Centre efficiencies, and Council-owned buildings. While the proposals do include reductions in some areas which were most favoured by respondents for maintenance or investment, such as winter maintenance and public transport, the levels of proposed reductions have been limited to minimise the impact on these areas which residents have set out what is most important to them.

Other budget decsions taken on the common response themes outlined above can be viewed in the results section of this page. Elected Members for Perth and Kinross met on Wednesday March 1^st 2023 to set the Council’s Revenue and Capital budgets for 2023/24. You can view all decisions here.