Council decisions aim to increase community ownership

Highland Councillors on the Communities and Place Committee today (10 November) have agreed a number of recommendations that aim to improve the process, and experience for groups requesting Community Asset Transfers.

The recommendations also aim to support groups attain an increase in community ownership.

Councillor Allan Henderson, Communities and Place Committee Chair said: “The decisions we have made today will hopefully enable more community groups to be more successful with their Community Asset Transfer applications. I am very pleased since our last committee that two more Community Asset Transfers have been successful.”

Vice Chair of Communities and Place Committee Cllr Hugh Morrison added: “I am delighted that the  transfer of Thurso Greenhouse Complex to Thurso Development Trust has been approved on a 15-year lease. I also welcome the approval yesterday (at the Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee) the transfer of Burnfield toilets and immediate surrounding land to Grantown Initiative.”

Members agreed that the Council will improve its Community Asset Transfer (CAT) process by:

• broadening its approach for considering CAT requests,
• including consideration of requests outwith the scope of the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015,
• including a more streamlined and proportionate application process,
• strengthening the expression of interest phase to better support and inform groups; and
• taking a more proportionate response to economic development burdens.

Members also agreed to proposals that will focus groups on providing better information and therefore stronger expressions of interest. A new requirement will be for groups to provide a legal title investigation prior to submitting a full CAT request.

A revised approach to the Council’s Economic Development Burdens - a legal device used in the CAT process to protect the Council’s position when it sells an asset at a discount - was also approved.

Councillors agreed that an EDB should apply where the value of an asset is greater than £10,000, and/or is considered to be of heritage significance to the community and should be retained for community use.  The Council may also reserve a right of pre-emption in a sold asset which would require a group to give the council first refusal should it wish to sell the asset in the future.

Members also welcomed the development of Community Loan Funds to support community bodies to take forward a range of projects and specifically support successful asset transfer projects.

The Council has appointed Community Support Co-ordinators who will support groups especially in their expression of interest phase to enable communities to take forward their projects and proposals.