First meeting of Badenoch and Strathspey Area Committee
The first meeting of the new Badenoch and
Strathspey Area Local Committee was held in public on 23 February at Talla nan
Ros, King Street, Kingussie.
Committee members are Cllr Jaci Douglas, Cllr Dave Fallows, Cllr Bill Lobban,
and Cllr Gregor Rimell.
Cllr Bill Lobban was duly elected Chair of the Committee.
The new Scheme of Delegation re-organises former powers and includes new powers
for all Local Committees. The new powers include:
- Establishing appropriate links between the Committee and local community planning partnerships.
- Taking forward the localism action plan in the locality.
- Agreeing local community engagement approaches.
- Ensuring productive working relationships with Community Councils, and
- Using participatory budgeting for any funds decided by the Local Committee.
Future powers for local committees from April 2016 will include local devolved
decision making on parts of the Community Services budget, including roads maintenance,
winter maintenance, environmental services and street cleansing.
Members agreed that future Badenoch and Strathspey Area committee meetings
would not be webcast.
The local committee discussed the Police Area Performance, and local Housing performance
and capital programme update.
Chair of the new Committee, Cllr Lobban said: “I am honoured to have been
elected, by my fellow Highland Council Members, as Chairman of the new Badenoch
& Strathspey Area Committee. This Committee is yet another step along the
road to improving local democracy and decision making. I look forward to
working closely with my Ward 21 colleagues, as we have always done in the past,
to bring the needs and aspirations of local people to the forefront of Council
decision making.”