Opportunity Black Isle (Black Isle Place Plan)
Opportunity Black Isle is our opportunity to create and deliver a plan for Black Isle that we are proud to call home, fit for future generations.
The aim of this ‘Local Place Plan’ is to provide a Black Isle wide vision for a more sustainable and resilient future, bringing together actions by the local community, the Council and others covering big issues like getting about, housing, community facilities, and nature and the environment.
Preparation of the plan is led by the local community and funded by The Highland Council. Preparation of the plan is happening through three stages of community engagement between March and October 2023, as the diagram shows.
Stage 1 included nine community drop-in events around the Black Isle between March and May 2023 plus an accompanying online survey and work with secondary schools. You can see the display boards use in stage 1 here.
During stage 2, results and analysis of the stage 1 engagement were shared at two community events in June 2023, attended by around 60 people, where discussion focussed on possible ways forward. You can see the results of those discussions here. Online surveys of primary school pupils and their parents also took place.
Stage 3 takes place between August 2023 and the end of the year. The aim is to agree what should go into the draft plan and work out how to avoid it sitting on a shelf - including how to reset the relationship between the community and the public sector. It comprises a few different activities.
A number of activities took place between August and November to help develop what should be in the draft plan:
- Black Isle-wide community discussion workshops on 15th and 16th September 2023 in Cromarty and North Kessock. The presentation slides shown at the start of those workshops include an initial draft outline of the plan, and can be seen here. This will change, it is not the final version!
- An online form for anybody who missed those events or had extra thoughts after them. This ran for 6 weeks until mid November 2023.
- A series of focus groups with Community Councils, community organisations, young people, businesses and the public sector.
- Postcards were sent to every household in the Black Isle in October 2023 with a simple question: What does the Black Isle mean to you? The answers will help ensure that the Local Place Plan, and how it is implemented over the coming years, will help to protect what's special as well as improving things that could be better.
The draft plan is now being developed and will be shared on this website for public comment by January 2024. It will include results of the community engagement work that has been done since March 2023, so anyone can track back and see how the draft Plan is based on community input - and because this wealth of information could be useful for others to use in their work too.
After that, the plan will then be finalised and submitted to the Highland Council for registration.
To keep informed of progress, please sign up to our ebulletin here.
For more information please contact either Becky Richmond or Nick Wright, 07900 334110).