First, a reminder that the future governance of the Plantation and Alma Road (etc) areas is the subject of a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday, the 18th) night at 7pm in the Fort William Salvation Army Hall next to M&S Dental Care. On the subject of halls, loyal readers will know very well that introducing community-lead into the management of Plantation Hall has been an ambition of mine for, oh, a good three years now? Rather rashly I promised God or Nature or Providence or some such a while back to spend half a decade trying to make this happen so let's hope two more years will suffice: I haven't got very far yet, alas. The Forbes-Richardson agreement (see 12th May's Wed-Head) is teetering anoxically on the brink of bureaucratic demise and without YOUR support as a second-place candidate in next month's council election (see last week's Wed-Head) I will be poorly placed to breathe life back into it. I hope it is clear that I would like to get that done more than to achieve just about anything else for this locality, but the example will also serve to illustrate the gulf that exists between my approach to community empowerment and the culture of indifferent mediocrity that prevails in all-too-many of our local institutions and authorities. So my 'election address' this week takes the case of Plantation Hall to make that wider point. (Legal: this is (in part) intended to 'promote' or procure success in the 2nd December Highland (Regional) Council (HRC) by-election for one or more of the candidates, and in this case the 'promoter' is a candidate himself: Mr Edward Marcus Drayton of 6 Morven Place Ft Wm PH33 6HY, known as Mark Drayton.) Replying to a constituent recently, I wrote that "it seems to me that civic disempowerment and disagency is the single greatest psychological** malaise afflicting Highlanders, an admittedly controversial view but one I have become convinced of in the three years I have spent trying to do something about it - with very little success, unfortunately. However, I don't remotely think the situation is hopeless because every opinion survey elicits similar responses in this respect." [[ **our suicide rate is abnormally high, which can only be the tip of a mental health iceberg. So it matters, gravely. An example: at work in a local restaurant a few years ago a waiter entered the kitchen to tell us that a man had just been pronounced dead after opening his veins in the street. Some people will object to the metaphor, but I don't believe it much overstates the case to say that there is (and not so far from literally) blood on the hands of the bureaucrats. ]] My Wed-Head of 22nd September concluded with a reprint of an 18th August email from Mr Mark Richardson of Highlife Highland (HLH). A few days later (27th September) he updated me that "The handover has now taken place between Youth and Adult and Jane Ivetic the Adult Learning Coordinator is now the RPO - Responsible Persons Officer" and assured me that "New keys and the booking system have been set up between Fort William Library, Jane and Karen [Russell] and Caol Youth Centre and there is a shared calendar to help Coordinate bookings." Mr Richardson also "attached the new booking form and Conditions of use." The booking form imposes a minimum hall-hire charge, payable to HLH, of £17 per hour for all adult** use, regardless of purpose. To add insult to injury, insurance isn't included. Neither of these criteria are acceptable to me and both violate the spirit of the Forbes-Richardson agreement. [[ **£8.50/hr if ALL users are under 18, over 60, or registered students. ]] There are, by the way, precisely NO significant differences between Mr Richardson's 'new' booking form and the version I obtained in 2018. Not quite so his "Conditions of use" which, in as much as they differ much at all, are generally worse:- * This Plantation Hall is a public facility that is available to be booked by the community and HLH services. * The Hall can only be used via a booking – it is not a walk in centre and open for general public access. * A booking can only be made by a named person on the ‘key list’. The ‘key list’ is held by local HLH Adult; Youth and Library staff. * To become a named person on the ‘key list’, an induction for the Plantation Hall Health & Safety systems must be arranged through HLH (Karen Russel[(sic)]/Jane Ivetic) * Once the induction to the Plantation Hall has been completed, that person is then able to make bookings via Karen Russell/Jane Ivetic * Once a year there will be a Health & Safety refresh for the persons on the ‘key list’. * If there are any Health & Safety updates during the year with regards to the Plantation Hall and its use, these will be communicated to the persons on the ‘key list'. * Keys for the Plantation Hall will be held by the HLH Library in Fort William, Jane Ivetic and Karen Russell at Caol Youth Centre and will only be released to those on the ‘key list’ for their pre-booked activity. * Keys used by the community organisation must be returned after the booking as soon as is possible. * HLH must know what purpose the Plantation Hall is being booked for by the community groups, this is in line with the terms of its responsibilities for safeguarding vulnerable groups. * Before we can accept a Club/Group Booking involving children a Child Protection Policy must be submitted with the booking form. Where applicable relevant teaching qualifications and certificate of first aider may be required. * Once the booking is confirmed 7 days’ notice of cancellation is required in writing or emailed to karen.russell@highlifehighland.com and jane.ivetic2@highlifehighland.com to avoid charges. * Block booking applications must be submitted each term by the first of the month. * Maximum numbers at booking must not be exceeded and area sufficiently ventilated. * Booking times must include preparation and dismantling of equipment. * The facilities must be left as found and any losses/damage reported as soon as possible. * Kitchen Use: Only users with the appropriate Food Hygiene Certificate are allowed to cook. * Highlife Highland strongly recommends that for the protection of group members hiring this facility, the group has Public Liability Insurance to cover injury and property damage to third parties I hope it is plainly obvious to all that this is just a recipe for more of the same, except where - here and there - is it a recipe for less of the same; back in 2019 I held a community surgery at the hall and a couple of meetings with Age Concern's Jo Cowan without paying thirty-four quid a throw for the privilege. Nor did I complete a Health and Safety Induction to make use of a hall that once-upon-a-time was run to benefit the local community, although I'm not objecting to the H&S 'induction' so much as drawing attention to the tendency of bureaucracies instinctively to react to calls for reform by devising and imposing fresh constraints; to the extent that my efforts of three years might actually have made matters worse, I should probably apologise to the community I (try to) serve. Like I said: two years to go, right? By the way, exceptionally alert and loyal readers may already have spotted that, from the eighth above condition as I have listed them, since neither Ms Ivetic nor Ms Russell works at Fort William library Mr Richardson's 18th August assurance that "there will be an option to make bookings by email, telephone or in person at either Caol Youth Centre or Fort William Library" is not fulfilled by the fifth condition, that only "Once the induction to the Plantation Hall has been completed, that person is then able to make bookings via Karen Russell/Jane Ivetic." This, of course, is just a quibble, and I mention it only to show that assuming good faith and hoping for the best are no substitute for vigilance when dealing with self-serving bureaucracies. Clearly though, the foremost substantive problem is around cost: the present incentive structure entirely militates against community-lead. Here is, at a minimum, what I think is needed and what, with your support, I will fight for:- * A comprehensive annual insurance policy to cover all community and community-commercial (ie non-profit, more-or-less) activities. * A purely nominal per-hire charge to cover HLH's marginal administrative expenses. * A grant-funded waiver scheme for even the per-hire charge based on real community benefit. * Transfer of hall management away from Caol into Ward 21 (ie Fort William, in practice). Plantationers will be lucky to achieve the last but I'd be pleased enough to see the first three implemented - wouldn't anyone? More broadly, I would call for HRC/HLH to generalise the fourth principle right across Highland: ALL similar such assets should be managed WITHIN council wards and management become DIRECTLY accountable to the ward councillors and constituents. I hope the principle is clear? I hope, too, that the example has indeed served "to illustrate the gulf that exists between my approach to community empowerment and the culture of indifferent mediocrity that prevails in all-too-many of our local institutions and authorities," as I promised to do at the beginning. To repeat, you can support this broad principle, approach, and agenda on 2nd December and thereafter by voting for me in second place, so after your preferred party candidate (or, indeed, the excellent Ms Joanne Matheson, Independent) - see last week's Wed-Head. With your second-place support I can deliver a much-needed shock to our civic system, and wrest back control from Nessie's pen-pushers. - Mark Drayton, candidate
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