Council planning to hold community engagement drop-in events
THE COUNCIL is set to hold a series of engagement exercises across Shetland to ask the public what they want to see prioritised over the next five years.
Chief executive Maggie Sandison and ward councillors are set to hold the drop-in events in locations around the isles later this year.
No dates or venues have been confirmed yet, but Sandison told Shetland News this would be after the October school holidays.
It comes as the council’s current corporate plan, entitled Our Ambition, comes to an end next year.
The document, which had run from 2021-2026, is currently being developed by councillors for the next five years to set out the SIC’s vision and priorities for this period.
Sandison said that while the strategy is “for the council”, it was “important that it is shaped by the views and priorities of our community”.
Speaking at last Wednesday’s full Shetland Islands Council meeting, Shetland Central councillor Moraig Lyall said she would like to see an engagement event where the public could tell the SIC their views on the specific topic of energy.
That comes as the council continues to work on its draft energy strategy, which elected members decided not to approve last week.
Lyall said the council had heard the public’s views on specific energy projects – but never their “general views on this whole area”.
Sandison said the SIC had committed to a series of community engagement events before the end of the year, which would take place in each council ward.
These exercises would ask people “what helps their community to thrive”, and how the SIC could “support that to be a reality”.
Ward councillors, political leader Emma Macdonald, depute leader Gary Robinson and Sandison will attend the events, she told the meeting.
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However Lyall expressed concern that energy “could possibly be lost” at a big event where topics like education, health, care and roads were also on people’s minds.
The councillor said that, with a limited amount of time before the energy strategy comes back to councillors in December, she felt it was a big enough area to “justify an event on its own”.
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