Council / ‘We are listening’: council’s community conversations continue tour around Shetland
CAST your mind back to that BT advertising campaign of the 1990s and you might remember the slogan “it’s good to talk”.
That is also the essence of the ethos behind Shetland Islands Council’s (SIC) Community Conversations project, which aims to give people around the isles a chance to have their say in planning for the future.
The premise is fairly simple; drop-in sessions featuring SIC chief executive Maggie Sandison, leader Emma Macdonald and local councillors are being hosted in every council ward – while an online event will be held for people in the outer isles.
Folk are invited to come along and have an informal, face to face chat about local services and their community as the council plans its next corporate plan.
The first event was held in Cunningsburgh in mid-November, with another in Brae a fortnight later.
As the third time’s a charm, Shetland News dropped by the next one in Scalloway, at the village’s primary school last week.
The building is unusually busy for a tea time on a Tuesday night, as elsewhere in the school there is a parent’s evening too.
When we enter the room, Team Council outnumbers members of the public. But, there is an acknowledgement that these type of events might not always get the best levels of engagement.
“You never get massive numbers at these sessions, but what we have heard is that people have really appreciated the fact that they have the opportunity to come and speak to us,” Macdonald says.
Shetland Central member, Moraig Lyall, meanwhile soon joins us at the table.
“I think it’s very important [to engage with the community] but I don’t necessarily think that these sort of formal consultations are always where the best engagement comes,” she says.
“As councillors, we’re all living in our communities and interacting regularly with people there.”
Macdonald adds that a trip to the local shop tends to get plenty of engagement too. “But making yourself available is really important.”
At each table are large sheets of paper, and plenty of post-it notes. It’s all about the post-it notes, it seems; these will be collected up at the end and taken away for further consideration.
Each person who comes to a Community Conversations event will be prompted with three questions, including ‘what helps your community to thrive’ and one about how the SIC can help that become a reality.
Reflecting on the events held so far, Macdonald says the council has heard some “really positive things around the things that matter to people”.
This has included a good sense of community and belonging to a place – while education, transport and the various forms of connectivity have also regularly cropped up in some of the chats, as well as the cost of living.
“But actually some of the discussions have said that the council isn’t always the person that they need to fix some of these things, or to make your community better,” Macdonald says.
By this point – more than an hour and a half in – around eight or nine folk have come by for a skoit in Scalloway, including some who have likely just finished with parents’ night.
After gently turning down the initial offer of refreshments out of dogged politeness, Shetland News cannot hold out any longer and says yes to a coffee, and not one but two Oreo biscuits.
Attendance is not mandatory for local elected members, but three of Shetland Central’s four councillors are here – Lyall is joined by Davie Sandison and Catherine Hughson.
The fourth, Ian Scott, is nowhere to be seen, but we asked him afterwards about his absence.
The outspoken councillor admits he is in a “bit of a fuddle” when it comes to these kinds of meetings.
“Myself and my colleagues, and for that matter most of the elected members and the management team, very rarely see eye to eye, so I feel in these circumstances, the council approach should be presented without my observations or flies in the ointment,” Scott says.
“I suppose what I’m really saying is that the council agendas are pretty well set, with these meetings being seen as a superficial endorsement of what eventually transpires.”
Scott gave the example of local objections to the building of a new Co-op in East Voe, which he said “fell on stoney ground”.
“It amuses me when there’s talk of local input and local engagement,” he adds.
Well, back to the community consultation event. Oreos gobbled and coffee quaffed, we grab a word with chief executive Maggie Sandison.
She says the SIC’s corporate plan Our Ambition is coming to the end of its five year term, with the focus now on the priorities for the next iteration.
Sandison says sessions have already been held with elected members, but “why not ask the people who we are trying to support, about what matters to them?”
The chief executive also highlights that the Community Conversations events are a chance to discuss how the SIC might change.
The local authority, and senior councillors, have repeatedly warned that the SIC is being asked to do more with less, while an ageing workforce is presenting challenges too.
This is a key reason why Sandison is leading a possible restructure of the council’s management.
“The way we currently deliver services, because of the number of vacancies we currently have, is quite difficult,” she says.
“So we have to use a lot of agency workers, we rely on goodwill of staff to come back in to cover overtime, or we have people who are working more hours than they are getting paid for.
“So if we currently can’t really deliver the services with the number of people that we have, what’s that going to look like in 2033?”
Sandison says a lot of knowledge and experience can be lost in the organisation without properly planning for the future.
“We are not changing because we want to, we’re changing because we have to,” she adds.
Macdonald meanwhile reiterates that the current corporate plan was written as the SIC was coming off the back of Covid, against a different landscape which made public consultation more difficult.
She says that the council gets criticised for not listening, but Macdonald believes these events show that is not the case.
“It is really important that people know that we are listening,” she adds.
“I know there’s probably a bit of a consultation fatigue – there’s so many different events where people are asked to come and say what’s matters to you, so I can understand why people might sit and home and think ‘yet another one, what’s the point’.
“But there really is a point, because all the post-its we’ve gathered and all the information, we will do something with it and we will make sure that it does inform our decision making around what goes in the corporate plan.”
By the time we rally the troops for a group photo before saying goodbye, SIC depute leader Gary Robinson – who represents Lerwick North and Bressay – has turned up to join the party too.
Davie Sandison and Moraig Lyall are occupied at one of the many tables, busy speaking to a member of the public and helping to write down their views, so they manage to avoid the palaver of posing for a photo.
As BT once said, it is indeed good to talk – and the SIC will be hoping folk agree as the tour around Shetland continues over the coming weeks and months.
Following an event in Aith last night, the next Community Conversations event will take place at Lerwick Town Hall on Wednesday 10 December between 4.30pm and 7.30pm.
It then moves to the Baltasound Hall in Unst (3pm to 6pm) the following day, with a session also planned in the Bressay Hall on Tuesday 16 December (4.30pm to 7.30pm).
Events in Mid Yell and Whalsay are planned for January, but the dates are yet to be confirmed, while details will be made available in due course for an online session for Foula, Fair Isle, Skerries, Papa Stour and Fetlar.
People unable to attend any events in person can also email their thoughts to CommunityConversation@shetland.gov.uk.
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