News

Argyll and Bute Council’s work in supporting refugees into employment has won a prestigious award at the 2019 COSLA Excellence Awards. The ‘Supporting our Refugees into Work’ programme landed COSLA’s ‘ Excellent People, Excellent Outcomes Award’ at last night’s (Thursday) ceremony in St Andrew’s.

Domestic violence and abuse can be a driver of poverty vulnerability for partners fleeing abuse. More than two-thirds of survivors of domestic abuse have reported their partners withheld money from them as a key method of controlling and mistreating them, according to the Women’s Aid report, The Economics of Abuse.

Argyll and Bute’s popularity as a filming location is well established – and the council is working alongside residents and partner organisations to ensure that the trend continues. A number of productions have come to the area so far in 2019, including BBC drama The Nest – starring Martin Compston and Sophie Rundle. Documentaries, adverts and other productions have also filmed in Argyll and Bute in 2019. The area’s stunning landscape continues to attract fashion photoshoots too, with Urban Outfitters recently having visited the area.

  We want to make it easier for people to get education benefits for their children. By matching information held on our the council’s benefit system to that held in our education system, we have automated some payments of school clothing grants and free school meals this year. To date 190 individual payments of £100 have been issued to people that have an entitlement for school clothing grants but hadn’t submitted a claim.

This week Argyll and Bute Council will join voices raised against poverty as it demonstrates what is being done to tackle poverty across the area. It will take part in Challenge Poverty week, a campaign started by the Poverty Alliance to highlight the reality of poverty and challenge the stereotypes. The week will showcase the solutions to poverty and increase public support for action to solve the problem.

Applications are being invited for the council’s Supporting Communities Fund 2020/21. Groups can apply for up to 100% of the total funding costs for their project or activity from the fund, with a maximum award of £2500 available.

Genna Lugue is just one of the people who will be featured in a new campaign to promote abplace2b.scot, the website designed to provide information on just what makes Argyll and Bute the ideal place to build your life. Talking about what makes Argyll and Bute such a special place for her, she says:

We're looking for a new Chief Executive. Could it be you? Cleland Sneddon, current Chief Executive, talks about some of his favourite times in the role and explains why it's such a great job. More information on the post. More information on life in Argyll and Bute.

What makes a good council Chief Executive? We asked some of our employees and here is what they told us. If this sounds like you, our Chief Executive vacancy could be a great career move for you: http://bit.ly/2o9OSqg  A good Chief Executive:

Focusing roads’ maintenance expenditure on improving roads classified as ‘amber’ as well as  ‘red’ is good practice and more cost-effective by avoiding greater expenditure by leaving the road condition to deteriorate further. This was one of the conclusions made by a review panel for the Audit and Scrutiny Committee, which considered how the Operations Team prioritised roads maintenance work, how surfacing methods used were determined and what other technologies had been considered. Other findings included: