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Parents and staff from schools on Mull and Iona teamed together to put a smile on the faces of every child and young person on the islands after a difficult year. Led by Dervaig Primary School’s Parent Council, the group received £5,000 from the Mull Waterfall Fund to do something special for every young person in the area, from new born babies to school leavers – a total of 529 people.

The Scottish Parliamentary Election takes place on Thursday 6th May 2021. Everyone in Scotland is represented by eight Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) - one constituency MSP and seven MSPs for the larger region in which they live. For voters living in the Argyll and Bute constituency, this means they will be asked to elect one Constituency MSP and one Regional MSP for the Argyll and Bute area within the Highlands and Islands Region.

Argyll and Bute Council is committed to ensuring that the rights of children and their families continue to be heard. At a meeting of today’s Community Services Committee, members heard about the work already carried out by the council over the last three years to give children and young people a voice, and its plans to expand this. During the last three years, Argyll and Bute Council has:

Argyll and Bute Council has made significant progress in recruiting and delivering a counselling service for children and young people in the area. The council was awarded £286,000 through the Scottish Government’s 10 year Mental Health Strategy to provide the service over the last 12 months, and a further £377,000 has been allocated for each of the next three years.

Polling stations are safe places to vote and while there are options like postal or proxy votes, some people will still prefer to cast their vote in person. People will see some changes at polling stations – all designed to ensure that voters can comply with Covid-19 restrictions like social distancing. There may be separate doors to enter and leave the polling place, and a one-way system marked out to follow once inside.

Today is International Women’s Day and to celebrate the Council’s Chief Executive, Pippa Milne, tells us how it feels to be a woman at the top of local government. How does it feel to be a woman at the top of your industry?

The Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee yesterday (4 March) endorsed a £10m roads improvement programme for Argyll and Bute. This sum includes an additional £2.61m, approved in last month’s budget that has still to be allocated to work. A full, updated, programme will be presented to the committee’ next meeting in June.

Transforming Argyll and Bute’s economy continues to be a priority for Argyll and Bute Council to help create vibrant places and communities and attract more people to live and work in the area. A report to the Environment, Development and Infrastructure (ED&I) Committee highlighted the role the Transformation Project and Regeneration Team are playing to secure external funding and help deliver large scale regeneration projects across the area.

Argyll and Bute Council continues to support town centre regeneration by delivering Town Centre Funding from the Scottish Government. The fund worth £1.686 million is helping the local economy recover making it a more attractive places to live, work, visit and invest. A report to the Environment, Development and Infrastructure (ED&I) committee on Thursday highlighted progress to date with 28 projects in total allocated for funding.

The Environment, Development and Infrastructure Committee recommends that the council funds a permanent post that will ensure housing in Argyll and Bute is accessible and adaptable, to meet all needs. The Housing Occupational Therapist post, is funded through the Strategic Housing Fund, and links up the Health and Social Care Partnership and Housing Services. This has been a temporary role for three years and has been successful in meeting key outcomes in the council’s housing strategy and helping appropriate services to work together. Key successes include: