Funding allocated to North, West and Central Sutherland ward for play parks and mental health wellbeing initiatives
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Sutherland councillors have agreed how to spend £100,000 funding allocated to the north, west and central Sutherland ward from the Scottish Government’s Place Based Investment Fund.
Members of Sutherland County Committee decided at their virtual meeting last month that £50,000 should be spent on improving play parks in the far-flung ward; £40,000 to support mental health wellbeing initiatives; and £10,000 has been allocated to support the provision of defibrillators.
A decision on the allocation of a similar £100,000 in the East Sutherland and Edderton ward was made at the county committee’s August meeting – £80,000 is to go on play parks and £20,000 towards mental wellbeing projects.
The county committee has also been allocated an extra £12,591 from a total £234,000 received by Highland Council towards the upgrade of play parks from the Scottish Government’s play area renewal programme.
County committee chairman Councillor Richard Gale said at the November 22 meeting: “I am delighted that we are investing in our local play parks and are able to support further initiatives in improving mental wellbeing.
“By improving our play parks, we will have a positive impact on the mental wellbeing of children and young people, but there is also the potential for wider benefits to the whole community.”
The Place Based Investment Programme was set up to enable a local response to address the “four harms” of Covid-19 – identified as direct health harms; health impacts not directly related to Covid; societal impacts and economic impacts.
The county committee further decided to allocate up to £10,000 from the Covid-19 discretionary fund in each of Sutherland’s two wards (East Sutherland and Edderton; and North, West and Central Sutherland) to address fuel poverty.
It was agreed at a full council meeting in January that if councillors wanted to set aside a portion of their remaining Covid-19 discretionary fund for other purposes than originally intended, this should be agreed at area committee level.
Cllr Gale said: “I am glad that we were able to agree today to create a fuel poverty support fund as a one-off measure to assist families facing the impact of Covid-19 and high fuel prices this winter.
“Fuel poverty is a growing concern and any assistance we can offer to families this year will help to relieve some of the pressure on households.”
