This time last year, the Dundee Partnership unveiled its plan for making the city a better place to live and work across the next decade.
One year on, the Tele is looking at the progress of the City Plan across the course of five exclusive interviews.
Today reporter Jon Brady speaks to Elaine Zwirlein, executive director of neighbourhood services at Dundee City Council, about the plan’s ambitions to build stronger and more invested communities.
Dundee’s communities each have a strong sense of unique identity – from Lochee to Fintry and everywhere in between.
However, while everyone tends to know everyone in their area, there’s still work to do on ensuring that locals feel they have a say in influencing what goes on where they live.
Fewer than half of locals quizzed in the council’s annual citizens survey say they feel that they, or people they know, can influence local decisions.
It’s a challenge that Elaine Zwirlein, neighbourhood services boss at the council, is aware of and one she and her team have been rising to in recent years.
Chief among recent engagement exercises was the Dundee Decides participatory budgeting scheme, which saw 12,000 locals vote on how to spend £1.2 million of council funds.
Elaine said: “With the City Plan, we set out our priorities and we were ambitious for the city – but it’s off to a really steady start.
“Dundee Decides is a prime example of our work promoting inclusiveness in the city. It got people talking and engaging and gave them an opportunity to have a say.
“It was a starting point and not the finished article by any means.
“But it is something we can build on, because people in this city want to engage and want to make informed choices.”
However, while the City Plan makes a clear commitment to boosting the profile of the council-chaired local community planning partnerships (LCPPs), no such representations are made for community councils.
A report earlier this month found Dundee City Council spends just a penny per head on funding community councils each year – which is less than any other council area in the country.
Elaine said: “The figures are only part of the full picture.
“As well as community councils, Dundee has tenants and residents groups.
“It has resources and workers at its disposal.
“It’s important to the council and its partners that people’s voices are heard because that is the only way we know whether we’re doing the right things to make a difference.”
As part of its mission to build “strong and empowered communities”, the Dundee Partnership’s City Plan also aims to encourage more active travel – already on the rise – and ensure locals like where they live (most do).
However, the plan’s remit also covers housing, from new affordable builds to the quality of existing social lets.
And in those regards, while new build completions are behind schedule – an issue blamed on the long-term nature of such projects – other issues such as fuel poverty are on the wane.
And with nine years to go on the City Plan, there’s time yet to convince locals that they can, and do, have a say in the running of where they live.
Elaine said: “We have thousands of people who work hard for their communities, often voluntarily, and we take our hats off to them – we couldn’t do what we do without them.”
