Published on:
15
October 2012
Local communities in Clackmannanshire will benefit from a unique agreement between the Central Scotland Green Network (CSGN) and Clackmannanshire Council, which will help to improve the social, physical, cultural and environmental well-being of the area.
The CSGN is Europe's largest greenspace initiative which seeks to transform Central Scotland into a place where the environment adds value to the economy and where people's lives are enriched by its quality.
Clackmannanshire Council is the second Council to sign up to the CSGN's Local Authority Concordat, after the City of Edinburgh Council, which recognises its commitment to formally help deliver the CSGN vision and highlights the fundamental role local authorities have to play in helping to achieve the network's aims.
In signing up to the scheme, Clackmannanshire Council has welcomed the Scottish Government's commitment to the CSGN, as expressed through the network's inclusion in Scotland's second National Planning Framework, as well as the opportunities the CSGN has to offer.
Clackmannanshire Council has also pledged to embed the CSGN in all relevant policies, strategies and plans and to deliver a programme for the delivery of Green Network priorities in the area. The Council has also committed to enhance its partnership work to realise the CSGN.
Keith Geddes, Chair of the Central Scotland Green Network Partnership Board, said: "In order to achieve the CSGN aims of delivering a high quality green network that will meet the Scottish Government's environmental, social and economic objectives, we need to share resources, best practice and new thinking.
"Our Local Authority Concordat represents a collective understanding that working in partnership will ensure policies and resources are aligned and will in turn achieve the optimum results for all parties involved. I hugely welcome the fact that Clackmannanshire Council has come on board and we look forward to building on our relationship to create a lasting legacy for the future."
Clackmannanshire Council Leader Gary Womersley said: "By signing up to the network we are underlining this Council's commitment to a greener Clackmannanshire.
"CSGN has an important role to play in supporting the Council's Corporate Strategy, Taking Clackmannanshire Forward, to provide better towns and villages, a better environment and better opportunities for all. It is also a key means by which to deliver projects which offer multiple benefits to residents of and visitors to Clackmannanshire, supporting the Single Outcome Agreement priority outcomes of improved health, an enhanced environment and providing Clackmannanshire with a more positive image.
"We have already done a lot of work to create a better environment in Clackmannanshire with routes for walking and cycling and the efforts we take as an organisation to reduce our carbon footprint. But we can certainly do more, with plans including a project to promote the multi-benefits of woodland including biodiversity, climate change adaptation, access, timber production and wood energy which is benefited from CSGN funding. We are also working with CSGN and a local primary school to create 'Alloa urban trees' - small thickets of native trees and shrubs which will enhance parts of the Devon Way."
Five projects in Clackmannanshire have already benefited from support through the CSGN Development Fund. Clackmannanshire Council has been awarded £92,110 to date and has undertaken partnership projects including the Green Mapping project and the Gartmorn Gateway project.
Most recently, in 2012 the Council was awarded £9,810 to improve the amenity and biodiversity value of the southern end of the Devon Way, immediately adjacent to Alloa town centre. Thickets of native trees and shrubs, as well as standard trees, will be planted by local school children to enhance this traffic-free access route from Alloa town centre, railway station and Alloa's leisure centre, to the Clackmannanshire Community Healthcare Centre and on to the Hillfoots.
Stretching from Ayrshire, Inverclyde and Dunbartonshire in the west, to Fife and the Lothians in the east, the CSGN encompasses 19 local authorities across 10,000 sq km and has the potential to benefit 3.5million people, equating to 70 per cent of Scotland's population.
The CSGN is encouraging other local authorities across Central Scotland to follow in the footsteps of Clackmannanshire and the City of Edinburgh Councils by signing its Local Authority Concordat.
The agreement marks a significant step forward in bringing together the right expertise, resources and people, in order to realise an ambitious project which will help to make Central Scotland a more attractive and distinctive place to live, to visit and to do business in.