Land use vision moves forward

Groups across the Glenkens have been hard at work to turn the Glenkens Land Use Vision into reality.

Thanks to funding from NatureScot and SOSE, Dalry Community Council (DCC) and the Glenkens Community & Arts Trust (GCAT) have been able to commission some valuable work around next steps in achieving this.

The Glenkens Land Use Vision is an addendum to the Glenkens & District Community Action Plan, and can be found on the Glenkens Hub (www.glenkens.scot/reports-resources-archive/a-vision-for-land-use-in-the-glenkens).

Working in partnership, DCC and GCAT have created a three-pronged project that seeks to move the aims of the Land Use Vision forward while integrating with existing plans and processes.

Firstly, Becca Nelson, who some of you may know as the Glenkens Community Spaces network facilitator, is working with the Dalry communities to make sure that their Local Place Plan integrates land use into the vision that people have for their parish. It will also draw heavily on the Community Action Plan. Having created an LPP template, she will then work with Carsphairn to create their Place Plan, and having then refined the process, a template LPP will be made available to all Glenkens and district communities to use to create their own LPPs, if they so wish.

In parallel with this, Stephen Connelly of Dalry is working on a feasibility study to see what it would take to create a Glenkens Land Use Forum and what it might look like. He's been interviewing people on the topic through December and January, but if you have a view on this and would like to talk to Stephen about it in February, contact helen@catstrand.com and she will put you in touch.

Lastly, artist Kerry Morrison is working on how we can better understand what our landscapes mean to us all. Through February and March, Kerry will be out and about in the area recording our landscape through writing and drawing. She will be pulling up with her art cart in a variety of locations, so If you see her, please do pop over for a chat! Kerry is keen to discover the different ways in which we connect to our villages and the wider local landscape, and would love to hear from as many different people as possible.

The joint GCAT and DCC steering group will then pull these three projects together into something we hope will be really useful for our communities, and also perhaps the next steps in achieving the Land Use Vision. The project completes at the end of March, so watch this space!

Helen Keron