Chamber and committees

Alison McGrory, do you have anything to add?

It is the wider issue of attaching electric charging points to buildings. I wondered whether consultation had taken place on their being freestanding under the changes and whether the issue has been discussed with the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the stakeholder groups that are still undertaking significant work on cladding issues in Scotland.

That is helpful. Thank you.

That was helpful—thank you. Alison MacLeod, did you want to come in?

My specific issue, and where stakeholder groups would want to have been involved, concerns the proximity of electric charging points to buildings and the relaxed rules around installing them. From what I am hearing, I am not sure whether that work is taking place.

I accept that. Some of the work that the stakeholder group on cladding has been doing is specifically around the proximity of electric charging points to buildings. I am concerned about that and am not sure that it has been captured or specifically been considered.

Good morning and thank you for joining us today.

Your comments about where you think the public are in all of this have been refreshing and honest, but I want to ask a few questions about how this approach has changed organisations and bodies. You touched on that in response to my colleague Marie McNair when you talked about working with third sector and outside organisations. How has resource and budget allocation changed? For most of the groups to whom we have spoken, the issue comes down to who pays for delivery. Do you have examples of what that has looked like and how CPPs have helped change that resource allocation?

That was helpful. I know that capturing resource in kind is sometimes quite difficult to quantify with a financial figure.

I want to ask a couple of specific questions, because many blind and visually impaired Scots are concerned about this, and charities have raised concerns. The fact that there is no specific guidance attached to the order is an issue, especially when you think of what my city of Edinburgh will look like during the festival, with businesses potentially just setting up roped areas. That is one of the main concerns. Why was specific guidance not developed to go along with the order so that councils could look at it in more detail before it is rolled out, especially, for example, in Edinburgh during the festival?

In my time as an MSP, one issue has been about what street furniture starts to look like, especially during the festival, with A-boards and things like that. My concern is whether the order relaxes the approach in many businesses’ views and how things will change. People want assurance about how that will be enforced by the council at what could be an incredibly busy time.

My other question is about the electric vehicle charging infrastructure. What consultation has taken place on that with stakeholders, specifically the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service and the stakeholder groups on cladding?