Chamber and committees

Okay. Thanks for that.

I appreciate that the roads authority would look at it, but it would do so on a very technical basis to do with access and safety. I am more concerned about the noise and nuisance impact on families who live in the vicinity. To clarify, will any outdoor seated area require an amended licensing application? That would give local families and residents the opportunity to feed in their views to the licensing authority.

We are reviewing the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015. At the most basic level, has community participation improved since the introduction of the 2015 act? Has the act had any meaningful impact on such participation? Do you have anything to evidence an increase in the levels of participation? I will come to Alison McGrory first.

Thank you.

I wonder how the public get the opportunity to object to the appropriateness of an outdoor hospitality area. If you move into a town or village centre and are near a pub or restaurant, you know what you are going to and you know that, if the scope of that community is to change, you will, generally, get the opportunity to object to a planning application. There are many young families in the small towns and villages that I represent who live near a local pub and would not necessarily want to see outdoor seated areas, given the general noise that is associated with them. How will those people get an opportunity to have a say in how the area in the immediate vicinity of their house will change?

I wish to put on the record my concern that there is a danger that a young family could see an outdoor drinking area pop up outside a child’s bedroom. Without the gold standard of a neighbour notification, there is no responsibility on a local authority even to consult on an application to a roads authority, so there is still a danger that things could pop up in communities that would have a real impact on young families in particular but of which they would have no prior awareness. That is my concern with this instrument.

My second question is about the level of awareness in the community of community planning and community planning partnerships. I will come to Craig first. Is the community broadly aware that community planning exists, of what it does and of how to get involved?

Thanks.

Valerie, do you have any views on how participation with communities has changed since the 2015 act was introduced?

I had a final question, but Derek Shaw covered it in his answer.

Does anyone else want to touch on how they are supporting marginalised or deprived communities? Mark, I know that you were doing that last week.