In one of my very earliest blogs back in 2020, I highlighted the role that Low Traffic Neighbourhoods (LTN) can contribute to creating a safer community. This reflected the feedback I had received from the community safety survey and the various consultation activities that I had undertaken. A key outcome of the Community Safety Strategy was therefore stated as: There will be greater road safety and an increase in the level of Active Travel, and to achieve this I would support projects that encouraged low traffic neighbourhoods, promoted greater active travel, and created safer school streets. In this respect it was great to be able to announce in last month’s blog the Sustrans supported project: Easter Carmuirs Pocket Places which is focussed upon making it safer for children travelling to and from Easter Carmuirs Primary School. This will involve a partnership with the school, community, Falkirk Council and OPCT where Sustrans will deliver simple and low-cost adaptations around the school gate and surrounding streets with the intention of these interventions helping to increase safety, improve place quality and encourage active travel in the area.

Camelon Road Safety and Active Travel Project:

I am very pleased to introduce a new initiative which is focussed upon the streets around Carmuirs Primary School and Camelon Community Centre and will also involve the Camelon Early Years and Childcare Centre along with the Forth Valley Sensory Centre. The concerns about road safety and the danger especially for young people accessing local community amenities and the Nailer Road Park in particular were initially raised with myself by members of the Camelon Community Centre Management Committee.In response to this I am grateful that Forth Environment (FEL) Links Active Travel staff have responded positively to these concerns and have enthusiastically come on board to provide resources, guidance, and direct inputs to develop a Project that empowers local groups and organisations to examine the exact nature of the road safety concerns at these particular locations and work with them to identify potential solutions. Drew Taylor from FEL has been working closely with the young people and teaching staff at Carmuirs Primary School who recently conducted a detailed road safety survey around the streets of Camelon and have identified changes which they believe will make the streets safer for the young people and encourage safe active travel to and from the school and other local amenities and community facilities. The respective partners will all be working on their own priorities for road safety, active and accessible travel from their own perspectives. FEL will collate all the different groups survey results into a combined report which will then be used to involve the other key stakeholders with the view to bringing about the necessary changes and improvements which will make that area of Camelon safer for active travel. I will present the key findings and suggested improvements for road safety and active travel in this part of Camelon once the final report has been published.   

Twilight Sports returns for a winter programme:

After the success of the Twilight Sports Pilot Programme throughout the summer its absolutely fantastic to announce that there will be an indoor version of the programme kicking off on Friday November 4^th in Tamfourhill Community Hub from 6pm-8pm, the Programme will again be free for all 10-16 years olds, and this will run initially for 6 weeks with the last session for 2022 taking place on Friday December. Similar to the outdoor programme the plan will be to move the locations around Camelon and Tamfourhill, however at this time of writing I can’t yet confirm where the venues for January and February 2023 will be, but I will off course announce these well in advance of the start dates. The focussed sports for the first six weeks will be rollerblading provided by the Falkirk Wheelers and fun football once again run by our qualified football coach Grant Ferguson.  This will be a different experience from having the sessions out in the freedom of a public park and that will bring some new challenges, but it is very much hoped that there will be the same welcoming, open and positive atmosphere. A tremendous new addition will be the involvement and support of new youth work staff who will have a specific role to engage with and get to know the young people who attend every week, and we are hoping that this will provide a useful and wider service for local young people which and can be the start of further young person led community projects. A big part of the role of the youth workers will be to listen to young people’s issues and respond to their ideas and aspirations and they will also be able to provide young people with advice and support as required. The Twilight sports is very much about community safety and in this respect the Community Police Officer and the local Fire Service will continue to regularly visit the Twilight sessions and get involved with all the young people who come along. Dr Bike will be back to service bikes for free and where possible carry out basic repairs, the full programme will be available in the next couple of weeks on our Social media platforms and through the distribution of flyers. I look forward to seeing lots of the young people returning and taking part and Friday nights will once again be a great experience for all the young people, staff, and volunteers.  

All Games Allowed at Nailer Road Park:

I have been supporting this Arts project over the last year, the initial idea had been developed by community artist Mark Bleakley and it has been further rolled out with the support of the Camelon Arts Project. We were at Nailer Road Park last Wednesday where we were joined by an enthusiastic group of young people who spent the afternoon creating their own version of the All Games Allowed ground based creative games court. We appreciated the support of the Nailer Park Tenants and Residents Organisation who came along and helped out, and the young people came up with some colourful crazy designs and ingenious games, the photos illustrate their temporary creations made with the spray chalks and gaffer tape.  

Safer Streets Open Doors Events:

There will be a continuation of the Safer Streets roadshows which we are now calling Open Door Events and they to will also be moving inside for the winter period. The format will be similar to the roadshows but will be more structured with each community safety partner having their own stall set up within the various community venues. The statutory services will again be in attendance, including Falkirk Council, Police and Fire Services and a wide variety of local third sector organisations will also be participating: Forth Valley Recovery Community, Transform Forth Valley, Neighbourhood Watch Scotland and the Forth Valley Sensory Centre, there will also be stalls and information available from local community organisations and groups. Full publicity with dates and locations will soon be available and the intention is to begin the events on Thursday 3^rd November. This is a good opportunity to raise issues, concerns and bring new ideas to all off the main community safety services and agencies and to be able to access them all under the one roof, tea and coffee will be available and there will be a very warm welcome from all of the Community Safety Partners and local Groups.