If you read my community safety blog regularly you will be aware of the ongoing community engagement work that has been taking place at the Juniors car park. This location was identified as an unsafe and problematic area in terms of Anti-social behaviour and other issues like fly tipping and littering and it has  therefore remained  a priority for the community safety strategy. I began focusing on this area back in January 2021 when a postal survey was sent to every council tenant within a half mile radius of the Juniors Car Park. The results indicated that local people did want the area to be developed and changed in a positive way and the survey results confirmed a wide array of local aspirations, these included: pop up parks, safe seating with lighting and a community mural were all highlighted as potential projects suitable for implementing at that location. From that positive feedback I have endeavoured to bring all the relevant stakeholders together to look at how we could make some of these aspirations  happen and fully involve the community with that process.   

The initial challenge is to change the locations perception as being a negative and unsafe place that people don’t want to go to or visit and to transform the area into somewhere that is used constructively for enjoyable community activities. An important aspect to this was to actively listen to the community and establish how they thought the area could be made safer, be  better used, and developed into an asset and new facility for local people. To this end we organised a Gather and Play day at the Juniors car park and nearby social club back in October of this year.

This community event was all about participation and imagining the place as being  a completely different  social space. Our colleagues form Camelon Arts facilitated workshops looking at how the perimeter wall of the football ground could be converted into a community mural, the Tidy, Clean, and Green group provided a pop-up park with children’s games, there was bulb planting and an information stall form frog life. An  “all games allowed” activity involving children and young people creating their own street games took place on the car park surface and there was food and refreshments provided by the Camelon Juniors Social Club.

An important Part of the day for myself as the Community Safety Engager was encouraging local people to take part in the consultation table which was located within the pop-up park. Families and children could play with the giant games and other art activities whilst also relaxing at the pop-up park. This provided me with an opportunity to listen to peoples ideas for the future safe development of the area. Three main themes emerged from the days discussions: families would like a play park and a safe play facility for their children, there was significant interest in creating a community wall mural at the football grounds external wall and the security and safety of the location required urgent improvement through the use of better lighting and CCTV.      

An outcome form that days community event was a willingness and commitment from  the Tidy, Clean and Green Group to lead on a longer-term plan for the wider community development and environmental improvement of the Carmuirs area. As a first step on this journey the Group are cordially inviting local people back round to the Juniors car park this Friday 11^th February from 11am-3pm for a Fun for the Future Community event.   Our Colleagues at The Conservation Volunteers will be providing an outdoor cooking experience with a fire pit and Kelly kettles, there will be den building equipment for the young people and Tidy, Clean and Green will have a make your own bird feeder activity table. There will be sandwiches and refreshments available  for everyone and inside the Social club there will be 4  tabletop discussion themes for the young people and their families to take part in . The four topics will be: Keeping the area safe and secure, designing your own children’s play park, create your own mini wall mural and a table looking at some of  the benefits to the community of developing this area into a safe location for families and young people. The local community police will be in attendance along with the Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill Project, TCV, Go Forth and Clyde, Camelon juniors Social Club, Tidy, Clean and Green Community Group and Camelon Arts Project. I look forward to seeing as many people as possible coming along to have Fun for the Future.

This is a very exciting time for the Carmuirs area, the new Tidy, Clean and Green creative messaging project started this week ,so look out for new signage and positive environmental messaging appearing in the  community created by local young people. In addition, the Tidy, Clean and Green Group will be managing a local environmental consultant who will be delivering activities and working with the community to agree  a wider plan for improving the Carmuirs area and focusing upon the Juniors car park and the old Brown Street Park. This project has been made possible through funding that the group  secured from the Community Renewal Fund, and it will be operational up to  the end of June. I will feature this exciting new development for the area in next week’s community safety blog.  

Community Coach Blog, Dan Rous, 3 February 2022

For this week’s blog, here’s an update on a few bits and pieces of relevance:

Community Choices

Voting is still open for the latest projects looking to get funding for the larger projects. You can vote for any projects listed in your area of residence, plus there are additional projects listed that serve the whole of Falkirk. You get 3 votes but they all carry equal weight. The council team do carry out post code checks to make their life a little easier, please do not vote for an area you don’t live in! Here’s the info and links relevant to our area:

Ward 6 (Camelon) Voting Link
Not many to choose from so when this comes around again, please come to us for any help you need to get an application in. The only projects listed here are Falkirk Golf Club (Access improvements for wheelchairs etc) and Bainsford Community Hall (Hall Refurbishment)

Ward 7 (Tamfourhill) Voting Link
Three projects to choose from here but the same comment applies about any projects who may be looking for funding later in the year. We’ll keep you posted when the council open this up for applications again. For now, the projects to choose from are: Tamfourhill Community Hub (Community Kitchen Project); Bantaskin Residents Association (New Community Area); and Ettrick Dockhart Community Hall (Hall upgrades).

The Falkirk-wide projects that you can also vote for if you wish, are: Friends of Forth Valley First Responders (Public Access Defibrillators across the area); and Barony Players (external works to the Theatre plus work to increase membership).

Voting is open until 5pm on Monday 14 February.

OPCT Development Worker Vacancy

As announced 2 weeks ago, I’m going to be leaving this role at the end of this month. I’m grateful to all those who have messaged me with their good wishes. Based on how the role has evolved over the last 2 years, the team have reworked the role slightly and, following approval from the National Lottery Community Fund, have now been able to get this advertised with the new name of Camelon Development Worker. This is a fixed term role for 14 months and has a closing date for applications of 18 February at 12pm, so don’t hang about if you’re going to apply. All the information, including Job Description and Application Form, is on the EVH recruitment website.

I’ve loved my time in this role and can highly recommend it to you. There will certainly never be a dull moment!

THRIVE to Keep Well

As mentioned in my previous blog, this programme is starting again at Camelon Community Centre in collaboration with Carmuirs Primary School. We had a good result from the pilot running of this last year, and are pleased that we’re able, at last, to have the final celebration day in a couple of weeks time (it was postponed before Christmas due to Covid concerns). If you, or someone you know, would benefit from this programme then do get in touch with Jackie who’s details are on the flyer below

And finally

No news report is complete without an ‘And finally’! I can give you a sneaky pre-announcement of some funding that is coming into the area as part of a consortium of local organisations. This will enable further local engagement and detailed development planning in respect of Easter Carmuirs Park, the area next to the Camelon Juniors car park, and Brown Street Park between now and the end of June. It won’t get any work done yet, but it will move us so much closer which is fantastic. But to work most effectively, it will need you to get on board especially if you live in or near to, or you use any of these spaces. Stay tuned for all the information that you need to know in the next couple of weeks.

There’s lots more going on but that’s the things that are most important to update you on for now. Until next time….

Dan Rous
Community Coach
07444 873151
communitycoach@tamfourhilltro.co.uk

A Manifesto for walking 2022

There may not be an absolute consensus in peoples responses to this question however the recent Manifesto for Walking 2022 collated by Living Streets Scotland is an excellent starting point. In this community safety blog, I am going to highlight this manifesto and request that local people and groups  write to the newspapers , share on social media and raise the main manifesto  issues with those candidates who will be standing for election to Falkirk Council in May 2022. Here is the link to the Living Streets website that will guide you through that process:

https://e-activist.com/page/99710/action/

The four main assertions detailed below are relevant to local community safety projects, including: The pop up parks, the Low Traffic Neighbourhoods I have discussed in a previous blog, the need for new local play facilities and the development of a Community Climate Action Plan for Camelon and Tamfourhill.

The manifesto for walking 2022 is based on the four following assertions:

• 1. To end pedestrian deaths and injuries on our road: The benefits of walking for our physical and mental well being are well documented and widely acknowledged. Through the pandemic communities have realised the benefits of walking, however there has also been a number of notable challenges for people out walking: including, narrow cluttered, uneven pavements, crossings that prioritise cars rather than people, and speeding vehicles and in response the manifesto for walking asks that councils and other statutory services:
• Set Vision Zero targets of significant reductions in people killed and seriously injured on all roads, leading to zero deaths.
• Introduce default 20mph speed limits in built-up areas across Scotland and introduce measures to significantly slow traffic on rural roads on the approach to dwellings, schools and visitor sites.
• Improve our crossings and junctions, making sure there is a pedestrian crossing at every signalled junction.
• Create walkable 20-minute urban neighbourhoods and cut traffic levels by 20%

• 2. Make school streets and neighbourhoods safe: This manifesto assertion has particular local resonance with the ongoing problems and concerns at Easter Carmuirs Primary School and I am certain there will be similar concerns around all of the local schools and early years’ centres. There is no doubt that more families will choose to walk to school if they believe the streets to be safer and it therefore is desirable that we transform the routes we travel to school so they are safer, cleaner and less congested. Importantly walking to or cycling or wheeling to school sets healthy habits for life. The manifesto asks our councils and statutory services to:
• Invest in walk to school programmes targeting areas with poor health outcomes.
• Create and grow traffic free school streets programmes in every town area and build upon the successful programmes in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
• Improve routes to school by making all urban neighbourhood streets 20mph, not just outside school gates and invest in better crossings and more green spaces.

• 3. Cut the clutter and make walking easier for everyone: The challenge of getting more people out walking and wheeling will be overcome if our streets are not an obstacle course of objects and mess. The more car free and the greater we invest in our green spaces the more likely people are to go out and walk from location to location and to move about their neighbourhoods on foot or wheels. The following commitments are therefore being asked of our prospective councillors:
• Implement the ban on pavement parking before the end of 2023, put in place large scale publicity and adequate enforcement measures.
• Cut pavement clutter to increase space for walking, via dedicated programmes and budgets to tidy up streets.
• Alongside investing in new cycle infrastructure upgrade walking networks
• Create more car-free areas for recreation and culture through closing roads through historic streets, parklands, riversides and waterfronts.
• Invest more in engaging people with disabilities to understand and address the barriers they face.

• 4. Tackle air pollution and climate change: I am very pleased to announce that Camelon and Tamfourhill will be producing our own Community Climate Action Plan and that this process will begin in the next few weeks. Along with the work of the Tidy, Clean and Green Community Group other community growing projects are to expand at Tamfourhill and in the Carmuirs area and this is a great opportunity to bring the community together to plan for the future and prepare the community for some of the challenges of climate change. I will look at the Climate Action Plan in greater detail and explain how you can get involved in a future community safety blog.  What is absolutely clear is that we need all our towns and cities to be places where people can move about and can breathe and that we need to get to net zero carbon emissions by 2045. If we are to address the climate emergency, we need our councils to improve access to public transport and ensure the cost of driving reflects its true economic and social costs. The walking manifesto is asking candidates to commit to the following:
• Introduce low emission zones which focus on reducing traffic and help people choose walking and cycling especially besides schools and within communities that face multiple health challenges.
• Remove and reallocate parking spaces to other uses like pop up parks, cycle hangers and create other community assets.
• Reduce air pollution by educating drivers about the health problems caused by idling vehicles.
• Create more green corridors, and increase biodiversity, with pop up parks and linear parks along routes where people can walk and cycle.

Living streets Scotland invites us all to write to any or all of the candidates that are standing for election in the wards 6 and 7 for Falkirk Council on 6^th May 2022 and to the local newspapers and other media outlets. This manifesto asks questions and seeks strategic solutions which will make our streets safer and easier to use and will increase the benefits of using the local green space for our health and wellbeing whilst also directly addressing climate change. I will return to these 4 manifesto assertions as I announce in the next few weeks a number of new exciting community safety developments for Camelon and Tamfourhill.

I am aware of ongoing problems and serious community safety concerns at Glenfuir and Greenbank Courts and that this has been reflected within recent articles published in the Falkirk Herald. These matters have also been raised with me through the Safer Streets roadshow held back in October and since then I have met with other stakeholders and been in contact with the  elected members for that Ward. One of the partners in the Safer Streets Initiative are Neighbourhood Watch Scotland and I have through discussions with them now raised the prospect of establishing a Watch in the first instance specifically for both these Courts. This of course is dependent upon the willingness and commitment of local tenants and the relevant partner agencies and organisations and from my recent meetings and discussions this has received a positive response. I thought therefore it was  worthwhile focusing this week’s blog upon some of  the key facets of the new modern Neighbourhood Watch in Scotland. People can then consider if this would be an appropriate means to address some of the issues and concerns  experienced by the tenants at this location.

Getting involved with Neighbourhood Watch (NW) in your area can be a great way to help keep your community safe. It’s not all about crime these days; it’s about safety, there are perhaps some negative perceptions of what a Watch is for and how it operates, the days of the curtain twitchers and local bissy bodies are no longer in any way relevant .A scheme can generally be of any size.  It can be a whole street, one side of the street, one half of the street, a cul-de-sac, a few cottages, a whole block of flats.  The scheme should be of a size that is easy to manage.  It’s often best to start smaller and then expand.  

The ethos of the modern Watch is about looking out for each other and therefore working together in a positive neighbourly way. The ongoing COVID pandemic illustrated, especially back in the full lockdown, how communities could come together to help and support each other, to look out for each other and protect the most vulnerable within our communities. This is the spirit and the approach of the modern NW, and this approach could be a significant positive step for tenants in Glenfuir and Greenbank Courts feeling safer and better supported.  The Watch then is about values and not structures, it doesn’t need to operate with a structured committee or be formalised with monthly meetings, rather it can be informal , online  or using social media in fact their strap line of Your Watch Your Way is about setting something  up that works effectively for the people involved and not about a one size fits all template. A key outcome of the local community safety strategy was to establish a community safety forum for Camelon and Tamfourhill , however it could be that a local Neighbourhood watch and such a forum could be one in the same thing and operate towards the same aims and purposes. Having your own very localised Neighbourhood Watch can give a community a collective voice, it can be much better than individuals being upset and isolated and  perhaps complaining about things but never getting an effective response. To the contrary  a group of empowered people can be much better able to take effective collective action and without fear or worry about consequences and your collective voice greatly improves the likelihood of being listened too. When the perpetrators of anti-social behaviour see collective action being taken and consequences arising from their behaviour then there is likely to be a reduction in these negative events and the power of the community becomes far more significant and a positive force for change and good.

It is important that the people who are part of a Neighbourhood Watch understand what it is about and what role they are expected to play. It’s best if this is clear from the outset. It’s also great if you can involve everyone in deciding how the NW will work and what its purpose is. My plan therefore is to set up an initial partners meeting in the next few weeks, and I will invite the national NW Co-ordinator along with the Community Police, elected members, Fire Service, officers from Falkirk Council ,some of the local voluntary organisations and those tenants and local people who have already expressed an interest with getting involved with this initiative. All these partners bring expertise and experiences to the table,  and they also have the capacity to respond to the tenants community safety priorities and work together to make effective joined up responses. However, the key to this is the local tenants in these two courts and this is about their NW.  I will hold an open public meeting shortly after the initial partners meeting so we can ascertain the level of support and confirm that this would be an appropriate and supported course of action for Glenfuir and Greenbank Courts. There is a key set of questions that local tenants will need to answer:

Why do we wish to set up a NW scheme in the area?

What are the aims of our NW scheme?

What are our local concerns?

What can we do to address these concerns?

Who will we need to work with/what help do we need?

How can we all contribute to making our community safer?

Going through this process in a public open meeting will enable an agreed vision for the NW to be confirmed  and most importantly reach an agreement on local concerns and priorities and identify the required activities to address these concerns and priorities.

Finally, I want to highlight one particular aspect to the modern NW, that is their Neighbourhood alerts system. This operates in any way that works for local people and you don’t need to be  a member of a Watch to get this very localised information service.  The alert system can be targeted at a row of houses, a street, a few floors in  a high rise flat and can pass on relevant credible information about a particular incident or community safety situations being made aware to all the registered tenants. This could for example alert people to scams and doorstep fraudsters operating in their street, to incidents of vandalism happening in your Court and to any public health concerns or issues communicated directly to you on your mobile phone. You can find out more about this directly from this link:

When I read this message yesterday, I got up and looked out of my window and I could imagine others doing the same, all over our area. It made me feel part of the community. Then when the 2nd message arrived, I was really happy, and felt that I’d been part of something really great. I think this initiative is a powerful tool for good and many people will be blessed by it. Keep up the good work, and thank you! (Local person who uses the NW alert system)

I will off course keep everybody updated with progress and developments on this website and through the Our Place Camelon and Tamfourhill social media platforms. The Neighbourhood Watch Scotland website can be found here:

I am pleased to be bringing in the new year with news of a fantastic new Tidy, Clean and Green  community Arts project. Thanks to funding provided by the Falkirk Council Environmental Improvement Fund , local primary schools and Youth Groups will be involved with the Tidy, Clean and Green Creative messaging Project. A long title for a very practical but also creative approach to getting positive environmental messages out into the local community. The plan is to give our local young people a voice and an important role as stakeholders with improving the outdoor  environment throughout Camelon and Tamfourhill.  

Some people might remember the Tidy, Clean and Green poster competition that we ran in conjunction with Keep Scotland Beautiful  back in 2020  and the winner, a primary 7 pupil from Carmuirs Primary school had their entry used as a poster which appeared on rubbish bins and public places throughout the Camelon and Tamfourhill areas. This new project is based on that approach , of encouraging the creative energies of our young people to come up with designs, murals, posters, or anything creative that will encourage the wider community to look after and fully enjoy our open green spaces. Here is a description of the Project which appears on the recently advertised community artists brief :

Following initial engagement sessions with the local community, we now would like an artist to offer children and young people participatory workshops and a participatory programme to create visible, accessible, and engaging anti littering signage and portable decorative boards designed with and by young people. The project also has the potential to contribute towards ideas for a permanent wall mural at a notorious local grot spot, plyboard creations for portable and fixed local display with distinct local anti-littering messaging and various creative projects all focused on the theme of keeping our community tidy, clean and Green.

This then builds upon the previous nudge activities used in the poster competition but on a far larger scale and will result in the creation of high profile permanent and semi-permanent art works appearing at key locations which will all promote the idea of keeping Camelon and Tamfourfhill Tidy, Clean and Green. It is great that Carmuirs, Easter Carmuirs and Bantaskin Primary schools and the Youth Groups at Tamfourhill Community Hub have already signed up to this programme. The Project is scheduled to run from February with a completion date of 31^st March 2022. The Tidy, Clean and Green Community Group along with Our Place and Artlink Central are currently looking to recruit an experienced community artist to implement this project and facilitate the creative workshops with the different school and youth groups. It would be marvellous if a local person was able to apply for this commission, there is  a closing date of 17^th January and here is the link to the advertised commission with details of the application process.

http://opportunities.creativescotland.com/opportunity/index/eb9e604d-95b7-4cca-b834-dac0dd6f0d2b

 If anybody is interested about this commission and requires additional information or just wants to have a chat about the Project, please in the first instance get in touch with myself : John R Hosie Community Safety Engager on 07391524528 or at communitysafetyengager@tamfourhilltro.co.uk

Happy New Year

John   

The Twilight Sports Pilot Project:

This year is rapidly coming to  a conclusion so I thought I would highlight two community safety projects which will be delivered in early 2022.  Some of the details are still to be confirmed but I felt it was important to look ahead positively and provide people with a heads up about a couple of Projects which will provide new opportunities for local young people and further engagement for the entire community with local services and organisations.    

The Twilight Sports Pilot Project is scheduled to start in late February 2022 and will run for 16 weeks at four different locations throughout Camelon and Tamfourhill. I am grateful to the Camelon Community Sports Hub for providing the grant funding to support this initial pilot programme. The idea is to  provide sporting and wellbeing activities on Friday evenings at times when young people might be vulnerable to risk taking or being drawn into anti-social behaviour or other community safety concerns.  As I have highlighted in recent blogs, I spent some time over the summer months engaging with young people in the community, at local parks on the streets or at Lock 16, in fact anywhere they were meeting up. I carried out a detailed youth survey and I also spoke in some detail with them about their experiences of community safety and listened to some of their aspirations for improving the community. Here is an extract from one of the streetwork session recordings:  We had a lengthy and detailed chat with a younger group at the stairs down  from the Mariner Street shops, they wanted to take part in organised activities, and  this included: football, bikes and their repairs, there are safety issues at the Scrammy which was mainly about bullying , broken glass and fires/fireworks spoiling their enjoyment of den building and playing about the hill, they also said they are pushed of the MUGA by the bigger ones. We suggested there could in the future be organised football session involving adults and coaching and this suggestion was well received and would be taken up  by this particular group (Streetwork recording 1st September 2021) It seems fairly clear then that young people would enjoy and benefit from having structured and supervised activities at key locations where they already meet up within the  community. The twilight session will involve quality sports coaching and participation, an outdoor learning input from our colleagues at TCV and each week there will be a community safety partner taking part, including: The Police, Fire Service, Youth Information services and my own community safety workshop inputs. At this stage I am not able to give exact details, but I would hope that the sports will include Rugby, Basketball, football, and wheel sports and along with the Outdoor learning activities  and the community safety  inputs this should be an excellent new opportunity for the young people in the  community. There will be volunteering opportunities and training can be made available to support local people gain coaching certificates in all of the sports that are to be delivered, so if you have an interest in any sport please get in touch as I would really like to involve you with this Pilot project. My Streetwork engagement and survey work has also indicated that young people do not have access to reliable information, advice, or support around a whole raft of community safety issues. I will therefore be making sure that there is plenty of youth information and advice resources available at each of the twilight sessions and I have a couple of young volunteers who will be helping with that aspect of the programme. As always, I will be looking for opportunities to involve young people with the programme as a learning or volunteering experience and where appropriate I will ensure that they are able to use their involvement to gain accreditation and volunteering certificates like their Saltire Awards.   

Safer Streets Roadshow:

After the very wet trial of the  safer street’s roadshow back in October the Partner groups and agencies will be returning for a regular weekly roadshow through April into May 2022. This will involve various Falkirk Council services, local voluntary organisations, community groups and other statutory agencies like the Police and fire service all coming to different locations throughout the community. This provides local people with a one stop shop to ask questions, bring concerns or problems, or suggest new ideas and community initiatives to all of the main local agencies and services in the one place at the one time. Some people may remember the Street a Week initiative that operated locally in 2019 and this approach is similar in taking agencies out to the community, but the other feature is to try and encourage new community activities in a positive and constructive way. Where there is  a gap in community safety services or local opportunities, I would really like to see  people come forward and start having that discussion with all the agencies and groups relevant to the local area. For example, from the Pilot roadshow back in October we have had a request from a few local people to start a Neighbourhood watch and people have also expressed an interest in seeing a local community council established.

I will return to both of these community safety project nearer the time of their implementation, and there will be significant publicity to promote them, in both the local press, through flyers and posters and on social media platforms. If you would like more information or are keen to get involved I would be very happy to hear from you at any point from now!