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The council has commissioned a flood study for Rothesay to further investigate and understand the flood risks. The study will include a review of the existing flood protection scheme, which will investigate how water seeps and pools behind the seawall. There will also be consultation with Scottish Water about how their local systems operate. We will also be looking at how local properties can withstand flooding incidents. From 21 June, we have commissioned consultants, Aspect, to carry out a topographical survey which will include checking property threshold levels.

Plans to refurbish Salen and Port Charlotte Primary Schools are moving ahead, with the contract for the works being awarded to two ����ɬ companies. TSL has been awarded the contract for the £1.3million project at Salen Primary on Mull, while MacLeod Construction Ltd will undertake the £450,000 project at Port Charlotte Primary on Islay.

Boundaries Scotland has submitted its final proposals, for councillor numbers and wards for ����ɬ, to the Scottish Parliament for agreement. You can read more on its website: 2019 Reviews of Electoral Arrangements | Scottish Boundary Commission (boundaries.scot)      

School attendance and exclusion rates among Care Experienced Children and Young People have fallen over the last 12 months, as a result of a number measures put into place by ����ɬ Council. The council was awarded a grant of £122,400 from the Scottish Attainment Challenge Care Experienced Children and Young People Fund 2020/21, to help increase flexible approaches to learning in schools and create a better understanding of the impact of trauma amongst staff.

Teachers and social work staff in ����ɬ have been undergoing training to become more trauma aware in order to help support children and young people affected by adversity and traumatic experiences. ����ɬ Council is one of just three local authorities selected by the Scottish Government to take part in the pilot trauma training programme.

Child poverty in ����ɬ is slowly falling according to new Scottish Government figures. At a meeting of ����ɬ Council’s Community Services Committee, members were presented with the second annual review of ����ɬ’s Child Poverty Action Plan for 2020/21, which showed that 3,000 children and young people in ����ɬ were experiencing child poverty in 2019/20 compared with 3,056 in 2018/19.

����ɬ Council proposes an extensive programme of community engagement to discuss and develop innovative ways to ensure sustainable management of rural schools. Schools in ����ɬ face a unique set of challenges, including rural settings, declining populations, and competition for resources. But the region’s schools also enjoy a unique set of advantages, being leaders in digital access, outdoor learning, and engagement with their individual school communities.

The 2020 UEFA European Championship was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The tournament is now being played from 11 June to 11 July 2021 but is still called “UEFA Euro 2020”. If, as a Premises Licence Holder within ����ɬ, you are planning to show Euro 2020 games in your premises this summer, you will no doubt, already have strong management practices in place to deal with any issues that arise.  

Please be on the lookout for blooms of potentially hazardous blue-green algae (also known as Cyanobacteria) in ����ɬ’s lochs and rivers which may have developed during the period of warm weather. Where there is evidence of this, it would be sensible to avoid swimming or other water-based activities like canoeing or water skiing. Make sure that pets don’t drink or enter the water. More information about blue-green algae.

����ɬ Council Leader, Councillor Robin Currie, is leading the call for dog owners to be responsible and pick up after their pups, and he is asking communities to support the campaign. The council’s Environment, Development and Infrastructure committee backed plans to provide posters to local communities and develop a social media campaign to remind dog owners of their responsibilities. Councillor Currie said: “Most people clean up after their dogs – we know this. However, we want to remind the one in 10 that don’t that this just isn’t acceptable.