Wide range or reports approved at Communities and Place Committee today.
Members of The Highland Council's Communities and Place Committee have approved a wide variety of reports aimed at supporting families, protecting the environment, strengthening local services and improving community wellbeing across the Highlands.
Councillor Graham MacKenzie, Chair of Communities and Place Committee said:
"The decisions taken by Committee today demonstrate how the Council’s commitments in “Our Future Highland Programme” are improving quality of life, tackling child poverty and promoting wellbeing by supporting communities, expanding food growing opportunities; enhancing biodiversity and protecting the environment; improving customer services and investing in key infrastructure for Highland.
"I am particularly pleased to see progress in child poverty reduction, community growing initiatives, and bereavement services, while the new biodiversity strategy creates an important opportunity to work with communities to enhance nature in the region."
Continued commitment to tackling child poverty
Members welcomed the Highland Local Child Poverty Action Report, recognising the progress made by the Highland Community Planning Partnership during 2025/26 to support children, young people and families. The Committee also agreed a programme of actions for 2026/27 focused on increasing family incomes, developing flexible models of childcare in rural areas, reducing living costs, maximising benefit uptake and providing whole-family support.
The report highlighted successful work to develop flexible childcare models in rural communities, support employability, improve financial inclusion and expand whole-family wellbeing services.
Private water supply risk assessments updated
The Committee approved revised fees for statutory risk assessments of regulated private water supplies (commercial and larger domestic supplies) impacting some 1,188 regulated supplies serving around 35,000 people in Highland. The changes are designed to ensure that charges more accurately reflect the cost of delivering the Council's public health responsibilities while supporting continued monitoring and inspection activity across Highland.
Council to consult on Draft Greenspace Biodiversity Management Strategy
The Committee welcomed a draft Greenspace Biodiversity Management Strategy for 2026-2030 and gave approval for a 6-week public consultation.
The draft strategy sets out an ambitious set of principles, objectives and targets across the management of Council-owned greenspace to conserve, protect and enhance biodiversity. These greenspaces are classified into eight types: public parks and amenity greenspace, burial grounds, roads and transport network, countryside sites, schools, buildings, streets and civic space; and allotments.
The Council will now promote the public consultation, the findings of which will be collated and considered to help formulate the final Greenspace Biodiversity Management Strategy 2026-2030 which will be presented to a future meeting of the Communities and Place Committee for formal approval and adoption.
Community food growing update
Members welcomed continued progress in delivering the Council's Growing Our Future Community Food Growing Strategy and approved the annual allotments reports for 2024 and 2025.
The Committee were updated on progressive community initiatives, including allotment developments in Inverness: Knocknagael Green Hub now with 180 members and Balvonie Park Association project which aims for a summer 2027 completion. Other community food growing projects in schools, a family centre, good food partnership and expanding seed library programmes across Highland were also commended.
While demand for allotments remains highest in urban areas such as Inverness, Culloden, Aviemore and Dingwall and emerging interests in Thurso and Lochaber the Council continues to support community-led projects and identify future opportunities for growing spaces through the Highland local Development planning processes.
Customer services performance continues to improve
Members received an update on customer services performance, which demonstrated improvements in call handling and customer access. The Customer Service team provides direct support to the public to access Council services through 16 Service Points and 1 Contact Centre.
The Council's Contact Centre answered 140,540 calls during 2025/26, while average answer times improved by more than two minutes compared on the previous year.
The Committee welcomed a range of ongoing service improvements, including improved payment security via telephone using ‘PCI Pal’, introduction of new election helpline arrangements such as ‘Spoken Ballot Paper’. Members were also updated on the ongoing work through the My Council Programme to develop an online non-emergency repair reporting form for tenants reducing the reliance on contact by phone.
Bereavement services projects progressing
Members welcomed progress across four key bereavement services projects. This included the ongoing Memorial Safety Programme; refurbishment works at Inverness Crematorium and cremator replacement; the Council's burial ground extension programme and participation in the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management metal recycling scheme.
Nearly 70,000 memorials have now been inspected through the Memorial Safety Programme, while major works at Inverness Crematorium remain on schedule, including installation of two new modern cremators and improved energy efficiency measures and improvements to the chapel.
Members noted the Council’s continued investment in burial provision to ensure adequate capacity across Highland communities and welcomed the monitoring and development programme in place.
The Committee also welcomed the Council’s contributions since joining the Institute of Cemetery and Crematorium Management's metal recycling scheme in 2024. Through the Council's participation, Highland Hospice and Held In Our Hearts have received more than £51,000 in charitable funding and a report will be brought back to committee on the opportunities for other local bereavement-related charities to be nominated in future funding rounds.
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