Chamber and committees

There are a variety of funds that organisations who want to promote or provide cultural activities for under-18s in Renfrewshire may access. In particular, Renfrewshire Council itself has responsibility for cultural activity in the local area and can support local organisations in that capacity. The National Performing Companies and National Collections have educational outreach activity which takes place in this area and Creative Scotland administers the Youth Music Initiative which provides musical funding for primary aged children, including those in this area. Creative Scotland also provides a fund-finding service to assist organisations in finding other funding sources. For further information on the services offered by Creative Scotland.

Basketballscotland has received significant funding from sportscotland to support the implementation of the sport’s development plan and sportscotland also operate a number of funding streams that are available to assist the development of sports clubs and groups. The level of investment and the funding streams is an operational matter and I have asked the chief executive of sportscotland, Stewart Harris, to write to you outlining the detail of this support.

Through our Cashback for Communities programme Basketballscotland and Scottish Sports Futures will receive £2.65 million direct from the Scottish Government over the next three years to deliver a wide range of basketball opportunities for young people across Scotland in innovative programmes such as Jump2it and Twighlight basketball.

This is an operational matter for sportscotland and I have asked the Chief Executive, Stewart Harris, to provide you with the information requested.

The Scottish Government does not hold this information.

Tackling antisocial behaviour and making communities safer and stronger remains a top priority for this Government. On 19 March 2009 the Scottish Government and COSLA jointly published their Framework for tackling antisocial behaviour, Promoting Positive Outcomes. It followed a thorough review of national antisocial behaviour policy, recognising that prevention and early and effective intervention, and diversion, should be at its heart.

Actions that contribute to these aims include over £44 million of the proceeds of crime re-invested by the CashBack programme into communities across Scotland through sporting, cultural, youth and third sector organisations, with over 600,000 young people benefitting from diversionary activities and intervention projects. This investment will continue to help reduce anti-social behaviour.

We are also providing government support for a High Hedges Bill, which will tackle a form of anti-social behaviour that blights many lives. In addition, we will consult on measures which would allow social landlords greater flexibility where there is evidence of anti-social behaviour; and will commence provisions in the Private Rented Housing Act 2011 requiring a local authority to take into account antisocial behaviour affecting the property of a private landlord, in deciding if that landlord is a fit and proper person to let property.

We are committed to delivering the actions in the Cycling Action Plan for Scotland which will help us achieve our vision that by 2020, 10% of journeys will be by bike. We continue to work in partnership with local authorities and other stakeholders in delivering new facilities and promoting the 2,000 miles of cycle path already existing in Scotland, which will encourage active and sustainable travel.

The report on proposals and policies sets further milestones which reflect our efforts to widen travel choices and reduce the need for travel. We will continue to promote a range of activities including smarter choices and we will disseminate the learning and good practice from the Smarter Choices, Smarter Places demonstration programme.

Our efforts to encourage more efficient driving include the promotion of low carbon vehicles, as demonstrated by the launch of our £4.2 million Electric Vehicle Procurement Scheme for the Public Sector in October 2011, and the provision of fuel-efficient driver training through the Energy Saving Trust.

The Scottish Government is committed to creating a lasting legacy for the whole of Scotland from Glasgow hosting the 2014 Commonwealth Games. We continue to work in partnership with local authorities to ensure they get every possible benefit of major events coming to Scotland.

Renfrewshire is ideally placed to benefit from the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and I know much work has already started to ensure that the people of Renfrewshire see these benefits. Gateway to the Games is an excellent example of how the games can help to inspire communities to get involved and be more physically active.

Our commitment to strengthen sport in the community is shown by over £13.5 million investment, through sportscotland, being provided last year to support the Active School programme in all 32 local authorities – a network that supports programmes such as Renfrewshire’s Gateway to the games - and our ongoing commitment to deliver at least 100 community sports hubs across all local authorities by 2014. This strong support will continue.

The Games are also helping deliver other local benefits for Renfrewshire such as the 37 grants awarded through the BIG Lottery 2014 Communities grant scheme and local schools’ involvement in the (Bank of Scotland) National School Sports Week.

To reflect what is going on locally we have developed a web portal http://www.gameslegacyscotland.org/ that showcases the programmes and range of support across legacy activities.

I would of course be happy to meet to discuss what other support we can provide.

Under the landlord registration system administered by local authorities, landlords who do not register are committing a criminal offence punishable by a fine of up to £50,000.

A local authority can also serve a Rent Penalty Notice on an unregistered landlord. The effect of the notice is that no rent or other payment is payable under a tenant’s lease or occupancy arrangement from a specified date.

All owners of tenements have a duty under section eight of the Tenements (Scotland) Act 2004 to maintain the support and shelter of the tenement. Other owners may enforce this duty collectively or individually through the courts.

If owners cannot be traced, the local authority may be able to help. All local authorities have powers to require owners to carry out work that is needed to bring a house into, or to keep it in, a reasonable state of repair. Local authorities also have statutory powers to obtain information about absent owners and may already hold the information in connection with their landlord registration functions.

The next stage of the Fastlink project is to progress the statutory planning processes including Traffic Regulation Orders, a statutory Quality Partnership and planning permission for the infrastructure construction.