As Chair of the community council, I find myself engaging with numerous groups and many different subjects. Regular readers of our column will have a fair understanding of the work we do and the activities that we get involved with. However, unless you are involved, as we are, you can’t get a real appreciation of the issues that affect us all.

What has become clear to me is that the management of our town is fragmented, and I don’t think this will be restricted to us. I would bet that all Border towns are fragmented to a greater or lesser extent. Different Scottish Border Council (SBC) departments provide our complex mix of services, such as education, waste collection, roads, etc. Other SBC departments seek to support us in a myriad of other ways such as “Place Making” and Town Action Plan team, the “Common Good”, senior citizens, general maintenance, and so on. The list is endless.

In the voluntary sector, there is us (the PCC), Oorspace Youthy, Christmas Lights, Dementia Friendly Peebles, the Beltane Committee, the Drill Hall Committee, the Gutterbluids, etc. etc. Not to mention the clubs, the Traders Association, agencies, churches, U3A, Eastgate Theatre, Community Trust, and again, many more. My apologies for those I have missed.

So, fragmented. How? If we were a company, there would be a Managing Director. A council has a leader. The NHS has a Chief Operating Officer, A school has a head. What do we in Peebles have? Nothing. An action taken by any one organisation can affect one or more of the others, but there is no coordination. For example, if the Chambers Institution thought opening a café was a good idea, then that would affect sales across the High Street and be possibly detrimental to the Eastgate, and the Eastgate is, as we know under pressure. Peebles Community Trust will need to close the re-use hub sometime so that they may do maintenance in the hall. Where could it go? At Christmas I visited the Leckie Church, and it was full. I also visited the Old Parish Church, and it was fairly-well empty. Perhaps one or the other will close, if so, what would happen to it? And more to the point what would the knock-on effect be?

Personally, I believe SBC need to appoint one senior person to be responsible for coordination in Peebles, another for Hawick, another for a group of villages perhaps, etc. They cannot be volunteers; the job is too big. Perhaps they could be realigned from existing resource and share duties with another function. As the town would be more efficient, there is every chance that it would save money and thus pay for itself. Regardless, we would all benefit.

As always: support or comment to Anne Snoddy (Secretary PCC) secretary@ccrbpeebles.co.uk

Peter Maudsley

Chair

Peebles and District Community Council