Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap

As an amendment to motion S1M-03256 in the name of Ms Margaret Curran (Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap), leave out from “warmly” to end and insert “notes the publication of the Scottish Executive’s community regeneration statement Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap; agrees that despite past successes in community regeneration more needs to be done to improve the quality of life of people in Scotland’s deprived areas; notes the Executive’s worthwhile aim of empowering professionals and communities to resolve local problems but considers that its bureaucratic, centralising approach fails to shift the emphasis of regeneration away from traditional government-imposed structures; notes that Better Communities in Scotland: Closing the Gap contains no meaningful proposals to measure the success or failure of regeneration initiatives, and calls upon the Executive to implement a genuinely diverse approach, independent of government, to empower families, communities, local voluntary organisations and professionals to take action to resolve the difficulties faced by Scotland’s deprived communities.”