Inverurie Academy’s Neighbourhood Plan

Hello everyone, we recently worked together to think about how we could make Inverurie a better place to live and grow up in.

To do this, we designed and went on a walk of the town and then made a map of our experiences and ideas. Then we thought about how to improve it for everyone and came up with some priorities. We developed some of our priorities into project ideas that could help us get everyone’s needs met and adjust to our changing climate. These are our Just Transition Projects.

Our map, priorities and projects form our draft plan, and we would like to share it with the council, community groups, and anyone else who may be able to help us make some things happen. Before we do that, it’s really important to check we got everything right and that we include your views too. Can you help us?

 

QUESTION FOR INVERURIE ACADEMY PUPILS:

Look on the below at our Local Map and priorities, and then the next page for our projects. There's 2 simple question under each that we'd love your feedback on :)

To view the full map above, you can hold/right click to open in a new tab and zoom in to see the details :) 

OUR PRIORITIES:

 

1. Improve and Increase the Number of Activities and Services Available to our Growing Population - Inverurie is growing fast, but our services are not. We have some great sports facilities, but they're often quite busy and not always affordable to young people. For instance, it can be very hard to book a swimming spot on the day you want to go. We think swimming should be free or more affordable, for instance, especially given how basic a skill it is and how much our town floods. A small local cinema and / or outdoor cinema at Thainstone would also decrease trips to Aberdeen, while our schools and health centres need expansion or for more to be built!
2. Improve Advertisement of Opportunities to Young People -  We don't always know what's available to us and when, so a youth-friendly way to tell us (such as through school announcements online) would help connect people up to what's on offer. We have a strong feeling that young people are being kicked off of the Inverurie Residents Facebook page, which isn't fair and makes us feel excluded.
3. Free up Road Space for More Walking and Cycling - Traffic is really bad in Inverurie, and the roads are narrow. There's not enough space at the moment for bike lanes due to this and all the pavement parking. We therefore think that parking needs to be reorganised so that bike lanes are possible. We think one way to do this is to create a new car park, potentially at the abandoned building next to Tesco, and introduce more buses / a Park & Ride Scheme. One way streets near Inverurie Academy could also help ease gridlock straight after school hours, especially Victoria Street.
4. Increase Affordable Local Food Options and Combat Food Waste - Younger people and people on low incomes often struggle to eat out in Inverurie, or even to have enough food at home. We need options to combat this so our town can be more inclusive. At the same time, there is huge food waste from our supermarkets that just gets thrown away. Schemes like Too Good to Go are popular and help a bit, but we could do more as a community to tackle this!
5. Create Youth Social Space/s - We don't have an indoor place in Inverurie that feels truly welcoming to young people. However, there are several empty units in the town centre. We have several ideas for what a social space could look like, that we detail more in our projects poster.
6. Improve Overall Safety in Inverurie - We need more street lighting, especially in our parks, and underpass improvements. More gritting when icy and filling in of potholes would help everyone. Many of us don't feel safe when out and about after dark, and we think there needs to be more community engagement from the police to increase trust.
7. Increase the Number of Community Events - We have some community events during the Summer, but not so many in Winter. We know that Kellands School sometimes hosts these events, and we think the Inverurie Academy community could potentially do so as well. One idea is a community BBQ. 
8. Create an Intergenerational Diner - We recognise that the people least served in our community are older and younger people. We think there is an opportunity to bring generations together into one space (the site of the new Farm Foods would be ideal), and also create spaces for memories and reminiscing. We have some ideas for this which you can see in our Projects.
9. Reducing Litter - Some areas, especially near parks, supermarkets, and Greens have too much litter around. We would like to see more litter picks, more bins in the hot spots, and for more encouragement to do the right thing.
   Increasing our Access to Nature - We have a fair bit in Inverurie, but some of us have noticed less and less as we get older. We would like there to be more of a focus on improving the biodiversity of our place. We have more ideas on this in our Projects.
10. More Support for Local Businesses - More and more of our shops and businesses are big brands, and it can be hard for the local ones to survive. However, it's the small businesses that make Inverurie feel alive. We have more ideas on this in our Projects.