Eddie Fraser

The Chief Executive Officer, Eddie Fraser of East Ayrshire Council has been very keen to take ownership of the council's responsibilities within the partnership, as well as providing leadership throughout the process.

The council began looking into funding the partnership as early as 2016, it required a thoughtful and careful process but in March 2020 it launched into the world, as did the Covid 19 Pandemic.

"The partnership makes a real contribution to council objectives as it ties into the big issues we face; depopulation, the loss of mining and cultural history. There is a real importance to understanding the value of local communities. It is also really important to be celebrating our young people now."

Every council is facing challenges in these tough times but one of the main challenges for east Ayrshire is keeping people in the area. The loss of major employment opportunities means that many have had to move away to find work. Young people who travel to study all to often settle and don’t return. A population that is both declining in numbers and ageing in demographics is a ticking time bomb for council resources The partnership with the CCLP provides a way to help stop the decline and create new opportunities for people to visit, live and work in east Ayrshire.

The green economy includes forestry and renewable energy sectors. Tourism has a huge part to play in a naturally beautiful and culturally important part of the world. Partnership projects seek to make best use of what is available as an investment for the future.

Eddie's vision is that the role of the council should begin to change from that of a service provider to being an enabler for communities to support themselves. He pointed out that there are two main benefits from money going directly into communities.

Firstly they are better placed to know what they want and need at a very local level, particularly important in more remote parts. Secondly the council has statutory obligations that it must legally provide. This means that money that comes via the council must first be allocated to what it must legally do. If there are ways to get it directly to the communities themselves then there is potentially more in the pot to make projects work.

Community owned assets can be supported by the council and used to deliver services without the associated costs of building and maintaining council only premises that are often under utilised. There are also fewer restrictions as to what can be done in community properties without government red tape.

There is no desire to shirk responsibility, far from it. Instead there is a clear intention to do things differently, more thoughtfully with the benefit to the local people at the heart of the process.

When asked about his hopes for the future and legacy, Eddie replied;

"I hope that when people look back they say, this is when folk really started to get their heads together and make progress towards community wealth building. We need to understand who we are and our history but to look forwards."