A TRAVELLING persons site in the Wee County is to be transformed with the occupants to be put in the driving seat for decisions.

Councillors on the Place Committee will this week hear an update on the Westhaugh Travelling Persons Site, which was transferred to the housing department last December.

The transfer came as the site, which still meets minimum standards, has reached the end of its useful life, according to council documents.

Councillors were previously told that the site requires significant investment for refurbishment or even replacement.

The virtual Kilncraigs chamber also heard that the Scottish Government has allocated a £70,000 grant to the local authority, from a fund of £2million, for site improvements.

Engagement with site occupants showed a need to address issues with boundary and divisional fencing as well as pitch security gates.

Further meetings last month highlighted that those who reside at the site were hoping for improvements to the CCTV system and the potential to install fixed wireless broadband at the site was also explored.

Council documents to be tabled on Thursday, March 18, said: "As detailed above, to ensure that improvements to the site meet the needs of residents and potentially to ensure access to future grant funding, the chosen approach to improvements to Westhaugh will be via formalising current engagement under the Place Standard Tool, with participatory budgeting (PB) at its core.

"The key aspect for the PB approach is having an outline budget agreed, which the group can work within.

"This might mean that decisions are made between a different set of options and will put the residents in the driving seat for deciding how to improve their site for their own benefit."

Current draft planning for Westhaugh is assuming a budget allowance of £120,000 per pitch for the redevelopment.

Council papers added: "This is based on typical costs for new build affordable housing by way of a comparator.

"If the site could hold 14 pitches, taking into consideration new fire regulations and SG (Scottish Government) future design standards, this would mean a budget of £1.680m.

"The service had £240k in the capital plan for financial year 2020-21 and the service proposes rolling this forward as part of the 2021-22 budget approval process, together with creating an earmarked HRA (Housing Revenue Account) reserve of £1.440m for the remaining amount.

"This reserve would be drawn down following discussions and agreement with residents on spend and investment priorities to be delivered within the budget allocation."

The plans will continue to be developed over the coming months with a draft timeline indicating that a tender for the works could go out in four to five months.