Friday 8 December 2023
Welcome to Community, your Dumfries and Galloway community bulletin.
We are always keen to hear of any positive stories about things that are happening in your community and would like to feature them in Community – please email us at communitybulletin@dumgal.gov.uk and one of our reporters will get back to you.
 A to Z of Dumfries and Galloway Council
N Is For Nurturing
This is Leona McLachlan.
Leona is a senior family support worker who works in the council’s Fostering and Adoption Team.
Leona, as her title suggests, works to support families, in two defining ways.
Leona’s role is finding alternative care arrangements for children and young people aged between 0 and 16 years old when, for a number of reasons, they are unable to live with their birth parents for a time. Leona also recruits, trains and supports new foster carers and helps to deliver a monthly foster carer support group – providing knowledge and support to new and experienced foster carers.
Leona’s role also includes engaging with households who are thinking about adopting, carrying out initial assessments and delivering the pre-approval four-day course.
Leona’s job is not easy. To do this job effectively requires many skills including being resilient, empathetic, consistent and supportive. Leona stands out because of her charismatic personality and her enthusiasm for and enjoyment of her role. Leona has the ability to speak honestly and transparently, building trust between her, the families and the young people she works with.
Working in the social work team for 18 years, Leona understands that this highly stressful, highly emotionally challenging job is not the standard nine-to-five role. Every child or young person matters, and Leona’s role is to ensure the best outcome for them by working with current foster carers to identify the best match possible – then finding the best environment – to ensure the child’s needs are met during what can be a difficult time for families.
Best part of the job for Leona? “I genuinely love meeting with so many interesting people every day – connecting with those who share the same dream of providing safe spaces for young people. It is a hard but extremely rewarding job that I get to do with the most compassionate and caring team. I can’t imagine doing anything else.”
Leona explained that Dumfries and Galloway Council is lucky, in the fact it works hand-in-hand with the Care-Experienced Health and Wellbeing team at NHS Dumfries and Galloway, and the council’s Children’s Services Team to offer a direct response to the holistic needs of young people and families. By working together with colleagues across the partnership, Leona can build on the skills and knowledge of new adoptive parents and foster carers as they start their new journeys as parents and carers.
Leona, you provide vital support to families, and you and the team you work with create families. You do so with a smile and an unwavering confidence that supports so many children, young people and families across the region. You change lives, create safe solutions and create forever homes for those wishing to start or grow their own families. Thank you, for everything you do – and thank you for doing it in the kind and happy way you do.
Fact – there are 63 households across Dumfries and Galloway who are registered as foster carers. Could you be household 64?
 Festive Opening Hours Announced
Our council’s festive opening hours are now live on our website. This provides information on bin-collection arrangements, homelessness and housing options, registration offices, social work and more.
We are immensely grateful to the teams and staff who continue to show their dedication to their roles, and who are working over the festive period to support those people living in our region.
You can view our festive opening hours here: https://dumgal.gov.uk/festive-info
Bin-collection arrangements over the festive period.
As is the case every year, bins will not be emptied on Christmas or Boxing Day (Monday 25 and Tuesday 26 December 2023) or New Year’s Day (Monday 1) and Tuesday 2 January 2024. I very much appreciate the ongoing support and commitment of our Waste Collection teams and staff across the region who have agreed to work overtime to provide the following alternative arrangements where possible:
- For any grey-, red- or blue-lidded bin scheduled to get emptied on a Monday (Christmas or New Year’s Day) this is now planned to happen on the Saturday before (23/30 December 2023).
- For any grey-, red- or blue-lidded bin scheduled to get emptied on a Tuesday (Boxing Day or 2 January 2024) this is now planned to happen on the Sunday before (Christmas Eve/Hogmanay).
- Bins scheduled to be emptied on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of these weeks are planned to be done as normal.
- Information for householders on what to do with food waste, side waste and unwanted Christmas trees are on the festive-opening-hours web page.
We have also updated the “check your bin collection days” part of the new “Bins and Recycling” section of the corporate website. On it, householders will be able for the first time to type in their postcode and see their correct festive-period bin-collection date.
In addition, householders can check the Bins and Recycling section of the website for the latest service updates.
Lockerbie Air Disaster Thirty-Fifth Anniversary Commemorations
December 21 will mark 35 years since the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. At 7.03pm, the bomb exploded and killed all 259 passengers and crew on-board the aircraft, alongside 11 residents on the ground in Lockerbie.
The marking of the 35th anniversary will be a quiet, considered and low-key event, following discussions with the Lockerbie community, Dumfries and Galloway Council, school representatives and local authorities.
What's in a Name?
Children and young people across the region got their (wooly) thinking hats on and suggested a fantastic range of names for this year's “Name the Gritter” Competition.
Chair and Vice-Chair of Dumfries and Galloway Council's Communities Committee completed judging of the 372 entries for the competition, and names were selected for 18 gritters and one Dumfries town centre/cycle path gritting vehicle.
This week Chair of Communities Committee, Councillor Ian Blake, visited Loreburn Primary and Vice Chair Councillor Jackie McCamon visited Creetown Primary to meet pupils and see some of the newly named gritters.
You can see the names, and track where the gritter vehicles are working on our website: Gritter Tracking
You can also find your local grit bin and report whether it is empty, missing or vandalised.
Four Hundred Trees to be Planted Across Dumfries and Galloway
Four hundred trees will be planted across Dumfries and Galloway as part of a project to mark the impact of the COVID pandemic, and to honour those lost to COVID in the region.
The planting of a Dispersed Memorial Forest is part of Remembering Together Dumfries and Galloway, which is this region’s contribution to the Scotland-wide memorial project funded by the Scottish Government. Remembering Together Dumfries and Galloway is led by DG Unlimited, Dumfries and Galloway Council, and greenspace scotland.
The tree planting plans for the memorial have been developed for Remembering Together Dumfries and Galloway and are part of the Scotland-wide development of memorials that will honour those we have lost, mark what has changed in our lives, and preserve the best of what we learned and created together during the COVID pandemic.
Artists t s Beall and Katie Anderson will be working with communities across Dumfries and Galloway to collaboratively design and plant the Dispersed Memorial Forest across five sites – Castle Douglas, Dumfries, Moffat, Sanquhar, and Stranraer. The forest comprises the central part of the Covid Memorial for Dumfries and Galloway, which will also include community events in all five locations and a permanent archive sharing stories from the community.
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 Cargenbridge Primary Pupils Aren't Sheepish
Pupils at Cargenbridge Primary School were recently treated to a visit that included Mhairi Dawson from NFU Scotland and also Hamish Waugh, who farms over 600 Cheviot ewes near Langholm.
The pupils were given the opportunity to find out more about farming sheep and find out about some of the tools used to keep sheep healthy. The school guests explained how the wool is sheared and that it can be used for clothes, carpets, insulation and even for supressing weeds and feeding the soil.
When asked who had tasted lamb, less than half of the pupils raised their hands. Pupils were then offered by the catering manager a range of food made by with lamb and most tried either lamb burgers or a taste of shepherd’s pie made with Scotch Lamb. Many enjoyed the food so much that they went back for seconds.
The Scottish sheep herd is over 6.5 million, with over 1 million animals in Dumfries and Galloway.
 Dumfries Lion Club members, President John MacColl, Stuart Armstrong and Kaz Paszki, with Sara Jackson of Dumfries and Galloway Carers Centre and Cara Hyles of D&G Citizens Advice Service.
A Tree-mendous Christmas for Local Charities
Help local charities this Christmas by purchasing your tree from Dumfries Lions Club and give back to your community.
Proceeds from this year’s annual Christmas tree sale will allow young adult carers in Dumfries to obtain vital skills and knowledge. Dumfries Lions Club will be donating to Dumfries and Galloway Citizens Advice Service’s new RISE programme, to be delivered in partnership with Dumfries and Galloway Carers Centre – aiming to build young adult carers’ resilience, inspire their future, help them support each other and empower themselves.
The tree sale continues this weekend on Saturday 9 and Sunday 10 December (subject to availability) at Low Road Junction (turn right off Collin bypass) from 10.00am to 3.00pm.
Library Colouring Competition
Santa would like you to join in the festive fun and enter Dumfries and Galloway Council's library colouring competition.
There are two fantastic Christmas designs to colour and each library will award prizes for entries.
The competition runs from 1 to 15 December...pop in and get creative.
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