Local Agenda 21 and Sustainable Development

This is a very important part of our brief and perhaps the one least understood by everyone. It deals with nature conservation and the opportunities to create habitats - biological recording, education and work programmes and other nature projects, eg Eco-Schools and Junior Greenfingers. The public participation of local committees and working groups to assist with projects is of vital importance. Recycling and waste minimization is one area where everyone can play their part. We have an excellent recycling facility in Pitlochry and we urge everyone to reuse, recycle and reduce waste. All garden waste is recycled and can be purchased as soil enhancer for those of you who don't have your own compost heap.

Another important aspect is tree planting and Pitlochry in Bloom is committed to adding to our stock every autumn. We planted new trees in the Armoury Park in autumn 2006. In addition we plant bulbs in our features every year to enhance the informal plantings in the town.

It is important that we create awareness, provide information and encourage the community to support local agenda 21. The Wildlife Garden project with the SWT & school, the wildflower planting at the Atholl Palace and the local authorities excellent commitment to recycling all help us win awards.

Our aim is to make Pitlochry a cleaner place to live and work and we were delighted to win the ILAM Cleanliness Award again in 2006. For such a busy town with high numbers of tourists to win this award was very gratifying. We urge all of you to be responsible for taking your litter home. Help us to Keep Scotland Beautiful. We also try to raise public awareness about the levels of dog fouling, graffiti and fly-posting. We have in the past year purchased Wormeries for Pitlochry Pre-School Playgroup and Pitlochry High School Nursery, so that the children can make their own compost for their gardens.

As well as conservation initiatives and environmental projects, we also encourage the rehabilitation of derelict sites. We are fortunate that the past year has seen mostl of our ugly gap sites being developed and we now have very few unsightly brownfield areas remaining in the town.

We will continue to lobby landowners to transform and look after other unsightly areas in the town. The Armoury Park has been our biggest achievement to date and we hope to continue to improve our local environmental quality.

We are fortunate to have a good working partnership with Forest Enterprise, SWT, SNH, Perthshire Big Tree Country and Perthshire Tourist Board.

The big tree country is well worth a visit.