Community Wishes

11/02/26

More than a third of the bids to support small projects or community-driven requests in city localities under the Community Wishes banner have been or are in the process of being delivered.

Councillors will be told in the first annual Community Wishes report that there are 56 wishes on the portal, 13 of which have been delivered and nine are being worked on.

Mark Flynn convener of Dundee City Council’s city governance committee said: “For a new scheme launched from a standing start which relies on the co-operation of contractors and an unfamiliar application process, this represents a positive first year.

“It combines grass-roots democracy, community activism and technology into an attractive and effective scheme which has built on established positive relationships the council already has with many community groups throughout the city.”

Community Wishes, under the umbrella of Dundee City Council’s established Community Benefits programme, includes support for small installations, maintenance, clean-up projects, materials, volunteering time to complete projects or sponsorship.

These requests are moderated to ensure that they can be undertaken eg having the relevant consents and are they sought after by the wider community.

Contractors are then directed to the portal to identify a wish they would like to fulfil as part of the contractual community benefit commitment. These should be proportionate to the contract value and the council has specified the delivery of one wish per £100,000 of spend.

Among the completed projects highlighted in the annual report are:

A feasibility study for Street Soccer (the Change Centre) to develop a community sound studio in partnership with Doof Studios. This was delivered by Robertsons Construction as part of its East End Campus contract;
volunteering including weeding, power washing, repairing planters and fence painting transformed One Parent Families’ garden provided by Field and Lawn Ltd in relation to its City Centre Christmas decorations contract;
small portable projector for Lead Scotland to allow them to deliver sessions for people with disabilities and their carers in community venues who don’t have access to technology which was supported by Legrand Electrical UK in relation to its contract for the service and maintenance of warden call systems; and
forklift training for two workers from Dundee Bairns allowed it to operate its distribution centre five days a week instead of three delivered by McLaughlin and Harvey as part of its Green Travel Hub contract.

According to the report, as well as committing to report its performance each year, the development group continues to work to improve the programme with a number of priorities highlighted including:

Producing improved guidance for communities and contractors;
developing further reporting mechanisms; and
continue to encourage contractors to pick up wishes through targeted programmes.

The Community Wishes annual report will be considered by the city governance committee on Monday (February 16).

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