The new chief executive of South Ayrshire Council has admitted that they need to hear how well community projects have fared to fully understand their benefits.

Chief executive Mike Newall told the council’s Audit and Governance Panel that on projects like the regeneration of Ayr town centre, community engagement was vital.

His comments came as the Panel heard a report on the progress of an action plan developed after a critical best value review in 2021.

Part of this covered the improvements that the council needs to make in terms of community engagement. The Accounts Commission had urged the council to provide evidence of how community engagement impacts its decisions.

SNP councillor George Weir said: “There’s a lot of engagement being undertaken. I wondered if there was any action to address the point around the need for evidencing the results.”

Assistant director – communities, George Hunter, insisted that engagement was vital, replying: “Ongoing good consultation and the interpretation of those results is absolutely key to everything we do.”

He cited recent consultation work around Ayr town centre strategy as an example.

He added that consultation was not simply focused on major projects and capital investment, commenting: “What is also really important is the granular detail of everything we do that sits around that big stuff. We are keen on doubling down to capture people’s views.

“That good, evidential base of, not just the big stuff, but the day-to-day projects becomes really important to the decision making.”

Cllr Weir pressed officers on the nature of the evidence, commenting: “It seems that the most the council can perhaps do is record the fact that they have taken note of the feedback. That is evidence. If you don’t record it there is no evidence.”

Chief executive Mike Newall acknowledged the councillor’s point, saying: “You are absolutely correct. We need to do the best that we can to attract feedback from the investments that we make, none moreso than the work were are doing in wards, because we have been following place plans, providing investments in areas that our communities have told us they want to see.

“We want to see what added value, what benefit to the community it brings. That is piece of work we have still to do, to capture that and complete the circle.”

Mr Hunter echoed the chief executive, pointing out that the report referred to the importance of assessing the impact of investment.

He added: “All that engagement work that we do, we do need to find a way to channel that and follow up on some of the great work carried out.”

Mr Hunter said that he was working with other directors to determine the best way to use the feedback to influence council budgeting and align them to those place plans and community action plans.

He said: “We can help communities actually realise a range of things. Sometimes these are big things, sometimes they are small things that they want to take forward.”

Councillor Kenny Bell suggested that the council look to formal consultations in order to make use of more tangible feedback from the public.

He cited the recent tenant consultation into rent levels as an example and suggested a ‘semi structured questionnaire’ approach be used to bring in more ‘robust’ views.

Mr Hunter agreed that the guidance was always to make consultations and feedback as accessible and inclusive as possible.