A Stirling job: Johanna Boyd interview

Stirling has a proud reputation as Scotland’s City for Sport, and no occasion threw this into sharper relief than when Wimbledon champion Andy Murray received the Freedom of the City from Stirling Council. Images of an uncharacteristically emotional Murray were beamed across the globe as he tearfully accepted the honour, saying: “Everyone knows how proud I am of where I come from, so this is a huge honour. Moving away was one of the sacrifices I had to make for my job and every time I come back it’s quite emotional. It’s been very emotional today – I wasn’t in tears when I won Wimbledon.

“Good tennis players don’t really come from Scotland, but anything can happen if you believe, dream and work hard. I’m grateful to Stirling Council, and the people of Scotland, for their continued belief and support, and want to thank them for bestowing on me this very special honour.”

Another person who is equally proud of her area was the woman sitting to Murray’s right at the ceremony, Stirling Council leader Johanna Boyd. Boyd is considered a rising star in the Labour Party and was recently selected to contest the Stirling seat in the 2015 General Election, replacing retiring party colleague Anne McGuire. Speaking of Andy Murray, Boyd said it was a “great privilege” to formally recognise Murray’s outstanding achievements – both as a world-class sportsman and as a role model for young people.

She said: “Andy’s ambition, from his early days training at the National Tennis Centre in Stirling, to his successful Grand Slam and Olympic victories, has been an inspiration to us all. Here in Stirling, we want sport to be something for everyone, whether that means simply joining in and having fun – or going on to compete at club, national or international level. Physical activity fosters young people’s physical, social and emotional wellbeing. But taking part in sport also promotes self-esteem and team building, attributes that reach beyond the impact on physical health. We are promoting that in our schools and investing in facilities that will raise the profile of Stirling as the City for Sport.”

Cementing that profile is the news the council recently gave approval in principle for an agreement securing the new home of Cricket Scotland at New Williamfield, the home of Stirling County Cricket Club. The proposed new world-class facility will see Cricket Scotland relocate its headquarters from the National Cricket Academy at Ravelston, Edinburgh, to Stirling, and a new pavilion being built incorporating indoor net facilities.

Councillor Corrie McChord, former leader and current convenor of Stirling Council’s community planning and regeneration committee, said: “Stirling has a strong track record in producing world-class athletes and pioneering programmes to encourage sports participation, which lead to improved health and wellbeing and encourage community cohesion. We’re thrilled at the prospect of welcoming Cricket Scotland to Stirling and very much look forward to progressing this project with them. As Scotland’s City for Sport, Cricket Scotland couldn’t find a better home.”

A former barrister and mum of three, Boyd said the past year has been exciting and very busy. She said: “Obviously there’s quite a shift from councillor to taking on the role of leader, so it has been full of challenges but some real achievements too. We have done excellent work around early years. We were the first council to introduce 600 hours a year of free childcare and early learning, starting with our looked-after two year olds and moving onto our three and four year olds. 

“It’s not just about the hours but also thinking innovatively and creatively about how we help some of our most vulnerable children and families. Through our last budget process, we put additional money into early years. We want to see a family-centred, nurturing approach taken at some of our nurseries and this is about helping not just the kids but their extended families.

“Another big area for us was the introduction of the living wage. We were one of the first councils to introduce it. We are living in an incredibly challenging financial landscape for local government, we have £29 million of savings to make over five years so we’re always very mindful of that and have to be really thoughtful about where we are spending our money and making the savings but introducing the living wage was another area I thought was really important.

“Probably one of the most fundamental things we have done in the context of financial planning is introduce priority based budgeting. No one financial planning model is going to take away all your pain but it has gone a very long way to addressing, in a systematic way, how we go about making the savings we have to make. A major element of this process was community engagement. It saw our senior officers and senior management getting out there and engaging with communities. What it highlighted for me was that the council-tax freeze was being brought up by members of the public who were making the connection between having a council tax which is frozen and the impact it has on council services and the council having to make some really challenging decisions. As local government, we sometimes underestimate how understanding the public is of what local government faces.”

Looking at the bigger picture, Boyd said there is a longer-term question about where decision making ought to sit.
She added: “While we are talking about where power sits in the national context - Westminster versus Holyrood versus local government - even we in councils need to think about how we devolve decision making to communities and how we even devolve decision making down to an individual street level.

“Here in Stirling we are the size of Luxembourg, so we are a big authority area but we are also incredibly diverse. We are a city but we have a very big rural population. What is needed and demanded within our core city area might be very different to other places. A one-size-fits-all approach is not what people want. That is going to become a very important aspect of how we shape ourselves as a council and is going to be a big culture shift for us.

“The financial challenges are there and have to be met, we have to balance our books. For many of us, we come into local politics wanting to do things for our communities and not wanting to have to make cuts or difficult decisions and that’s across the political divide. Ninety per cent of what we do is prescribed for in statute so we don’t have that much to play with. The challenges in that respect are there and it has to be met at a national level. The funding of local government is critical. We currently have an 80/20 funding split, so 80 per cent from central government and 20 per cent from local taxation. That balance is wrong and we need to redress it. If you want the cities to be the powerhouses that they can be, then you have to release some of the stranglehold on them and give them the powers to really generate economic growth.”

A major event coming up for Stirling is the sixth annual Armed Forces Day national event, which is taking place on 28 June. Boyd believes this is a “massive opportunity” for the city. She said: “We are anticipating tens of thousands of people turning up to Stirling, which provides challenges but it is a huge opportunity. This is fundamentally about celebrating the armed forces, honouring those currently serving, veterans and their families. It is a huge celebration and in my role as leader of the city, it’s about great exposure for Stirling.”