Tackling depopulation priority for Dumfries and Galloway Council
Tackling depopulation and the growing trend of young people choosing to leave Dumfries and Galloway looks set to be a top priority for councillors and youth councillors.
Dumfries and Galloway’s full council and youth council are partnering on a shared action plan for 2026/27.
They will be looking closely at key issues raised by 10,000 young people in the ‘10,000 Voices’ survey completed in 2023.
The main issues affecting youngsters were: 1 – Smoking and Vaping, 2 – Diet and Body Image, 3 – Mental Health, 4 – Bullying, 5 – Money, budgeting and Cost of Living.
However, more than half of the young people surveyed also expressed a desire to leave this region as adults.
Council officers have shined a spotlight on this fact, and have suggested it could form a key part of the shared action plan that will be drawn up by councillors and members of the youth council.
The development of the shared action plan is due to be discussed at a joint meeting of the council and youth council next Thursday at The Bridge in Dumfries.
A report by council service manager Mark Molloy, which will be tabled at the meeting, reads: "Members should note that within 10,000 Voices there was 55.1 percent of young people who said that they were planning to leave the region for work, study or employment.
"The data also tells us that 25.1 percent would plan to return to the region in the future.
"This directly links to our council’s work around de-population and could be considered by the workshops as an area that members and youth councillors may consider developing an action around.
"A key focus of this joint meeting between full council and the youth council is to allow dialogue between all elected members and youth council members about the key issues and identify any outstanding and new actions to address them which should be developed in the coming year."
It is proposed that elected members and youth councillors will be divided between three discussion groups to talk about various key issues for young people, primarily those identified in the 10,000 Voices survey.
Each group will discuss potential joint actions, and it is recommended that each group agrees only two to three SMART (specific, measurable, agreed, realistic and timetabled) actions so that this new shared action plan is focussed and deliverable.