Tag: Community Councils

Fightback starts NOW: Community council to reconvene next week

WEST PILTON & WEST GRANTON CC TO MEET ON TUESDAY

WEST Pilton & West Granton Community Council is to reconvene on Tuesday night.

Top of the agenda will be the future of West Granton Community Trust’s building in Granton Mains. The organisation confirmed that The Prentice Centre will close at the end of September.

Former Community council chair Willie Black said: “The imminent closure of The Prentice Centre is a huge blow to the local community and we must do everything we can to ensure that this facility remains an asset for local groups and organisations to use.

“There are a number of possibilities and we would like to talk about these at next week’s meeting.”

First challenge for the local community council is to strengthen it’s current membership.

“We have three vacancies and we would like to fill these as soon as we can. We saw with the success of this summer’s Community Festival just what can be achieved when the community works together and we’d welcome enthusiastic new members to help make next year’s Festival an even bigger success.

“The meeting will also offer an opportunity to meet the councillors elected in May’s council elections so we are hoping for a good turnout. There is plenty to talk about.”

West Pilton and West Granton Community Council meets on Tuesday 9th August at 7pm in West Pilton Neighbourhood Centre.

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils meets online this Thursday

The Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) will meet on Thursday 26 May, at 7pm on Zoom.

(See the Zoom link at the foot of this email.)

*** Agenda ***

1. Presentation by Charlie Raeburn on the ‘Observatory for Sport in Scotland’.

This is a community sports initiative — involving central and local government, as well as the private sector — aimed at tacking Scotland’s health and activity crisis. (See https://oss.scot.)

2. Best practice for community council treasurers? Solutions to banking problems for small organizations? Discussion led by Judy Wightman, EACC Treasurer and Chair of Ratho & District Community Council. 

3. Removal of litter bins from parks and greenspaces. Issue to be raised by Tim Parker, Trinity Community Council.

4. Any other business.

EACC meeting, 26 May 2022 19:00 

Join Zoom Meeting:

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/8213251547?pwd=cVM5Y1pQZFUrZVV2cnIwUDV1MjF5QT09

SIMON HOLLEDGE

Secretary, Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)

Simon.Holledge@gmail.com

@EdinCCs

Forth Neighbourhood Network meets online tomorrow evening

6pm via MICROSOFT TEAMS

FORTH Neighbourhood Network will meet online tomorrow evening at 6pm.

AGENDA

  1. Welcome & Apologies
  2. Notes of Meeting of 19th January 2022 and matters arising (circulated)
  3. Forth NN Neighbourhood Environmental Programme (NEP) HRA update – George Norval / David Delargy
  4. Forth NN current Priority: Poverty, including food poverty update – Biddy Kelly, Response and Recovery Group
  5. Community Grants Fund – review of the past year plus funding panel decisions
  6. Any other Business
  7. Dates of Next Meetings:   22nd June 2022, 14th Sept 2022, 14th Dec 2022.

For further information please contact Elaine Lennon, North West Lifelong Learning Development Officer, telephone 529 5270, email Elaine.Lennon@edinburgh.gov.uk

HELP! Community Councils umbrella body funding appeal

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils appeals to members for financial support

The Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) is making a one-time appeal for funds.

Like community councils, we need to pay for a website, video-conferencing and meeting facilities, and help with documenting meetings etc. 

Unlike community councils, we are not receiving financial support from either the City of Edinburgh Council (CEC) or the Edinburgh Partnership, the higher level body to which both CEC and EACC belong.

Why is this? Community councils are statutory bodies and EACC is officially recognised by CEC as representing them in Edinburgh. Until a few years ago, EACC were getting a grant, similar to those given to individual community councils. This was authorised by Edinburgh Partnership, but paid by CEC from its community services budget. 

Paul Lawrence, CEC Director of Place, has told us that funding hasn’t been provided to EACC since 2017-8. Inevitably there are conflicting explanations of why. We asked Paula McLeay, CEC Head of Policy and Insight, if the grant could be reinstated, but the answer was no. 

EACC is unique among Edinburgh Partnership members in being totally voluntary and unfunded. This is unsustainable and we will continue to negotiate for the grant to be restored. 

In the meantime we have no money, so we are launching this appeal for funds from Edinburgh’s community councils. (As a guide we are hoping to raise about £500 to maintain basic services.)

If you are willing to support EACC, we would be very grateful if you could send us funds by bank transfer:

Account number              30120430
Sort code                         82 68 00
Account name                  Edinburgh Association of Community Councils

Or, by cheque, by post to:

Mrs J Wightman
17 Bonnington
Kirknewton
Midlothian
EH27 8BB

Simon Holledge, Secretary
Judy Wightman, Treasurer

Happy New Year for community councillors at Scottish Engineer

With 2022 just around the corner – The Scottish Engineer wanted to give all of Drylaw Telford Community Council a little present to start the year!

From next Monday (3rd January) you can enjoy 25% off food for the whole of January.

To qualify, simply tell your server you are from Drylaw Telford Community Council facebook group when requesting your bill and the discount will be applied automatically.

You may use this discount as many times as you like throughout January and no booking if required.

But if you do wish to book in advance to avoid disappointment, please head to : thescottishengineer.co.uk — at The Scottish Engineer

Neighbourhood Watch: How Do We Tackle Antisocial Behaviour?

FREE COMMUNITY SEMINAR

Book your FREE place on @N_Watch webinar now

http://ourwatch.org.uk/webinars @ Mon 15th Nov 5-6pm to find out about the impact antisocial behaviour has on communities & how together we can tackle this growing problem

#saynotoasb

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tomorrow evening

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tomorrow evening following the summer recess.

As well as the usual agenda items, topical issues include the state of Drylaw Shopping Centre, an update on Drylaw House and Easter Drylaw Park issues.

The meeting will be held on Zoom and starts at 7pm.

For details on how you can participate please email DTCC secretary Pam Higgins, pamhigginsdtcc@gmail.com

Community councils to set agenda for September EACC meeting

The next ordinary meeting of Edinburgh Association of Community Councils will be on 9th September.

What would you like to discuss? What issues do you want to raise?

Community councillors, send us a DM, or an email to the Secretary at Secretary@EdinburghCommunityCouncils.org.uk.

We’d like to hear from you!

Remember there’s free training available for community councillors too:

Free courses for community councillors from the Improvement Service and The Open University in Scotland are available in digital skills, business skills, finance and fundraising, and community and society.

Sign up online and complete them in your own time:

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/skills-supportOU-CC

Free online courses for community councillors

Community councillors are already making the most of the online courses developed by the Improvement Service and The Open University in Scotland. 

There have been over 700 hits on the portal where you can sign up for free courses on digital skills, business skills, finance and fundraising, and community and society.

More information here: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/skills-supportOU-CC

Community Councillors from all over Scotland have already benefited from the free online courses developed by the Improvement Service and The Open University in Scotland

Find out more and register for a free account here: https://www.open.edu/openlearn/skills-supportOU-CC

Free training courses for community councillors

The Improvement Service and the Open University (OU) in Scotland are working together to offer all community council volunteers the opportunity to upskill and reskill using OU courses.

Throughout the pandemic the Improvement Service’s Community Councils (CCs) project supported by Scottish Government has been trying to find ways to support CCs as they adapt to new ways of working and the OU was one of the organisations we reached out to and asked how they could help.

We asked Scotland’s CCs what skills they would find helpful to have or improve on and we are delighted to present these free online courses which the OU have tailored to suit the needs of Scottish CCs.

Many CCs have fully embraced the digital journey during the pandemic and there are courses here to help you continue that journey such as using Microsoft Teams and succeeding in a digital world. In addition to digital skills there are also courses on a range of other topics that community councillors have suggested including finance, fundraising, community and business skills.

These courses are totally free – all community councillors have to do is register for a free account and then you can begin your learning journey with the OU.

The OU has many courses to choose from but if you would like to suggest additional topics for training not covered that would benefit CCs in Scotland please let us know by e-mail: scottishccs@improvementservice.org.uk

So what are you waiting for? Brush up on your skills or learn some brand new ones with the OU, just click on the link below to begin your journey:

https://www.open.edu/openlearn/skills-supportOU-CC