Getting involved with voluntary and community groups can allow you to:
– Help others in your local area
– Learn new skills
– Build friendships
See our guide on some of the different ways you can get involved 
Your Community: Play Your Part!
Tag: Community Councils
Take the chance to represent your community
YOUR COMMUNITY COUNCIL NEEDS YOU!
It’s been over half a century since community councils came into existence in Scotland in 1973 – and in that time, we’ve seen over 1,200 established across the country (writes Culture and Communities Convener CLLR VAL WALKER).
These bodies are groups of residents who are passionate about their communities and play an important role in grassroots democracy.
Here in Edinburgh, the election period for our community councils has begun. Last week nominations opened to stand for election as a community councillor, this closes on 27 February. Following that we’ll hold an election only if there are more people nominated than places on the community council.
This is your chance to take a lead in your local area and make your community a better place. From campaigning on key local issues, organising meetings, chairing debates, looking out for vulnerable individuals and groups, to liaising with local and national representatives and much more – the life of a community councillor in the Capital is never ordinary.
I’m continually inspired by the stories I come across of community councils. In Lady Nairne, the Northfield and Willowbrae Community Council worked tirelessly to ensure that a solution was found when the previous 69 supported bus service ceased operations several years ago.
Following extensive engagement with ward councillors and Council officers a new route was implemented just in time for Christmas last year, which I know was a welcome gift to those residents who had long campaigned for its reinstation.
We’ve also seen Longstone Community Council lead a campaign to erect a new bridge to link their community to the Hutchison/Chesser community, as part of a new active travel project.
Initially a bridge was not part of these plans but following successful meetings with their ward councillor, Council officers and the developer some £170,000 worth of contributions were earmarked to support the delivery of the bridge. This will now go to consultation as part of the as the Longstone Link project.
These are just a couple of the many examples of the excellent work community councils are doing across our city every day. I’d encourage all residents to consider standing as a community councillor.
“From Pilton to Portobello, Muirhouse to Morningside and beyond, Edinburgh draws its strength from its people, and we need their views, ideas and expertise to move forward together.
Find out more about community councils and how to stand for election on CEC website.
Community Council elections: Nominations now open
The Notice of Election to community councils in Edinburgh was published yesterday (Wednesday 5th February).
Community councils are groups of elected local residents who care about their communities. These councils play an important role in the democratic process and act in the interests of their local areas.
The nomination period runs from today until 27 February. During this time you can nominate yourself to stand for election as a community councillor.
An election will only be held in a community council area if there are more people nominated than places on the community council. Should this be necessary the election date will be 27 March.
The new community council term will start on 28 March and will last four years. The next community council elections are planned for 2029 though this may be subject to change.
Find out more about community councils and how to stand for election on our website along with the full text of the Notice of Election.
Culture and Communities Convener, Councillor Val Walker said: “Community councils remain an integral part of the social and democratic fabric of our city. In my experience as a ward councillor, I truly value my relationship with community councils and the excellent work that they do.
“From campaigning on key local issues, to organising meetings, chairing debates, liaising with local and national representatives and much more – the life of a community councillor in the Capital is never ordinary.
“This is an excellent opportunity to take a lead in your local area and make your community a better place. I’d encourage all residents to consider standing as a community councillor. Edinburgh draws its strength from its citizens, and we need their views and ideas to move forward together.”
Secretary of Edinburgh Association of Community Councils, Ken Robertson said: “You have a community council voice in city life, by right.
“Don’t step to the side and stay silent.”
Democracy Matters: Community Councils update
Still time to sign up for our Community Councils webinar at 6pm on Wed 29 January, when we will get an update on the Democracy Matters consultation from the Scottish Government.
The Democracy Matters engagement process asked communities to consider what the future of community decision making should look like where they live.
On 19 September 2024, COSLA and the Scottish Government published the Democracy Matters National Conversation report alongside a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to this work.
In this session Scottish Government officials will be presenting the process findings and outlining next steps for this important work.
Promotion of Community Councils
MS Teams Meeting on Tuesday 22 October 2024 from 6-7:30pm
In advance of Community Council elections in February 2025, we are reaching out to invite you to the above meeting to discuss how community councils and the Council can collaboratively work together to promote community councils.
Some of the areas we are keen explore are:
- Positively communicating to the public who community councils are and the work they do.
- Encouraging membership to community councils.
- Promoting upcoming community councils elections in February 2025.
If you would like to attend, please use the MS Teams link below:
Microsoft Teams Need help?
Meeting ID: 315 878 447 216
Passcode: BsEd9c
Local Emergencies: Community Councils webinar with Ready Scotland
Still time to sign up for our webinar with @readyscotland on Wednesday 25 September to talk about how Community Councils are supporting people through local emergencies – and find out how you can contribute to a new survey on the issue.
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils meets on Thursday
EACC Meeting
Thursday 26 Oct 2023: 18.50 for 19.00 on Microsoft Teams.
Item 1: Local Place Plans – The role for Community Councils
Jane Iannarelli, CEC Senior Planning Officer, and
Anna Grant, Manager of the Development Plan Team
The pace of development around the city brings the issue of ‘change in the community’ into sharp focus. Development has some sharp edges. What’s the role for Community Councils in shaping their neighbourhoods?
At last year’s November AGM, the call was for local communities to be given a stronger say on Local Development Plans and 20-Minute Neighbourhood Schemes. Still feel the same way?
Item 2: Open Floor
Here’s the 26 Oct Teams link:
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 341 168 093 390
Passcode: zJFT9F
Download Teams | Join on the web
Update:
1. The EACC AGM will be via a screen meeting on Thursday 23 November at 19.00. The Officer Bearer posts (4) and Members’ Board positions (up to 12) are open for election. There is a very real need for new participants to join the Members’ Board.
The nomination papers are with you. Please return nominations to the Secretary by Thursday 9 November but at the very latest by 18.00 on Saturday 18 November. You will be advised of the nominee names submitted thereafter.
2. Go to the EACC website Front Page to catch recent posts, including the detail of the Planning Democracy free Winter Webinar Series on Local Development Plans, National Plannning Framework 4 and Greenbelts.
3. At the end of August, Douglas Rogers of Marchmont & Sciennes CC spoke on the challenges of adapting homes in a conservation or heritage setting to high insulation standards. He wants to take his work here further and is inviting community councillors to join him. Read more in the attachment to this email.
4. Daniel Fisher, Manager of the Greyfriars Charteris Centre at the Pleasance (EH8, within Southside CC ward), has asked me to pass on some detail of the Centre’s application for Scot Gov funding to establish the Edinburgh Climate Action Hub. He is requesting your support and expressions of interest in working with Greyfriars Charteris on this project.
Again, you’ll find more detail in the attachment to this email.
Thanks.
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Ken Robertson, Secretary.
secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
The EACC website homepage is:
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk)
New resources for Community Councils
A new set of guidance documents for Community Councils have been published by the Improvement Service, Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC), COSLA and the Scottish Government.
The documents, which include a Model Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils and Good Practice Guidance for how Community Councils should operate, were launched last week. Local Authorities can use this set of documents as the basis for their local versions which set out how community councils will run in their area.
Community councillors and local authority Community Council Liaison Officers (CCLOs) were involved in reviewing the existing Model Scheme and guidance document at a series of meetings in 2021 and 2022. These documents needed to be updated to take into account technological changes in the way Community Councils are meeting, conducting their finances and engaging with their communities.
There is some useful good practice guidance included, containing the latest information on topics such as planning, community empowerment and GDPR.
We felt that it is important that the key documents are available in accessible formats and that these should be available at a national level, to ensure that everyone within our communities can access and use the documents. The Good Practice Guidance for Community Councils, the Code of Conduct and the Standing Orders are now available in a range of formats.
There’s a video with BSL and captions, large print versions of the documents, text only versions that are suitable for braille conversion, and Easy Read.
The Easy Read versions contain all of the information but break it down into small chunks, with explanations of some of the terms that are used.
This helps make the information more accessible for people with learning disabilities, people who have memory problems, people who speak English as their second language and anyone who finds reading difficult.
It can also be useful for people who are anxious or stressed and struggling to take in information because of that or those who have to take in information in a hurry.
All of the documents are also available in Gaelic, and other language translations can be requested.
Access the set of documents on the Community Councils website.
EACC: Community Engagement tops the agenda at August meeting
EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION OF COMMUNITY COUNCILS
NEXT MEETING: Thursday 31 Aug 2023: 18.50 for 19.00 on Microsoft Teams.
Speakers:
Andrew Field: CEC; Head of Community Engagement and Empowerment;
Helen Bourquin: CEC; Manager, Community Engagement and Empowerment.
Topic:
The roll-out of Edinburgh’s Locality Improvement Plans 2023-28.
Under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015, the Edinburgh Partnership is required to develop and deliver Locality Improvement Plans (LIPs) for each of the four localities in the city.
Work on this is already underway in the North-West and is building-out elsewhere.
I’ve invited Andrew and Helen to talk through:
The scope and target outcomes of the LIPs;
The community consultation process intended to shape the right priorities for each locality; and
Where the LIPs stand currently in terms of their early progress.
Here is the screen meeting link:
Microsoft Teams meeting
Click here to join the meeting
Meeting ID: 357 770 829 32
Passcode: yR9Kg8
Hope you can join us.
For the diary:
Tuesday 12 September at 19.00, on Teams.
Roger Colkett (Tollcross CC) is on the EACC Members’ Board and covers Licensing issues. He sits on the Edinburgh Licensing Forum.
He will host a one-hour screen meeting and invites all community council Licensing Leads to join him to chat through what is currently happening on the city’s Licensing front.
I’ll issue a reminder in two weeks or so, along with the meeting link. For now, please make sure your community council colleagues looking after Licensing have this message.
Ken Robertson
Secretary
secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
The EACC website homepage is:
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk)
Community Councils Scheme Review: Important dates coming up
MEETING DATES: TWO drop-in consultation sessions on Monday 7 August and Tuesday 15 August and the Teams meeting set for Thursday 17 August.**
Community Councillors are invited to ‘make initial contributions and suggestions regarding the existing Community Council scheme and boundaries and to ‘provide feedback and recommendations for any proposed changes that you believe would be beneficial’.
This invitation was discussed at the Members’ Board last Thursday. Here are some issues we think are worth your attention:
A] Community Council Boundaries
1. New community council wards:
- How many and where?
- On the basis of what growth projections for city expansion?
- What data sources are to be used?
2. Size of community council wards:
- On what basis will the size of community council areas be reviewed and targeted?
- What data sources are to be used?
- What intentions are there to reduce a wide dispersion (imbalance) in community council area ‘size’ (number of residents) across the city?
- What could be done to ‘rebalance’?
3. Boundaries:
- Boundary changes should be fully explained and justified to residents.
- What will be done to reshape boundaries, in order to reduce the incidence of community council ‘crossover’ into two (or even three) City Councillor electoral wards, so that the ‘mapping’ of a community council to one and only one (four-strong) group of City Councillors is tightened up? (A community council area perimeter should be bounded within a single electoral ward.)
- What measures will then be introduced to improve liaison and coordination across electoral wards and in turn across Localities?
B] Scheme for Community Councils
1. Minimum number of ‘elected community council members’ (2019 Scheme, Para 6.24):
- There is evident current strain on a number of community councils, stemming from a fall-away in the participation of active elected members towards or below the critical level of ‘half of the maximum permitted elected membership’.
- In light of that, what new flexible support measures can CEC Governance introduce to the Scheme rules in order to avoid (in such circumstances) the undue lapse of community councils into an ‘inactive state’ (whereby residents are then ‘disenfranchised’)?
2. Resourcing of a community council (2019 Scheme, Paras 11.9 and 11.11):
- Contemporary ‘support needs’ for a well-functioning community council nowadays centre on IT, on website maintenance and repair, on technical assistance with AV equipment for hybrid meetings, all alongside the minuting and reporting of community council proceedings.
- The absence of such support blunts a community council’s effectiveness in its core role and its ambition, especially when ‘something goes wrong’.
- The need for CEC operational support now goes well beyond ‘additional support services/resourcing, such as photocopying and distribution of community council minutes and agendas and (also) free lets of halls for community council meetings’, as offered in the 2019 Scheme Review.
- There is a case for a (much) stronger CEC commitment to dependable, core operational back-up of community councils’ governance and administration work.
- What new avenues of operational (and financial) assistance can CEC look to introduce in this current Scheme Review?
https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/downloads/file/30693/scheme-for-community-councils
**Here are the dates, and the opportunity to put some meaningful questions to CEC.
Monday 7 August 2023
17.00-19.30
Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, EH8 8BG, Ground Floor, Room 15
Tuesday 15 August 2023
13.00-16.00
Waverley Court, 4 East Market Street, EH8 8BG, Ground Floor, Room 15
Thursday 17 August 2023
17.00-19.30
Virtual meeting held via Microsoft Teams – if you would like to attend please make contact with CEC (by email to community.councils@edinburgh.gov.uk) no later than 14.00 on 17 August 2023 to confirm your attendance and request the link to join the session.
The EACC website homepage is:
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk)
_______________________________________________
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
EACC Secretary; Ken Robertson