Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tonight (Wednesday 25th January) in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre at 7pm. All welcome.
AGENDA
Date of next meeting 22nd February 2023
Councils across Scotland faced significant financial challenges during 2021/22 and are now entering the most difficult budget setting context seen for many years. Increasingly difficult choices about spending priorities will need to be made.
The Accounts Commission, the independent body that holds councils to account, said that even with additional Covid-19 funding during 2021-22, councils had to make significant savings last year to balance their budgets.
Many councils have also used reserves to bridge funding gaps and fund vital services. This is expected to be the case in 2022/23. The £570 million of additional funding for 2023/24, announced in the December budget, will help councils address upcoming cost challenges, but further change and reform across all councils is required to ensure longer-term financial sustainability.
When compared to the 2013/14 Scottish Government revenue funding position to local government, 2021-22 represented the first real-terms increase in six years (excluding one-off Covid-19 money). But an increasing amount of council funding is either formally ringfenced or provided on the expectation it will be spent on specific services and national policy objectives. This supports the delivery of key Scottish Government policies yet removes local discretion and flexibility over how these funds can be used by councils.
William Moyes, Chair of the Accounts Commission, said: “It’s clear the financial situation of councils is increasingly fragile. Councils are having to deal with the effects of inflation, the increasingly desperate cost of living impacts and rising demand for services, whilst at the same time delivering vital day to day services to their communities.
“To be financially sustainable, councils must deliver savings and reduce reliance on non-recurring reserves to fill budget gaps.
“If they are to find a safe path through the difficult times ahead, councils need to focus more on service reform, alongside meaningful engagement with their communities, about what services can be provided given the financial pressures they are facing.”
The agenda is as follows:
Minutes and matters arising
Correspondence
Police report
Events pending
Elected councillors/MSP / MPs
AoCB
Date and time next meeting
TODAY (Wednesday 14th December), MSPs on the Citizens Participation and Public Petitions Committee (CPPPC) will hear recommendations on how the Scottish Parliament can better engage with the people of Scotland.
Earlier this year, the CPPPC launched an inquiry into public participation, looking at how people’s voices are heard in the work of the Parliament. A Citizens’ Panel, comprised of 19 people broadly reflecting the demographic make-up of Scotland, met in Holyrood throughout October and November to deliberate how the Scottish Parliament can best work with people and communities to ensure their needs are reflected in its work.
Throughout the sittings, the Citizen’s Panel heard from MSPs, Scottish Parliament officials, third-sector organisations and leading academics about democracy and public participation to help facilitate discussion and inform their findings.
The Citizens’ Panel made 17 recommendations on improving how Holyrood’s work involves, reflects, and meets the needs of the full range of communities it represents, focusing on improving engagement for those currently under-represented.
Recommendations from the panel include improving community engagement, how the Parliament uses deliberative democracy, public involvement in Parliamentary business and the way Parliament communicates and educates the public on its work, specifically:
Five of the panellists, Gillian Ruane, Paul MacDonald, John Sultman, Maria Schwarz and Ronnie Paterson will present their findings to the CPPPC this week.
Following the evidence session, the Committee’s interim report will be published, and the Citizens’ Panel recommendations will go out to public consultation on 16th December for 8 weeks on the Scottish Parliament’s Your Priorities platform.
Commenting ahead of the Committee meeting, Convener Jackson Carlaw MSP said: “The work of the Citizens’ Panel on public participation has been invaluable to our inquiry, bringing fresh perspectives and bold ideas to the table around how Parliament can better engage with individuals, groups and communities from every part of Scotland.
“Ensuring the Scottish Parliament is accessible to a diverse range of people, particularly when developing new laws or policies that affect them, is essential and the recommendations made by the Citizens’ Panel have certainly given the Committee food for thought.
“The Committee will look forward to hearing from panel members this week and learning more about their experiences of the deliberative democracy process and how MSPs and the Parliament can best deliver on their recommendations.”
TONIGHT’s West Pilton & West Granton Community Council meeting has been CANCELLED.
The community council will next meet again in the New Year.
EACC: EVOC Presentation and AGM: 24 November 2022, at 19.00
This will now be a TEAMS screen meeting (with doors open at 18.50).
We are going to use a facility hosted by CEC Governance Division, with the provision of a Council Returning Officer for the Members’ Board election.
Please note the Meeting ID and Passcode.
Microsoft Teams meeting
Join on your computer, mobile app or room device
Click here to join the meeting (or copy and paste the link to your browser).
Meeting ID: 387 653 264 326
Passcode: P7p2hD
Where asked to sign-in with a screen display name, please adopt the following procedure:
If you are carrying your council’s vote, please sign in to the Teams screen meeting with a clear CC identifier, preceded by two asterisks and followed by your surname, along the lines of:
**GRANGE – ROBERTSON
**CORST – KERR
**LTHLNK – MILLAR
If you are not carrying a vote, just sign in as FIRST NAME LAST NAME.
If you have any queries, contact me at:
Secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk or sillertonhill@gmail.com
or call me on 078 1615 2994.
The event will be recorded.
In attending, you will be giving your permission for the recording to take place.
AGM Agenda:
1. Record of attendance;
2. Minutes of November 2021 AGM submitted for adoption;
3. Record of February 2022 EGM submitted for adoption;
4. Standing Orders (November 2022 revision) submitted for adoption;
5. Chair’s Annual Report;
6. Secretary’s Annual Report;
7. Treasurer’s submission of Annual Accounts to March 2022 for adoption;
8. Any other relevant Office Bearer reports;
9. Consideration of any Motions to be put to the meeting;
10. Demit of current Office Bearers;
11. Election of Community Council members to EACC Office Bearer posts and to panel seats on the EACC Members’ Board;
12. Appointment of an Independent Examiner of the Accounts;
13. Any other competent business, as determined by the Chair;
14. Set date of next AGM and close the meeting.
Ken Robertson
Acting-Secretary, EACC
Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tonight (Wednesday 23 November) in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre at 7pm. All Welcome!
Agenda
MONDAY 21st NOVEMBER
online at 6pm via Microsoft Teams
A new initiative from UK-based charity CleanupUK has launched, offering communities access to free litter-picking equipment to protect their local environment from the impact of litter and to connect communities.
CleanupUK has established litter-picking hubs to mitigate the effects of litter on neighbourhoods and local wildlife in the UK whilst tackling loneliness and isolation that can take place during the winter months.
The Cleanup Hubs have been developed in partnership with local community groups such as youth centres, Councils for Voluntary Services (CVS), city farms, and a local mental health charity. Through collaboration and collective action, these organisations are coming together to serve the local community and to help foster a sense of pride in otherwise challenging times.
CleanupUK will offer litter-picking equipment including high-vis jackets, litter-picking hoops, and litter-picking sticks to local hubs which can be borrowed free of charge by the local community.
CleanupUK and partnering organisations believe that this will:
The development of Cleanup Hubs comes against the backdrop of 27th session of the Conference of the Parties (COP27) which will see leaders from across the world gather to discuss the impact of climate change on our planet.
CleanupUK Chief Executive George Monck says, “We know that all of us can make an extraordinary impact on society and litter-picking is a great example of that.
“By coming together, local people can prevent harmful litter infiltrating parks and entering our rivers and waterways, all whilst building a stronger sense of community and having fun.”
A full list of current CleanupUK Hubs is below:
ONLINE MEETING – MONDAY 21 NOVEMBER at 6pm
