Tag: local democracy

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

secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk

EACC meets on Thursday

EDINBURGH ASSOCIATION of COMMUNITY COUNCILS

NEXT MEETING: Thursday 25 May 2023: 18.50 for 19.00 on Microsoft Teams.

Speakers:

Harald Tobermann; Chair, Edinburgh Bus Users Group:

Building the client relationship with Transport for Edinburgh.

Angela Benzies, HE Consultant, Edinburgh:

Community Council pathways for the support of local small business.

———————————————–

Here is the Microsoft Teams link:  

Join on your computer, mobile app or room device

Click here to join the meeting

Meeting ID: 322 644 206 999
Passcode: TwTidj

Download Teams | Join on the web
Learn more | 

———————————————–

Update:

CEC Spatial Policy and Active Travel are promoting Clean Air Day on 15 June with a promotional “Clean Air Day Toolkit” which I attach with this email.

Other links offered are

Clean Air Hub: What Can I Do about Air Pollution?

and the

WWF carbon calculator

The link to the Scottish Air Quality monitor site is here.

Lots to consider, then.

Finally, slides from the last EACC meeting on 27 April are on the EACC site. Go to Meetings on the menu bar and to EACC Documents >> Meetings 2023.

The EACC website homepage is:

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk)

_______________________________________________

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
EACC Secretary; Ken Robertson
secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk

Drylaw Telford CC meets on Wednesday

🎉COMMUNITY COUNCIL MEETING🎉

DRYLAW TELFORD Community Council’s next meeting will be held on Wednesday 24 May at 7pm in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre (enter via rear of building).

Open to all and we would love to see some new faces.

For more information, please email pamhigginsdtcc@gmail.com or just turn up on the night.

Hope to see you then 😊

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils to meet tomorrow

NEXT MEETING:
Thursday 30 March 2023: 18.50 for 19.00 on Microsoft Teams.

Speakers:

Cllr. Mandy Watt, Convenor of CEC Finance & Resources Committee:

‘Funding Edinburgh’s ambitions in an era of budget constraint.’

Angus Murdoch, CEC Neighbourhood Environmental Services:

‘Doing the dirty work: empty, clean, recycle; repeat.’

Here is the Microsoft Teams link:

Meeting ID: 345 790 606 167
Passcode: mD6VYF
Join on the web

Update:

CEC’s Spatial Policy Division is running a Workshop on five Draft Action Plans prepared in support of the City Mobility Plan.

Three dates are offered, on 18, 19 and 21 April (09.30 to 13.00).

The Action Plans cover Active Travel; Public Transport; Road Safety; Parking; Air Quality.

Contact the Placemaking and Mobility Team at spatial.policy@edinburgh.gov.uk to attend. The closing date is 17 March.

See more on the EACC website:
Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk)

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
EACC Secretary; Ken Robertson
secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils meets tonight

The Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC) will meet tonight (Thursday, 26 January) at 7pm 

Here is the screen meeting link:

Microsoft Teams meeting:

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_ZjRhMGUzODAtYmU0Mi00MWYwLWE1ZGQtMTU5NzdhZGZlNGY2%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22f99eadac-7b29-4403-af8c-3816d4ba1569%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e9d2cc08-1153-4935-8cea-1ef46a423cb7%22%7d

Meeting ID: 339 983 767 862

Passcode: hCLxPd

The Speakers

Andrew Field, Head of Community Empowerment and Engagement, and Joan Parr, Service Director for Culture and Wellbeing, from City of Edinburgh Council: Community Partnership Planning – Moving Forward

Councillor Scott Arthur, Convenor, City of Edinburgh Council Transport and Environment Committee:

Transport Priorities for a Growing City

This 26 January meeting begins our 2023 programme.

I invite you to get in touch to bring other meeting ideas to me.

 (As before, this meeting is open to the public, but due to space restrictions, priority will be given to Community Councillor attendees.

The meeting may be recorded – please note that by joining the meeting you are giving your consent in that regard.

Regards,

Ken Robertson

Secretary

_______________________________________________

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils (EACC)
EACC Secretary; Ken Robertson
secretary@edinburghcommunitycouncils.org.uk

Drylaw Telford CC meets tonight

Drylaw Telford Community Council meets tonight (Wednesday 25th January) in Drylaw Neighbourhood Centre at 7pm. All welcome.

AGENDA

  1. Welcome & Apologies
  2. Declarations of Interest
  3. Minutes of Last Meeting
  4. Chair Report
  5. Secretary Report
  6. Police Report
  7. Treasurer Report
  8. Councillors Report
  9. Update on DNC
  10. Open Space Consultation
  11. Any other business?

Date of next meeting 22nd February 2023

Edinburgh Association of Community Councils AGM tonight

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).

https://teams.microsoft.com/l/meetup-join/19%3ameeting_YWYyMzI5ZWMtNTYzOC00MjdjLTg3M2ItZGRhNTU4MTczNGMw%40thread.v2/0?context=%7b%22Tid%22%3a%22482a4ef9-66e4-4e76-9f24-6da09a713ed4%22%2c%22Oid%22%3a%22e5b58711-a7ee-4fcd-8fda-65a7424cbc8f%22%7d

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