QDCC Proposals to Consider for Meeting with CEC Governance

Resources & Support

• Volunteer Resources - do officers fully appreciate CCs membership is voluntary, with no/minimal official support, financial or otherwise.
• Operating costs – grant could be expanded to meet other needs, eg webhosting.
• IT support - from CEC would help CCs be more efficient, eg website resource, dedicated email addresses.

 Meeting Definitions & Attendance

• SG/COSLA Joint Council ‘Model Scheme’ – why/where does CEC Scheme differ from the Model Scheme re meetings attendance & definition.
• Meetings Constitution – CEC to clarify what level of discussion/attendance constitutes formal CC meeting and thus requires publicising.
• Special Meetings – specifically what constitutes a special meeting and what is minimum attendance to be quorate.
• Public Attendance – which meetings exactly are open to the public?  
• Quorum – query is this 50% of elected members only or including nominated interest group members.
• Chair Term of Office – query background/rationale on max 5 year term and one term only.
• Removal of 10 day notice to public for operational meetings

 Ward Cllrs Role & Function

• Role – ex-officio members role to be defined.
• Attendance – minimum meeting attendance requirement for individual CEC Ward Cllrs (ie not as a group).  If not should there be? 
• Reporting –  CEC Ward Cllrs to formally report monthly to CCs on matters they have been involved with which impact directly on the CC area.

Keith Giblett: Queensferry & District CC

Ian Williamson, Secretary of Cramond & Barnton CC, was in touch recently to set out a list of ongoing issues which have 'exercised us in recent years'. It conveys a good deal of frustration and it will, as he puts it, 'resonate with other CCs'. Here is a summary of what he has to say. The question, then, is what you think should be done, could be done, to break the impasse. Let me know, please.

CEC Relationship: The absence of meaningful engagement and consultation - 'a constant feature'.

Planning: Lack of opportunity to check or challenge the breadth and accuracy of Planning Officers' Handling Reports prior to Development Sub-Committee Meetings.

S75 Developer Obligations: CEC to provide regular public reports on the scale and application of S75 payments.

Transport Strategy: Local CC input on commuter route road-charging, on demarcation of no-go 'rat runs' and on bus service provision.

Active Travel Safety: Insufficient attention paid by Transport Officers to locally identified traffic hazards and travel mode conflicts.

Road Works: Need for more effective management, control and monitoring of road work undertakings, timescales and quality of completion.

Bus Services: Regular Transport & Environment Committee reporting on levels of service provision: Bus operator obligation to pre-consult on substantial changes to route and service provision.

Affordable Housing Obligations (AFO): Regular CEC reporting on the progressive discharge of AFO in respect of individual major developments.

Council Finances: CC desire for stronger, more frequent information on CEC funding and expenditure on both current and capital accounts. More explicit information on expenditure on external service (including consultancy) provision.

Support for Community Councils: 

What are CEC's ideas and proposals for improved levels of practical support?

Community Empowerment: Do community councils actually want more specific, delegated responsibilities for community service provision (as imagined in the Scot Gov Democracy Matters consultation? Can they realistically anticipate being able to put in place the management and resource platform to deliver?

Tollcross Community Council Response:    7 March 2024

Consultation on Community Council Scheme and proposal to amend boundaries. Phase 2

1. General Observations

There is a lot in the scheme that is very useful to Community Councils (CCs), especially when being set up.

The language of the Scheme gives the impression of the Council micromanaging community councils rather than it being a two-way process of negotiation. Examples of this include lots of instructions about the order of business at meetings, the amount of money to be held in accounts and a constant flow of documents to the Council (about 1300 from all Edinburgh’s CCs with a financial penalty for non-compliance, not mentioned in Government guidance).

It is clear that much of this wording comes directly from a series of documents from the Scottish Government to councils and so councils are constrained by this. However, changes such as demanding the accounts 3 months earlier and demanding a community engagement report, both with financial penalties for not complying, are not following Scottish Government guidance and appear dictatorial. Language is important if we are to feel that we are on the same team with common goals.

The Review was submitted and approved at the special session of the CEC Full Council on 8 February, accompanied by a small number of amendments. Two related to the naming of community councils; the others to community council 'shape'. Here is the link to the full documentation. 

Choose agenda document pack - City of Edinburgh Council 8 February 2024 - Modern Council

The framework within which community councils are to operate rests heavily on the Scottish Government 'Model Scheme for Community Councils'. The framework (including proposed boundary revisions) now moves to the Phase 2 eight-week consultation, which has been scheduled to start on 12 February and run to 8 April. In the documentation as tabled to the Council, CEC made no move explicitly to bolster practical assistance and support to community councils to aid their efforts to function well and to ensure relevance to their communities. (In fact, such provision as there is in the existing Scheme was dropped from the proposed Scheme which went for approval on 8 February.)

However, one amendment now attached to the Scheme for consultation over the course of Phase 2 may (or may not) prompt a shift in support. 

This Green Group amendment reads:

"1.3 Agrees to include in the above consultation the following options for improving access, equality and diversity : term limits for office bearers; gender balancing mechanisms for community councils; increased training for community councillors and office bearers focussed on running meetings, handling email workload and the duties of community councillors; additional resource for encouragement of candidates to community councils; resources to support attendance at community councils including transport and care costs.

1.4 Agrees that should the above require additional officer time then the launch of the next consultation should be delayed by no more than two weeks from the proposed 12^th February start date."

As you judge your own response to the Phase 2 consultation, you might ask whether that goes far enough and how you would see such support being practically delivered.

Otherwise, note a separate amendment relating to 'Election of Office Bearers' which would limit a person's role as Chair to a 'combined term of five years' (with annual election). The occupation of other Office Bearer posts would not be so limited. Does that compromise continuity and function, or would it open the way for others who would wish to lead?

End/KR

Two Scottish Government officials led a recent Improvement Service webinar (10 Oct) to promote directly to Community Councils the new consultation phase of the government's Democracy Matters local governance review. The consultation document is here  . The very earnest endeavour is to give people the opportunity to come together in their communities to imagine how new and inclusive democratic processes can best help their town, village or neighbourhood.

I attended the event. What follows are my personal impressions.

There was no doubting the sincerity of the Scot Gov speakers. However, their somewhat evangelical tone was somewhat undone by the reaction from the floor. (There were around 30 Community Councils represented.) Some long-standing issues emerged.

Event: 23 May 2023: Scottish Parliament:

Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee (LGHP/S6/23/15/1):

Evidence Session on Community Councils in their 50^th year.

Link to Meeting Agenda and to Witnesses

Agenda for Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee 15th Meeting, 2023 Tuesday, May 23, 2023 | Scottish Parliament Website

EACC represented by Steve Kerr (Chair), alongside four other CCs, three other Scottish (regional) CC Associations, Cheshire Association of Local (Parish) Councils, The Improvement Service, the Scottish Community Development Council and Dr Oliver Escobar (Senior Lecturer in Public Policy) of Edinburgh University.

The Backdrop: After 50 years, ‘what is your CC for’?

To represent the opinions / needs of the community? How best to do so? How to assess? How best to convey?

To come up with solutions to meet those opinions / needs? What facilities / competencies / contacts do you need to do that?

Talking Points over the course of a 3-hour Committee session:

1. Guest witness, Jackie Weaver, Chief Officer of Cheshire Association of Local Councils: English Parish Council structure founded on light but adequate funding, part-time ‘salaried clerk’ facilities (with requisite professional qualification), strong voluntary support, established participant training, good Borough Council ties, backed up by a National Association of Local Councils (NALC) across England.

Tone of presentation ‘positive and upbeat; difficulties, yes, but they can be ironed-out’.

ChALC - Cheshire Association of Local Councils

National Association of Local Councils (nalc.gov.uk)

Contrast with Scotland, where CCs would benefit from more autonomy (Holyrood Daily) :

2. CC – Local Authority (LA) relationships in Scotland: general tone ‘better than before; some breakthroughs in places; lot of room for improvement overall though’. LAs generally more constructive.

Long-standing issues: Local Authorities (LA) can choose to ‘misunderstand’ CCs – not seen as a ‘core community partner’ – lack of trust - Councillors can view CCs as ‘competitors’ for community sentiment. So, CCs ‘feel ignored’ with their ‘democratic mandate’ (define?) unfulfilled. (But the picture is improving.)

3. Collaboration takes time to build – ‘CCs are uniquely placed to be close to LAs and act as a bridge to communities.’ – Spurs like Participatory Budgeting, Community Transition and other funding programmes can be a big help. Visible results build confidence and engagement.

4. CCs needs are readily identified:

Proper access to ‘expertise’, especially in Planning; to good local networks of ‘skills’ and to local business and college expertise (including law and accounting):

Better training and expertise in public engagement; social media; community mobilisation of ‘capacity to do things’ in different areas of interest; (‘NALC’s training courses are a sell-out every year.’):

(The Improvement Service offers a number of training portals and also a ‘local placemaking mapping tool’ that can be a real catalyst to ‘energising’ local community interest, a real spur to ‘local engagement’)

Improvement Service | Improvement Service

5. CCs role perceptions are mixed.

Challenges:

How to move from being reactive to proactive?

How to show competence in key areas and on key local issues?

How to convey meaningfully the range of ‘local opinion’ on local issues, on local Place Plans, to be self-evidently ‘more representative’?

(Points to use of digital opinion surveys like ‘Survey Monkey’ and ‘Consul Democracy’?

SurveyMonkey - Free online survey software and questionnaire tool

CONSUL DEMOCRACY (consulproject.org)

Also points to some merit in ‘crowdfunding’ (visible) support for local community ventures)

“The best CCs see themselves as ‘facilitators’, as ‘delegates’ of their communities, not as ‘representatives’ “.

6. Community Councils – ‘Time to reform, or to rebuild?’

Key witness, Dr Oliver Escobar leans to ‘rebuild’. A delegate offered from his own professional experience that ‘Scotland has the poorest community government and development network in Western Europe’.)

Break down barriers to full community participation and lack of diversity.

Make it easier for low-waged / low-income / time-poor participants to take part in full.

Co-opt participants into sub-committees for specific projects or special interests (Police, Planning, Environment, Care).

Work for better ties with housing associations and tenants’ federations.

Work to show / publicise that participation brings results.

Run ‘get together’ events with local businesses, local interest groups, third sector groups.

Get involved in Participatory Budgeting and the Community Wealth Building agenda; that is something that demonstrates real ‘community purpose’.

(Building community wealth: consultation - gov.scot (www.gov.scot) )

Spend to reduce admin burdens of minute-taking and record keeping (e.g., record meetings with transcripts).

‘Bring people in’, especially young people in the shape of local ‘young community councils’ drawn maybe from local schools. (‘Civics’; specific projects; possible tie-in with DoE Awards?)

‘Asset Transfers’ can be a big challenge but a big opportunity for CCs to take on board, where the circumstances arise.

Reform is the key to unlocking some of the problems faced in local community planning / healthcare / social issues.

7. Time for a Scottish Association of Community Councils?

‘Absolutely crucial’; a central agency, independent of LAs, to deliver real local CC support.

Would bring economies of scale on communications and software, skills training.

Would mean better division of labour across key core functions and activities.

Would greatly improve the ‘advocacy function’.

(The NALC in England is self-funded from a low Parish Council levy. It offers a set of central advisory functions.)

8. The West Lothian Forum of Community Councils: 10 June Conference: ‘Democracy Matters’

A 2019 project delayed by Covid. Time to get this going again.

Community - JOINT FORUM of COMMUNITY COUNCILS IN WEST LOTHIAN (westlothiancc.com)

End/KR