Event: 23 May 2023: Scottish Parliament:
Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee (LGHP/S6/23/15/1):
Evidence Session on Community Councils in their 50th year.
Link to Meeting Agenda and to Witnesses
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