From CEC Governance (4 November) in relation to a community councillor query:
"Is there any real point or value in a CC?
We consider community councils to play an important role in grass roots local democracy. As well as representing their community to the City of Edinburgh Council, community councils have the opportunity to undertake a wide range of activities and events to enhance the well-being of the areas they represent and promote the individual identities of their community.
The Council values community councils and the Lord Provost has recently committed to formally recognise and convey the Council's gratitude for all the work and service given by Community Councillors to their local communities and the City of Edinburgh before the current Community Council term concludes.
What can a CC achieve or influence with CEC and does CEC listen and act ?
Community Councils provide a key role within their local communities providing a wealth of local knowledge and experience that the Council can tap into to deliver better services. Community Councils understand their local needs better than anyone and the Council will make better decisions when community councils are engaged with the decision-making process. The Council, working in partnership with community councils will help to plan and deliver better local outcomes.
Community councils have a statutory right to be consulted on local planning issues. The City of Edinburgh Council’s Planning Service sends out a weekly list of all planning applications submitted. While there is no statutory requirement for local authorities to consult community councils on licensing matters, community councils are considered as ‘competent objectors’. Community councils may appoint representatives to attend meetings of the Licensing Board and speak in support of objections.
The public including all Community Councils were invited to provide their feedback during the statutory consultation of the Scheme for Community and Councils and their boundaries which ran from August 2023 and closed on 21 August 2024 with the results reported to Council on 26 September 2024. The Governance Team noted specific feedback received from you relating to proposed boundary amendments which were consulted on and subsequently taken forward along with a scheme amendment enabling Community Councils to determine their own names.
In this CC's experience much effort put into matters with no positive outcomes.
We were sorry to hear that you do not believe that your community council has achieved any positive outcomes. The current financial environment in the public sector is difficult, with maintaining services a significant achievement never mind, improving services and outcomes. One key method of delivering better services and outcomes in times of financial difficulty, is closer partnership working including community councils. This is a key aim of the Chief Executive, and the Council wishes to work with Community Councils and other partners to identify how it can better work together to improve the City.
Please note that we have no local drop in point nor local meeting facilities in our area unless we rent a room at the Church hall
We understand that Community Councils are able to make use of community centres in Edinburgh to hold meetings albeit they may not always be in specific Community Council area’s. If you are interested in exploring this option further then please contact Community Empowerment and Engagement via