Community Council Promotion and Elections on 27 March 2025

The City Council promotional flyers somewhat blandly style the elections as a chance to ‘make a difference for your community’. In truth, it’s about putting balance back into ‘local democracy’. It’s about putting a considered check on elected Ward Councillors and on City Council managers. Their priorities, joint and several, are not always the here-and-now priorities of your local community. Their conversations, joint and several, can leave your community way out of touch. Your ‘place’, your ‘space, your neighbourhood amenity, get left behind. As a city resident, you have a community voice by right. You have to use it - or lose it.

You want to take up a position on your community council? Go to this City Council website as a starting point: https://www.edinburgh.gov.uk/community-planning/community-councils/2

On this page (Section 2), you’ll see that you can take a position as an Elected Member (EM) or as a Nominated Representative Member (NRM) of a properly constituted Local Interest Group such as residents’ association or a local voluntary or amenity association. Each community council has an allocation of EM and NRM seats (in the ratio of 2:1). Under a sitting Ward Councillor as Election Returning Officer, EM and NRM candidates are appointed to fill their quota. If the candidate numbers exceed the EM or NRM quota, appointment is by CEC-arranged ballot on the 27 March.

Make a note here. To cover the fine detail on election and appointment procedure, you have to get to grips with the governing documentation for the framework for community councils. This is the Scheme for Community Councils (‘the Scheme’). There is a link to this document towards the bottom of Section 2. The appointment process for EMs begins at Para. 6.1, and for NRMs at Para 6.15 (continued in Schedule 2 to the Scheme).

Make another note. Be clear on the eligibility requirements for EM membership (resident in your community council area and named on its Electoral Register) and for NRM membership (active involvement in a local interest group registered with City of Edinburgh Council). You'll see there is related provision for the appointment of young people aged 16 and 17. 

You just might be in some doubt on where your residence is with regard to your community council. On the City Council website, move forward to Section 3; scroll to the bottom to look at the directory of community councils and to the interactive map of community councils.

Section 3 also sets out the election timescales. The nomination papers will be published on 5 February. I expect them to be made available on the website that we are looking at here. They have to be returned by 27 February, completed by you and by a Proposer and a Seconder who are on the Electoral Register for your community council area. (Self-nomination is not permitted.)

You may have to name your community council to download the nomination papers specific to it. There will be detail to fill in. You may have some running about to do. You want to take a decent look at the Scheme document itself. Community councils are a serious undertaking, operating by way of government legislation with statutory undertakings. All-in-all, the time window for all of this is quite short.

At this point, a good number of Edinburgh’s community councils are under existential pressure. Retiral and attrition of existing members along with low public awareness and a wider apathy together put the future of some community councils in doubt. They must have a minimum number of appointed EMs to be quorate and viable. In terms of Edinburgh's community councils as a third leg of ‘local democracy’, this is surely a case of ‘use them or lose them’. You could make all the difference!

Ken Robertson, EACC Secretary, 31 January 2025