Calls for radical change to community councils

Social affairs correspondent

Tuesday 21 August 2012

The Scottish Government is being urged to radically revisit the concept of community councils, which have been condemned as too narrow and unrepresentative to survive in the 21st century.

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Stephen naysmith

The attack has come not from outsiders but from many within community councils themselves, ahead of the launch of a new network calling for change.

One of the people behind it, Jenny MacKenzie, a former Edinburgh community councillor and teacher, describes herself as an active citizen and blogger. She also describes community councils in scathing terms.

"Community councils are too often hijacked by local politicians (who ought to know better) ambitious interest groups, or older, retired middle-class men who seek former or yet-to-be-realised glory days," she wrote cuttingly. Democracy at this level is often notional, she adds: "The artfully constructed membership list ... ensures an election isn't necessary."A lack of checks and balances means trouble-making members are unstoppable, she adds. "Claiming to be 'elected' by the public, a disruptive community councillor cannot in law be sacked, removed from office, banned, or excluded."The result, says Ms MacKenzie, is that younger people, community activists and others have deserted the movement in droves. She believes the Scottish Government has all but written off the concept. Yet she also detects a spirit for change and new ideas about community, if it can be unshackled from structures defined four decades years ago.The Association of Scottish Community Councils closed in April of this year, saying it was not being given enough money by the Scottish Government to do an effective job.While many community councils, particularly in rural areas, continue to function well, others are less effective. Ms MacKenzie – along with Tony Harris and Terry Tweed, both of whom remain serving members of Edinburgh community councils – have set up a group to look for a way forward. This week they have launched the national network for change and community – deliberately making no reference to community councils. "The existing model for community councils is 40 years old and out-of-date," Ms MacKenzie adds.She says that while the Scottish Government is currently consulting on its community empowerment bill, it needs to know that fundamental change, not just tinkering at the edges, is necessary. In particular, those engaged in the system need a timescale for improvement. "We are not being paid for any of this. We have got to know the work we are doing is going to have an impact in the reasonably near future, rather than 30 years down the line," she says.While proper elections and safeguards are proposed by many, the new network, whose online home is www.nationalnetworkcc.com, has as one of its key goals the fostering of an open debate about what is needed and what is currently wrong. Critics of local councils say that many see community councils as little more than obstacles made up of complainers, not to be taken seriously. Supporters point out that community councils can appear parochial and prone to nimby-ism and ill-researched objections.The calls for change are not just coming from Edinburgh. Bill Fraser, a community councillor in Pollokshields, Glasgow, for 10 years, readily admits he fits the stereotype. "Traditionally, community councillors are middle-aged, middle-class balding guys, which covers me almost precisely. "But they were set up under the Local Government (Scotland) act of 1973. Things have moved on. Instead of attending meetings about police reports and planning applications, I see more and more people getting involved in single issues." Mr Fraser is no stranger to such single-issue campaigns, having been a key player in Save Pollok Park, and he believes any revamp of structures needs to take into account the fact that communities of interest can be as important as geographical communities."Sometimes I think city councils would rather like it if community councils would just go away and let them get on with governing the place," he says. But that is an outcome that few seem ready to countenance, just yet.

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Local government

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Calls for radical change to community councils

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