Convention of Perth and Kinross Community Councils

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Please respond by 26 Sept to the Scottish Government's consultation on its forthcoming Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill

Letter too all Community Councils in Perth and Kinross
cc: Elected members of Perth & Kinross Council

Wednesday 1 August 2012

Dear Community Councillor

Scottish Government seeking ideas for its Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill by 26 September

We would like to remind you about the Scottish Government’s questionnaire seeking ideas for its forthcoming Community Empowerment and Renewal Bill. In particular the questionnaire asks you to consider the role of Community Councils. It can be accessed at
http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2012/06/7786. Responses must be received by Wednesday 26 September.

The Questionnaire

Actually, you can choose between two versions of the questionnaire – a long version and a short version. The Government says it will apply equal weight to both versions.

The long version goes into considerable detail about various aspects of local governance including Community Planning, the role of Community Councils, community right to buy legislation, asset transfers, compulsory purchase orders and the management of Common Good funds.

The questions in the short version are more vague, but this gives you the freedom to include almost any ideas you like.

The Convention’s response

The Convention would also like to submit its own response to the long version of the questionnaire. Our response will be based on three principles:

1.             Communities need more control over their own governance

Communities need to be able to exercise greater control over their own governance – socially, economically and environmentally.  Community Councils are the most appropriate body to do this, and, if they choose to accept these responsibilities, they should be given appropriate funding and administrative support to carry them out.

2.             Community Councils should involve local people in decision making

Community Councils should be highly democratic, holding local referendums on all major decisions affecting the community.  

3.             Social wellbeing should be our main priority

It is important for people to feel that they are part of a community in which people help and support one another.  Therefore we suggest that Community Councils should have the freedom to take on a range of local services, with particular focus on engaging and supporting those who are most at risk of isolation and other forms of social exclusion. If local people agree with this idea, Community Councils could then take on the task of managing these services and ensuring that everyone who wishes it can have a role in supporting people in their local community.

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In order to put these ideas into practice, we have put together a list of possible new powers and social responsibilities that Community Councils could choose to adopt. These include support for carers, the creation of befriending groups, control of dog fouling and participation in major planning decisions. You can see a full list of our suggestions under Question 7 (see link below).

Please comment on our draft response

We want to ensure that our response has the broad support of Community Councils in Perth and Kinross. Therefore we ask you to comment on our draft response at
http://www.weebly.com/uploads/3/3/7/0/3370470/convention_response.doc. We will modify our answers accordingly.

You will notice that there are some sections that we have not answered at all, or have only partially answered. These include sections on tenants’ rights (Q14), Common Good assets/accounts (Q25,26), allotments (Q31), temporary use agreements (Q37) and dangerous buildings (Q38). We would be very grateful if you could suggest answers to these.

Yours sincerely,

Michael Gallagher, Chairman

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