Seòmar agus comataidhean

Before I ask my question, I will declare an interest: I am still a serving councillor on East Ayrshire Council.

In my council area, communities are supported to create their own community-led action plans. They need to get at least a 40 per cent return from households in their community for their plan to be a sovereign document, which is then represented in community planning and is the basis for local place plans.

How do your organisations ensure that all voices are heard within communities, not just the voices of those who have the confidence, experience or resources to come forward? We can sometimes see the usual faces around the same tables.

I am aware that some people might not have heard my question, so I will repeat the last bit of it. Can Rona Mackay tell us how the community council in her area ensures that all the voices in the community are being heard and that it is not the same people around the table all the time? I suppose that the question is about how you ensure wider recognition of every voice in your community.

I will make a wee change of direction. Stretched resources have meant that we all need to work towards efficient government, in all spheres of governance. Do councils have the desire and the scope to work more collectively over regions to deliver services? If so, what needs to change for that to happen?

You made a key point when you talked about the reorganisation of local government in the 1970s. We still see the effects of that now. If we listen to people who do not feel empowered in communities, we find that they hark back to the days of their burgh council or town council, when they had a set of people who met locally in the area and one councillor who went to a wider national body. Given that people still hark back to those days, how do we make sure that the local governance review delivers the community empowerment and the functional and devolved power to local communities that we need?

Thank you.

I thank our witnesses for making the time to come and speak to us today. As you know, a big part of community fiscal empowerment is participatory budgeting, which has been greatly interrupted by the Covid pandemic. Will you give a temperature check on the commitment that 1 per cent of council budgets will be given over to communities for fiscal empowerment on decisions? Does progress stand out in some areas? Do other areas need more support?

I will do a quick mop-up, because my next question was answered in part when Stuart Mackinnon responded to a question from Willie Coffey. I want to give the witnesses an opportunity to explore the matter of some businesses—perhaps larger businesses, as Stuart Mackinnon mentioned—bringing in professional advisers to help them with the MCC appeal process. As Colin Wilkinson rightly pointed out, such businesses have perhaps benefited more during the pandemic than small and medium-sized enterprises, which might have been hit more.

Do the panellists have final thoughts on that aspect? How can we ensure that the small and medium-sized businesses that could not avail themselves of the MCC appeal process get adequate and correct support now? Colin Wilkinson mentioned that in the first place—does he have any thoughts?

Before I ask my questions, I refer everybody to my entry in the register of members’ interests as I am a serving councillor on East Ayrshire Council.

My first question is quite general. We have heard about the fantastic collaborative working between local government and the businesses in their local areas. How effectively has the support for businesses been targeted in response to the pandemic? That question is about both tiers of government, whether it be the UK and Scottish national Governments, or local government, which we have heard quite a lot about today. I direct that question to Stuart Mackinnon to start with.

I welcome the minister and his team. I declare that, as per my entry in the register of members’ interests, I am a councillor in East Ayrshire Council.

Thank you for bringing that up, Callum—I was going to ask you about that later on, so it is good that you have put the issue on the table. I might come back to you to explore that a little bit further before I come to the end of my questions.