Seòmar agus comataidhean

We are asking about the barriers and blocks to community councils being able to do things. It becomes absurd if it means that you cannot do your litter picking or, indeed, have your beautiful blooms. After all, I know that Forres in bloom in Moray is an incredible asset to the community. Thank you for throwing that into the conversation.

I see that Debra Duke wants to come in.

Yes, building multigenerational relationships is important.

Thanks. A few other people want to come in on this. I will go with Alastair Kennedy first, and then John Bachtler.

Just before we do that, let me say that, although time has been an issue, you have answered a lot of the questions that we had. Therefore, what we will do now is just go round you on engagement and then give a little bit of time at the end to see if there is anything else that we have to hear.

So it is about learning on the job, in a way.

That is great.

John Bachtler wants to come in.

Thank you for that encouragement. We have an opportunity in that regard with the proposed local democracy bill.

I will bring the session to a close, although clearly we could discuss more. I thank at least one of you for mentioning community planning partnerships. We have just finished a piece of work on that, and we will soon publish our report. Community councils play a role in those partnerships, and should perhaps play a greater role than they do.

Thank you for joining us—the session has been really useful. I will end by saying happy birthday to all the community councils in Scotland.

At the start of the meeting, we agreed to take the rest of the items on the agenda in private.

I think that we hear that point loud and clear. What we are picking up is that there is a potential for some sort of community funding to come out of ScotWind.

Thank you. Does anybody else want to come in on this question?

Good morning and welcome to the 15th meeting in 2023 of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee. We have received apologies from Annie Wells. I remind all members and witnesses to ensure that their devices are on silent and that all other notifications are turned off during the meeting.

The first item on our agenda is to decide whether to take items 3 and 4 in private. Do we agree to do that?

Members indicated agreement.

Under agenda item 2, we will take evidence on community councils from two panels of witnesses. This year marks 50 years since the passing of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, which created community councils to bridge the gap between local authorities and communities. We are taking the opportunity to hear about how community councils are working in Scotland, to look at good practice and at how we could make community councils more effective. It is important to acknowledge that they exist and that a tremendous amount of volunteer time goes into them.

For our first panel, we are joined in the room by Brian Davey and Emma Swift, both of whom are communications officers from the Improvement Service. Along with them is Dr Oliver Escobar, senior lecturer in public policy at the University of Edinburgh. Online we are joined by Andrew Paterson, policy and research officer from the Scottish Community Development Centre, and Jackie Weaver, the chief officer at the Cheshire Association of Local Councils.

We have a number of questions, and I will start with a question for everyone in general. First, however, I need to say a couple of things. Those who are in the room do not need to operate your microphones. We will do that for you. If you want to come in on something, just indicate to me or Kath Byrne, the committee clerk. Jackie Weaver and Andrew Paterson, if you want to come in, please put an R in the chat function.

I am interested to hear what you think are the strengths of community councils in Scotland and what role they could play in democratic renewal at a local level. What proportion of the Scottish population is covered by community councils and has that changed in recent years? Do you get the sense that they are more prevalent in certain areas than in others? I will start with Oliver Escobar.