Seòmar agus comataidhean

Brilliant. That is amazing.

That sounds great. I am interested in that issue, and I have been racking my brains about how to get young people engaged, so there are a couple of things that I would be interested to hear your views on. I am going to open up the discussion as we move to a close, so you do not necessarily have to respond to what I say—there might be other things that you want to add.

One thought that I had was about collaboration with the Duke of Edinburgh’s Award. People are going through its scheme, and it has a community aspect. Also, I have been wondering about the idea of universal basic income, although I know that that would be a big thing that might involve the rebuilding of the whole of Scotland. We have talked about the amount of time that people have to put in to do this properly. If people had some kind of fundamental financial support, a more diverse group would be able to participate much more in what we need to do, which is helping Scotland plc do its thing and provide for our communities.

Along with that, I have been thinking about how the Improvement Service provides training once people are in a community council, and I wonder whether we need to teach young people at high school about facilitation skills, decision making, proposal making and how to go into situations of tension with people with whom they do not agree—how to move through that process rather than getting stuck in being adversarial. I feel that teenagers should learn those kinds of skills. My sense is that, at the moment, schools still tend to teach just to the job. Of course, it is not totally limited to that but, if we taught to the community—how to be a member of a community and civil society—that would be great for people in their job, but they would also have the underpinnings to be part of the community.

I have been racking my brains about those issues, but maybe you think differently from me, as you are actually involved in those experiences.

Who wants to come in on that briefly? Debra Duke’s hand shot up.

That point about technical support for planning is critical.

Steve Kerr wants to come in.

Thank you for pointing that out. Jackie Weaver, I have a question for you. I am interested to hear what you think the strengths are of the system in England, particularly as it compares to Scotland. We could probably be here all day hearing about that, but if you can give us some highlights that would be great.

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.

Welcome back. We will have a round-table discussion about community councils with our second panel. I extend many thanks to our panel for joining us. We are joined in the room by John Bachtler, chair of Cambuslang community council; Debra Duke, community council liaison officer at Moray Council; Alastair Kennedy, chair of the joint community councils of Moray; Steve Kerr, chair of the Edinburgh Association of Community Councils; Donald Stavert, treasurer of the joint forum of community councils in West Lothian; and Barry Cathie, from the royal burgh of Rutherglen community council.

We are joined online by Shayne McLeod, vice-chair of the association of Shetland community councils; Bill Pitt, chair of New Aberdour, Tyrie and Pennan community council; and Ewart McAuslane, treasurer of Tillicoultry, Coalsnaughton and Devonside community council. I welcome you all.

For those of you who are online, you can let the clerks know that you would like to reply to a question by typing R in the chat function. For those in the room, you do not need to operate your microphone; that will be done for you by our broadcasting team.

I will begin our conversation by inviting you all to briefly introduce yourselves. I will start. I am Ariane Burgess, MSP for the Highlands and Islands.

Is there anything specific that you have seen that has brought about the positive change in the relationship?

Thanks very much. I am going to go to Shayne McLeod online and then come to John Bachtler in the room.

That is very good to hear.

Barry Cathie, do you want to come in?

Great. I think that that is really important. I thought that all councillors had to go to community council meetings—the ones who I know in my region certainly do.

I will move on now and bring in Ivan McKee. I am mindful of the time. I feel that we could do with many more hours than we have because you are all already sharing such rich things.

I also want to say to the witnesses that you should not necessarily assume that we will get on to the issue that you want to talk about. If you have the mic, say it then. A colleague might have a question that you might answer, but bringing up another issue is fine.