A SHAKE-up of community council rules has been agreed in Angus against a lone voice of elected member opposition.
The review follows a three-month public consultation and is aimed at developing a standard formula for community council membership calculation, simplifying co-option procedures and encouraging new blood through the creation of opportunities for youth members who will have full voting rights on their local body.
The new formula is based on electorate figures for each community council area rather than estimated population numbers.
Angus Council chief executive Richard Stiff said a benefit is that those figures can be updated every four years but the new formula will reduce the district’s overall community council membership by 27 to 267.
“However, this is still higher than current sitting membership numbers of 216 with only four community councils at their maximum membership limit,” added the chief executive.
Community councils will also be able to retain their current membership until such time as membership numbers comply with the new formula or the next scheduled elections, whichever is the earlier.
The proposals were generally welcomed by those who responded to the consultation, but the communities making up the Inveresk grouping objected to the new formula, which will cut their 21-strong membership to just nine and three youth representatives.
In response, the chief executive said there was a “large discrepancy” between Inveresk and other large area bodies such as Kirriemuir Landward East in terms of area and electorate and the number of community councillors.
He added that the 21-strong Inveresk tally representing an electorate of 1,706 is matched only by Abroath, where the electorate is just short of 20,000.
The Inveresk case was given an airing by former Angus Council leader Bob Myles at the final full council meeting of the year, with the ex-Alliance chief claiming the moves might discourage local engagement, particularly in rural areas.
“This review has thrown up a few issues and was raised at the last meeting of Inveresk,” he said.
“They are to be restricted from down to nine and I if we do that, then some rural areas will just not be represented.
“In areas such as the glens, getting to community council meetings can involve a bit of travel. Quite often people will pick each other up on the way and that makes it worth the journey.
“You then also get a good level of debate among community councillors from across the area.
“If we bring the numbers down like this it might mean that there will be less said about some of the areas which are not represented, and maybe people will be less keen to make the trip to the meeting on their own.
“I recommend we keep the quorum and the lower end figures, but try to be a bit more relaxed about the upper end.
“We are trying to get community involvement here and communities engaging with us but this could be too restrictive.
“If we were to be more flexible at the upper end we’re losing nothing we are gaining and it may help our landward areas.”
Monifieth SNP councillor Rob Murray said: “I would be loathe to change it for just one community council.
“If we start to make adjustments like those being suggested there could be unintended consequences.”
Unable to find a seconder for an amendment to relax the membership formula, Mr Myles recorded his dissent over the outcome.
gbrown@thecourier.co.uk