Community councils are asking for members to nominate themselves again, or for new members to join their ranks. The nomination process ends on 26 September 2016 so you are advised to get your skates on.
There are 46 community councils but nominations are being accepted for 44 this year. If you are over 16 and interested in what goes on in your area then this might be for you.
What does a community council do? We asked Andrew Brough who is Secretary of Tollcross Community Council about how they can shape what a community looks like. He said: “Well my emails are full of things about bins and their overflowingness in Edinburgh. That is one of the things we deal with on the community council.
“We deal with planning issues, and local licensing. We’re involved in the roads.
What does a community councillor do? We spoke to Andrew Brough of @TollcrossCC to find out! Nominations close 26 Sept. pic.twitter.com/OWuDzHENep
— Edinburgh Reporter (@EdinReporter) September 20, 2016
“Here in Tollcross we are involved with the Meadows as well and those are the sort of things that local want to interface with the council about. So first of all they come to us.
“We have meetings when councillors attend.
“We take things forward on the community’s behalf. Tollcross currently has space for 12 community councillors although we have eight at the moment as people have moved out of the area, so we hope to bump those numbers back up again.
The local community council in Tollcross has had some effect on local issues. Andrew explained: ” We tend to have lots of student accommodation in Tollcross. You can’t necessarily stop these applications but you can make sure that they look nicer than they would have done.
“We had a major planning application for Wetherspoons in the old Picture House on Lothian Road where they originally wanted to have about 1200 people in there. We got it down to 900 which still makes it the biggest pub in Edinburgh, but it is better than it would have been.”
To find out more about joining a community council you have to get your skates on!
Find out about the nomination process by clicking here. If an election is needed (if more nominations are lodged than places available) then the election will take place on 27 October 2016. Otherwise if the right number of nominations are made then you could find yourself becoming a community councillor!
Founding Editor of The Edinburgh Reporter.
Edinburgh-born multimedia journalist and iPhoneographer.
