About Community Councils

Community councils were introduced in 1975 under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973. The duty was placed on the newly established district councils to prepare an establishment scheme to divide their district into community council areas. In 1996 this duty passed to the present area councils. All of Scotland has had community council areas delineated, the numbers and boundaries of which can be altered by the area council. However not all communities have community councils, which in Scotland are statutory and only exist if local people are willing to stand for election. They are officially stated to be “non-party-political and non-sectarian” in their discussions and decision making. Community councils must adopt a constitution stating the name of the community council and dealing with such matters as the frequency of meetings, office bearers, method of election, finance and standing orders.

The two Acts of Parliament governing Community Councils allow for them to “take any action” they deem appropriate to improve their community. They set out the requirements of each local authorities “scheme for the establishment of Community Councils”.

Membership of community councils consists of:

Elected members: The local authority’s establishment scheme details the number of elected councillors, and the areas for which they shall be elected.

Some Community Councils currently allow:

• Co-opted members: The community council may co-opt additional members with particular skills or interests that will assist them in their work. These members may be co-opted for a specific period of time, or dismissed at the community council’s pleasure. It is permitted for persons of between 14 and 18 years of age to be co-opted to represent the interests of “youth”.
• Ex officio members: The constitutions of many community councils provide that the area councillor for the ward containing the community council area, local MPs and MSPs shall be ex officio members.

Co-opted and ex officio members have no votes on the councils and may not be office bearers.

The establishment scheme will set out the exact procedure for establishing a council where one does not exist: a stated number of local government electors in the designated area must petition the area council, who will then schedule elections. In the case of all community council elections, if nominations are received for less than fifty percent of the seats, the election is postponed and the council not formed or dissolved. Community councils can only be dissolved if the number of elected members falls below the set minimum. Community councils can also choose to amalgamate themselves with an adjoining Community Council by a similar process.