A Scottish Conference of Community Councils
10th JUNE 2023 10:30am
Democracy Matters
West Lothian Joint Forum of Community Councils is hosting an online conference for all
Community Councils and Community Councillors in Scotland on the subject of Democracy
Matters.
Some of you will remember the Democracy Matters Consultation which took place before the
pandemic by the Scottish Government in conjunction with COSLA.
West Lothian Community Councillors had an in depth debate at a conference on the subject and
that produced a Blueprint for Future Community Councils calling for more responsibility and
powers to be devolved to communities. We discussed the Blueprint with our local Council
Officers and COSLA officials and put it forward as a contribution to the then ongoing
examination of new arrangements for local democracy. The pandemic brought all that to a
shuddering halt in 2020.
We think that it’s time to resuscitate the discussion particularly in the year when we will be
celebrating the 50 year anniversary of the birth of Community Councils. In fact, we cannot think
of a better subject for this anniversary year. So, we thought that we should make it a Scottish
wide discussion for all Community Councillors, hence this invite to you.
Community Councils have survived for 50 years, having been established in 1973, with little or no
change to their powers or responsibilities since then. In that time local Councils have undergone
a massive reorganisation from 9 regions and 53 districts and 3 Island Councils in 1973, into 32
unitary Councils in 1996. No change was made during that reform to Community Councils,
which in retrospect is surprising.
This is an invitation to join us and Community Councils from all over Scotland for a discussion
online on whether or not Community Councils should be part of a new system of devolved
government and if we should form a Scottish Community Councils Forum group.
If you or your Community Council has a view on this we would love to hear about it, and if you
have any proposals on reform we can debate at the conference.
We shall also invite COSLA and the Scottish Government to the conference to see if they have
any plans to unveil regarding the future of Community Councils or for local democracy going
forward.
To register an interest in the conference, click on the SURVEY LINK or email
westlothiancc@gmail.com.
You can download Blueprint for Future Community Councils which we will be presenting at the
conference.
Please note we will be hosting this conference through our Google Workspace Account using
Google Meet which is compatible for most devices and can be run in Chrome and other
browsers.