Launch of National Model Scheme
Last summer The Scottish Government, the ASCC, and CoSLA launched the National Model Scheme for the Establishment of Community Councils.This is the product of the Government’s CC Working Group, which was given the task of proposing a single Scheme that could be used in every local authority to replace the thirty-two wildly different schemes used to date.
The 1973 and 1994 Local Government Acts require each local authority to have such a scheme to set out things such as boundaries, elections, finance, and the general governance of CCs in their authority area. For many years there has been profound variation in the level of detail between schemes, and some schemes contain elements which have a questionable legal provenance at best.
The Working Group took almost two years to devise a simple yet substantial scheme that every local authority could use, so that Community Councillors in one part of Scotland recognise the basic systems and structues in use were they to move elsewhere – and, importantly, so would a constitutent!
The model scheme sets out some key principles for CCs, such as:
- All CCllrs directly elected by voters;
- Electoral and voting age for CCllrs set at 16;
- Promotion of contested CC elections.
The Scheme also contains a voluntary Code of Conduct, to which all nominees for election to a CC should sign up when nominated.
The Government, the ASCC, and CoSLA are jointly urging all local authorities to adopt the model scheme as it is written. Local authorities should use the local flexibility allowed within the scheme, but otherwise not make arbitrary changes to the national model.
Keep the ASCC posted about reviews of the CC scheme by your local authority.
