Community Councils – The Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland
The Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 effectively reconstituted the “Estates of the Kingdom of Scotland” with the introduction of community councils. These were to represent grass roots opinion, rather than discharge functions and be called a tier of local government. Their role was defined as “to ascertain, co-ordinate and express to the local authorities for its area, and to public authorities, the views of the community which it represents.”
But even this limited role was undermined by the Local Government (Scotland) Act 2003 which empowered local authorities to take the lead in consulting communities directly as part of the process of ‘community planning’, in which the “Estates of Scotland” were reduced to mere consultees with no higher status than any other community group.
As of 2012–3, there were 1,369 community council areas in Scotland, of which 1,129 (82%) have active community councils. There are also 3 Neighbourhood Representative Structures established in Dundee as alternatives to community councils.
Since the 1990s there has been a recognition that Scotland’s communities need more powers to govern themselves. However the actions that have been taken to achieve this have been characterised by vagueness that has made them ineffective. For example section 23 of the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 required local authorities to institute a scheme of decentralisation. However the Act failed to explain what this should mean in practice, with the result that many local authorities did little more than carry out a few consultation exercises.
It is time the Scottish government restored the full powers of the “Estates of Scotland” to Community Councils in line with the wishes of the people of Scotland as set out in the aims and ambitions of “Salvo”. Full details at “https://salvo.scot/claim-of-right/”.