Talk:Community council

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the reason given for the rename in Wales at least was to do with the Church in Wales having been disestablished (quite a weak one: as the Church has had nothing to do with civil parishes for decades by that point). Should find a source to mention this from. Morwen - Talk 14:21, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Status in Scotland

The article states that community councils in Scotland are not statutory, but the Scottish Executive published recently results of a review of the community council system and, if I remember correctly, it described community councils as both voluntary organisations and as a level statutory representation. However, it true that there is now little correlation between community council area bouncaries and polling district boundaries (because community council area boundaries have not been taken into account in successive reviews of polling district boundaries) and I am at a loss as regards determining any legal basis on which elections of community councils may be held.
I quote from this: Community councils form the most local tier of statutory representation in Scotland.
Polling district reviews are the responsibility of local authorities, but legislation concerning polling districts is a Westminster matter, with the Department for Constitutional Affairs as the rellevant government department.
Laurel Bush 14:31, 19 March 2007 (UTC).

I believe the Scottish Government’s Community Council Working Group (CCWG) is now on the threshold of publishing consultation documents about the future of community councils.
Since February 1 I have been asking the Highland Council for copy or sight of their current community council schemes, which I believe they are required to have under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973 and the Local Government etc (Scotland) Act 1994 (which are both pre-devolution pieces of legislation). Also, since February 2, I have been asking the Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council for copy or sight of their constitution.
As I write, the Highland Council has furnished copy of an incomplete scheme (or an incomplete copy of a scheme) covering the area of the former local government district of Caithness (as abolished in 1996), copy of a document referring to a total of eight schemes, each covering a former local government district, and nothing else. The Royal Burgh of Wick Community Council has furnished no real evidence of any constitution.
I am not very surprised. It seems clear to me that because polling district and electoral registration legislation (currently reserved to Westminster) does not cover Scottish community council areas, Scottish community councils (unlike Welsh community councils and English parish councils) are devoid of any real status as bodies of statutory representation. No legislation enables and requires relevant authorities to maintain electoral registers in relation to community council areas and, therefore, what is supposed to be a legislative framework for community councils (in the Acts referred to above) is simply unworkable, and what we have now as a community council system appears to be no more or less than a sham concocted to camouflage some serious defects in pre-devolution Scotland-related legislation.
The Highland Council document referring to eight community council schemes is a “concordat” between the local authority and community councils, dated November 2001. It appears to depend on the existence of a Highland Council management structure which was scrapped when new wards were introduced last year, but I have been advised by a Highland Council official that the concordat remains valid.
New legislation seems to have been ruled beyond the scope of the CCWG consultation, and what I have seen so far of the work of the group leads me to expect some attempt at more sham.
Laurel Bush (talk) 10:44, 2 April 2008 (UTC).

[edit] Status in England

Oldham has Community Councils - [1], should this be mentioned?

Interesting. I note the borough website is not very informative as regards how and when the community councils were created. And it seems to be rather vague about boundaries. Also the community councils will not have any statutory status. Subject perhaps best covered in the Oldham article. Laurel Bush (talk) 11:24, 5 March 2008 (UTC).