Dumfries and Galloway Council has held a series of public meetings with communities across the region in the past couple of weeks.
These meetings have provided residents of our region with an update on the latest position in relation to Community Council re-establishment.
The meetings allowed representatives of communities to meet with the Director for the Communities directorate within our Council, Derek Crichton, and quiz him on the latest position in relation to Community council re-establishment. It also allowed our Council to set out the timeline of events that led to the dis-establishment of Community Councils and how our Council took every possible step to avoid this.
Points were raised at the meetings over how our Council handled the dis-establishment process. Councillor Tom McAughtrie, who is Chairman of the Council’s Communities Committee commented;
“As soon as we became aware of the issues relating to Community Council constitutions we acted. We took reports to both communities and Full Council Committees and sought advice on how best to proceed.
Once we knew what had to happen, we made it happen. We put in resources and steps to assist all Community Councils who wished to re-establish. The role a Community Council plays in assisting our Council deliver services and communicate with residents is invaluable, and this is why we have placed so much importance on making sure we can do all we can as a local authority to help get Community Council’s across the area back up and running as soon as is practically possible.
I am pleased to report that we’ve been very successful with this so far, with 33 out of a possible 36 Community councils applying for re-establishment.”
