How YOU can become the voice for your area

Monday 31 August marks the start of the 2009 community council election period.

Community councils are looking for people who care about their local area and who want to make it better. By getting involved, you can become the voice of your area and speak out about community concerns and issues.

Each community council receives a grant from the Council to help fund activities and invest in issues you feel are important.

The Council, Police, health and the voluntary and community sectors all work together within the Partnerships to enhance the quality of life in local neighbourhoods.

Community council members should be free of political bias and anybody of any race, gender or religion can get involved.

Nomination forms will be available from your returning officer at the end of August. A list of returning officers will be available on the Council’s and the Neighbourhood Partnership’s websites.

Meet Irene Mackay, secretary of Hutchison/ Chesser community council

How long have you been involved in the community council?

I’ve been secretary for ten years. I went to a meeting with friends, filled in the forms and got elected. It’s a good way to meet people in the community from different walks of life.

What are the priorities for the community council?

We get a large turn-out at each meeting and we try to get developers to come along.

Last time, representatives from the supermarket chain Aldi came along. And we get the builders of new house and flat developments to come and answer questions from residents who have had notices sent to them.

We have also been working with the Council on a new cycle path.

What types of people are involved?

All our community councillors are retired except for one who is self-employed, but it’s difficult getting a younger age group involved. We would really like to encourage younger people, particularly for the next election.

What has been your proudest achievement over the past ten years with the community council?

A few years back we had youth problems in the area, but we got funding for youth work through community development.

We put on activities in the summer holidays which proved to be popular and youth workers gave it a good report.