Leisure, Arts And Communities Committee - 19/03/2007

At a MEETING of the COMMUNITIES COMMITTEE held at Dundee on 19th March, 2007.

Present:-

BAILIES

COUNCILLORS

Councillor Jill SHIMI, Convener, in the Chair.

The minute of meeting of this Committee of 19th February, 2007 was held as read.

Unless marked thus * all items stand delegated.

I REVIEW OF THE SCHEME FOR THE OPERATION OF COMMUNITY COUNCILS

There was submitted Agenda Note AN84-2007, whereby reference was made to Article I of the Neighbourhood Resources and Development Committee of 21st October, 2002 approving Dundee City Council's Revised Scheme For The Operation of Community Councils.

In November 2005, the Scottish Executive issued a paper entitled "What can we do to help Community Councils fulfil their role".  The paper was part of a process of gathering information to identify specific obstacles and examples of good practice, thus enabling evidence-based decisions on how Community Councils can become more effective in carrying out their functions.

The recommendations emerging from the review had now been considered by the Ministers and the Scottish Executive would provide further advice on which proposals they intend to take forward.  The preliminary advice indicates that this would be the subject of a Working Party which was estimated to finish its work in March 2008.  These proposals were likely to have implications for Dundee City Council's Scheme For The Operation of Community Councils.

In light of the above, the Committee agreed to:-

(i)                     await further advice from the Scottish Executive on which proposals would be taken forward and the mechanism for doing so;

(ii)                    schedule a review of Dundee City Council's Scheme For The Operation of Community Councils in relation to (i) above;

(iii)                    review the current Community Council boundaries to determine the extent to which each Community Council area could be nested within the new multi-member electoral ward boundaries;

(iv)                    delay the Community Council elections scheduled for October 2007 until October 2008 by which date the review of the Scheme For The Operation of Community Councils should be complete;  and

(v)                     consult the Dundee Civic Forum on the intended plan of action and involve them in the review process.

II EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY GRANT FUND IV (2006/2007)

There was submitted Report No 195-2007 by the Director of Leisure and Communities making a recommendation for a grant award from the Equality and Diversity Grant Fund.

The Committee agreed that the Director of Leisure and Communities identify if funding for the Dundee Pensioners Forum/consultation event had been obtained from an alternative source.  If this funding had not been received from another source then it was agreed that an award of 500 be made.

Jill SHIMI, Convener.