SNP Want A Shake Up Of Falkirk Council Committees

If the SNP get there way organisations such as Friends of the Earth could have a seat on Falkirk Council's Environmental & Heritage Committee along with representatives of local history groups.

Other committees such as Housing & Social Work should contain representatives of local Tenants and Residents Groups as well as local carers.

The Nationalists will try for a second time to have a greater number of community interest groups included within the council's committee structures when the council meetings on 5 December. A previous attempt to widen the membership by the SNP in May failed when Labour and Conservative members combined to block the bid.

However, SNP members are hopeful that a second attempt will be more successful as the first bid came as the new coalition Administration of Labour / Conservative and aligned Independents were bedding in. Now seven months down the line the SNP point to a lack of policy activity on the committees as a reason why the council must look out with its own membership for policy initiatives.

Now SNP Group Leader, David Alexander, will ask council to support a motion that instructs each committee to consider how best it can increase its local involvement and wider agenda. The SNP chief has outlined some of the groups and agencies it wishes to see included within a revised committee structure but insists that these are suggestions and open for debate.

Outlining the SNP proposals Mr Alexander said,

"We have just secured the largest Lottery Award ever made in Scotland with the Helix bid. That bid was successful because we looked outward to community groups and individuals with vision for the betterment of the community.

In the first six moths of this coalition administration there has been no big ideas come forward, no new policy initiatives and no direction in terms of moving the district forward.

Contained in the SNP manifesto for 2007 was a commitment to make Falkirk Council's committees more inclusive and widen their areas of remit.

Bringing together partners and interest groups was the logical next step from the joint working that mushroomed under the SNP / Independent Administration. The new Labour / Tory coalition Administration have not changed any of our policies, strategies or programmes which would appear to intimate that we were getting things right so I hope that they will recognise the importance of reaching out and making our internal committees truly representative."

Notice of Motion. "Council believes that in order to fully implement the wider community planning agenda we must restructure our committees to be more inclusive and outward looking.

Council therefore resolves to agree to the principle of following the example of the Education Committee in appointing outside representatives to each of the scrutiny committees.

Council therefore agrees to bring a report to each committee that will recommend the inclusion of relevant representatives from interest groups and community planning partners.

Examples of these could be;

Economic Development

• A representative from local small businesses selected from the Falkirk Business Panel
• A representative from local large businesses selected from the Falkirk Business Panel.
• A representative from the Town Centre Management Company
• A representative from the Enterprise Network
• A representative from FEAT
• A representative from Forth Valley College.
  

Housing & Social Work

• Two representatives from a local residents and tenants group.
• A representative from a carers group.
• A representative from a Housing Association
• A representative from the criminal justice authority
• A representative from Foster Parents Groups

Community Health & Safety

• A representative from Central Scotland Police
• A representative from Central Scotland Fire Service.
• A representative from NHS Forth Valley
• Two representatives from relevant community groups.
• A representative from SEPA
  

Environmental & Heritage

• A representative from Friends of the Earth
• A representative from the voluntary sector re-cycling groups.
• A representative from local history and heritage groups
• A representative from community based museum support groups
• A representative from Historic Scotland or Scottish Natural Heritage
• A representative from countryside access groups

All external appointments will be conducted in an open and transparent manner following the deliberations of the Scrutiny Committees."