Community Council

of the Royal Burgh of Peebles & District

Community Council

of the Royal Burgh of Peebles & District

Who we are

Peebles and District Community Council (PCC) is governed by the Scottish Borders Council (SBC) Scheme for Community Councils (see boundary maps). Read our constitution and standing orders.

We are local people with an interest in our community. Our 18 members may serve for up to 3 years before standing for re-election. We regularly co-opt members for their skills and to fill vacancies.

The six elected Scottish Borders Councillors from East and West Tweeddale are `ex-officio' (non-voting) members who provide a valuable link to and from SBC.

What we do

Our main role is to:

Represent our local area
Consult with local residents
Pass residents' views on to public sector organisations such as SBC and NHS Borders
More on Community Councils here

SBC has a responsibility to

Consult with PCC about how local services are delivered
Inform us of changes to services & issues that may affect our area
More info in SBC's Community Council Training Handbook

When & where we meet

Ordinary Meetings of the Council are held on the Second Thursday of each month in the Burgh Hall, Peebles. These meetings normally start at 7:00pm and continue until approximately 9:00 pm.

Our meetings are publicised in the Peeblesshire News the week before the meeting with any changes to time and venue advertised.

Minutes and reports

Minutes and reports from the chair, planning convenor and police are available in Documents.

There is also a copy of the minutes and agenda displayed on the Community Council Noticeboard each month. The board is situated on the right of the archway leading to the Chambers Institution and Quadrangle. A further copy is located in the library. Please ask the librarian for the Community Council folder.

Next ordinary meeting

7pm Thursday 12^th September 2024 – Agenda

Come along

All meetings are open to the public.

Each meeting allows 10 minutes for a Question and Answer session for members of the public to ask a question on any subject of relevance to the community council.

Citizen Space – Consultations

Contribute your views on open consultations and find out what changed in response to previous consultations for SBC Citizen Space and Scottish Government consultations. On each site you can scroll down to "see all open consultations".

Beaver release to new catchments

NatureScot call for interest

(News 13 Nov 2025)

Peebles Community Council recognises that beavers are a formerly extinct native species which arguably belong in our local landscape and may offer benefits including wetland habitat creation, improved water quality, and potential contribution to natural flood management.

Nature Scot have made a call for interest in beaver release to new catchments. Anyone with an interest can get in touch directly with NatureScot via the online webform before November 30.

Consequently, we have discussed briefly the pros and cons of future reintroduction of beavers to Peeblesshire, with a variety of views expressed. Discussion is hypothetical at present given that no specific proposal has been made, however we note that, to be acceptable, any proposal would require the provision of a properly resourced plan including educational, management, mitigation and landowner support measures.

As the introduction of beavers to a new area has implications that may be seen as both positive or negative dependent upon viewpoint, Peebles Community Council welcome feedback by email on secretary@ccrbpeebles.co.uk.

News/20251113.html

PCC calls for Live Borders funding to be restored

End threats to sport & culture

(News 12 Jun 2025)

Peebles Community Council called for Live Borders funding to be restored to sustainable levels and an end to the threats to sporting and cultural services after considering a report into the "Joint Transformation" of Live Borders at its 12 June meeting.

A relentless series of escalating cost cutting saw SBC effectively halve payments in real terms to Live Borders since 2016, SBC data show (fig. 1).

The blue trend shows the shortfall between actual SBC payments to Live Borders (grey) vs payments needed to keep up with inflation (coloured) – with 2024 payments half that of 2016.

1. Live Borders funding 2016–24

However, funding from Scottish Government to the 32 local councils in Scotland remained flat (fig. 2), with average culture & leisure cuts less than half the level of SBC cuts to Live Borders.

In order to protect much needed services, Peebles Community Council calls for:

Funding to be restored to a sustainable level
A halt to threats to privatise, transfer or transform sporting and cultural venues
Scrapping of the current Live Borders consultation, which is attracting high levels of criticism
Meaningful engagement with the public on SBC's full transformation agenda.

2. Govt funding to councils stable

Live Borders was set up by SBC in order to ensure that they meet their obligations under the legislation to provide adequate facilities for recreational, sporting, cultural and social activities. That obligation rests with SBC and cannot be farmed out. Consequently, SBC have a duty of care for the oversight of Live Borders.

PCC's view is that our community should not be punished by cuts to much needed services, with any pain spread across SBC's entire £344m budget.

Read the full PCC Briefing.

Submit comments to SBC's consultation.

News/20250612.html

News archive