A very quick two and a half years have passed since I joined the Community Council. Readers may remember, that before I was approached, I had never heard of a Community Council, nor had I any inclination to join one. Neither did I have any idea how a district council operated or what a Councillor really did; even though I voted at each election. I suspect many will be just as ignorant and have even less inclination to become involved. Am I glad that I did join; well yes and no! To be fair, there were aspects of my working life that I had missed on retirement and using my hard learnt skills to assist others in the community has filled this void. There is also a great deal of satisfaction to be gained by helping others in the community with their problems, which in my case are usually planning and development related, but not always. The other side of the coin has many facets. I am busier than I would like to be, once you put your head up above the parapet, other tasks tend to land in your lap. One can always say no of course. So, I have helped the Community Trust on odd occasions with their March Street Mill project, for two years I’ve been the link between Peebles Community Council (PCC) and the Scottish Borders Community Councils Network (SBCCN) and the link with the Peebles Civic Society (PCS), I have ended up on the odd committee and now it looks as though I may well be the representative for the PCC on the Common Good. Something else will have to go.

Where shall I start? Perhaps with the Network, the SBCCN. The network does very valuable work in trying to project the views of the wider group of Community Councils across the Scottish Borders, to Scottish Borders Council (SBC) on the widest range of subjects, some of which can be complex indeed. The idea of a network is common sense, but the task of making it work is difficult in the extreme. Ideally, the SBCCN Chair would have a rapport with all 69 Community Councils and information would feed both ways. All the CCs would be represented, and their joint opinions would count effectively. Of course, it doesn’t happen that way in practice. If the SBCCN was a company with 69 departments and paid full time staff it would be a hard task, with unpaid volunteers such a rapport is impossible. It does its best.

At the end of the day, it is our own area that concerns us, Tweeddale in which there are 12 Community Councils. Again, in an ideal world we should work closely to support each other but again identical problems exist to make this very difficult; if less difficult than with 69. You will have gathered, that I am at capacity, but so are my colleagues; if you are retired, you have certain amount of time you can devote to the work. If you are younger, working, and with a family, very much less. We all do what we can. There is a mechanism, run by SBC, the Tweeddale Area Partnership (TAP), that could provide a forum for us all to meet at, if briefly, but to date, the TAP has been seen to be failing in its reason for being, and attendance is patchy, few Community Councils are represented. Through the SBCCN, we know we are not alone in this. We need to see more of a partnership between SBC and its Counsellors and Community Councillors and less of the perceived dictat we feel we are subjected to.

A Community Council is a formal legally constituted body set up to consult with the people within its area and to represent their views with the various authorities including and especially, the district council. To that end our 18 Community Councillors gather feedback wherever possible and try and reflect the views of the society in which we all live. Planning issues take up much of our time and during my tenure we have objected to some developments such as for the 22 houses in the fields below Castle Venlaw at the back of Edinburgh Road and against the proposed two-house development on what should be a play park in Ballantyne Place. Both these planning applications went to appeal with the Scottish Government Reporter and our objections were upheld. However, we have also given support to DDL Care Services in having the SBCs objections to their proposals overturned and we supported Manse Interiors in their plans to rejuvenate the old Tatler café. There are always more threats out there to be countered, such as the allocation in the newly proposed Local Development Plan to build a new and extended village at Cardrona on the site of the agricultural showground. Such a development without the provision of a suitable alternative site would be a disaster for our town and for agriculture over a wide area.

A large amount of our time has been spent considering the overall management of the Chambers Institution and the board of Trustees tasked to oversee it. This is not the forum to describe the history of the institution, our views of the last five years management, or our views that appear to have a significant divergence from the views of the Trustees, who are all elected councillors. Some of this has been covered in some detail in previous issues of this journal, however, suffice it to say that we may give a much fuller account when we feel the time is right.

I have learned a great deal over the past couple of years and one of my biggest lessons is the vast complexity that a district council must manage. It is a seriously large undertaking that we all take for granted. From schools, healthcare, care in the community, waste management, roads, etc., the list is endless, and the juggling of budgets must be extremely difficult. Also, to have effective oversight, whether it be the senior officials, or the elected councillors requires an eclectic knowledge and wide skill set which may not always be present, after all we are all human. I certainly have difficulty getting my mind around some of it.

My perception is this. We vote for our elected Councillors probably more based upon their politics than on their skill sets, or maybe just because of their ability to charm us with their talk. Much like any politician really! However, we expect them to on the one hand represent us, their communities, our interests and on the other to maintain a degree of oversight of the council. On the latter issue, I had little previous understanding. Elected councillors seem to have a very limited oversight and certainly not the oversight that a company director would have. As for community interest, on numerous occasions councillors represent our interests to the council, some councillors performing better than others of course, but most fulfill their roles passing well. But not all the time. There are occasions when they are not good listeners and in aligning themselves with a particular course of action seem to become part of the problem, not part of the solution. We should, the PCC and our elected councillors be joined at the hip and work together for the benefit of the community at large. We are not, not even nearly. However, to be fair to our councillors, for all their perceived faults, who would want to volunteer themselves for hard work, long days, poor remuneration and often much criticism.

We need Local authorities to provide services. We need councillors as a link and as part of the decision-making process, and we would be the poorer if organisations such as the PCC, PCT, SBCCN, PCS, etc. didn’t exist to try and give some measure of feedback and oversight. If you think you can contribute, you shouldn’t hesitate, you should get in touch, and see what your skills can contribute. It can be very rewarding.

Support or comment to Anne Snoddy (Secretary PCC) secretary@ccrbpeebles.co.uk

Peter Maudsley

Chair

Peebles and District Community Council