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" ...my child's education... "
" ...public transport from my house into the town... "
" ...I'm concerned about protecting the environment... "
" ...tackling vandalism and graffiti is important... "
" ...there should be more for young people like me... "
These comments look familiar to you?
It's not suprising if they do, because so many of the same things are important to a lot of us.
Sometimes, people feel they can't have a say in the 'big' issues like education, transport or the environment. But you can, because most of these issues are discussed and dealt with at a local level by your council and other public sector organisations (we call them our community planning partners).
" ...public transport from my house into the town... "
" ...I'm concerned about protecting the environment... "
" ...tackling vandalism and graffiti is important... "
" ...there should be more for young people like me... "
These comments look familiar to you?
It's not suprising if they do, because so many of the same things are important to a lot of us.
Sometimes, people feel they can't have a say in the 'big' issues like education, transport or the environment. But you can, because most of these issues are discussed and dealt with at a local level by your council and other public sector organisations (we call them our community planning partners).
And here in Renfrewshire, we have many different ways for you to 'get involved' in these discussions and have your say, helping to shape the decisions that affect us all. The idea behind LACs is to bring the council and our community planning partners closer to you and give you the chance to: let us know what you think is most important to your local community; have your say about how services should be delivered; tell us how you think our services are doing; and allocate grant funding to local projects.
As well as councillors and public officials, local community and voluntary groups are part of the LACs, with over 100 representatives regularly attending meetings and giving us their views. If you're part of a community or voluntary group, why not join?
As part of every LAC meeting, there's an open session to deal with issues raised by individual residents. If you have an issue you'd like discussed at this open session, using the form below, you can raise it at the meeting (with the agreement of the chairman) or you can write to the council's Head of Legal and Democratic Services before the meeting.
LAC Open Session question form (pdf - 267Kb)You need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this document. Download Acrobat Reader here.
What are community councils for? Well, their main purpose is representing the views of their community to the Council and its planning partners.
Members are nominated and elected by their local communities, and are expected to represent the views of everybody in that community. Potholes, planning applications, Christmas lights – these are the sort of 'local' issues that community councils typically raise with the council and other community planning partners. In fact, many community councils invite council officials and police officers to come and speak at their meetings. Elected members of the council also attend to hear about constituents' concerns and help to resolve them.
But that's not all. Some of our community councils have used their imagination and got even more involved by:
- organising environmental projects, gala days and after-school clubs
- printing and distributing local newsletters
- providing youth clubs, and
- carrying out local surveys.
At the moment, there are no community councils in Brediland, Charleston, Craigielea or Foxbar. If you'd like to get involved in setting up a new community council, contact our Liaison Officer, Anne McNaughton on 0141 840 3147 or email community-council.cs@renfrewshire.gov.uk.
One of the easiest ways to get involved is to make sure you vote in elections.
It's important that you exercise your democratic right to vote. By voting for members of the council and the Scottish, UK and European parliaments, you've made your choice about who you'd like to represent your views. But, you can only vote in elections if your name is in the electoral register.
The electoral registration officer carries out an annual canvass and monthly rolling registrations to make sure the electoral register for Renfrewshire is up-to-date. Every year, a number of residents forget to return their form, which could mean their name is removed from the register and they're not able to vote.
And remember, if you've moved house recently, you’ll have to check that youre registered to vote at your new address.
If you're not registered, you can't vote - it's as simple as that. Check with the electoral registration officer now.
Why not register for a postal vote? This will let you send in your vote before election days, so that you won't miss out whatever happens. If there's something you feel strongly, why not raise a petition?
You can either raise a petition as an individual or on behalf of a community or voluntary group you're part of.
Your petition can be about an issue of concern you have with the council, or about a service provided by our community planning partners such as the police or the health board. There are some issues for which petitions are not accepted (for example, planning or licensing applications for which different appeal procedures are already in place) but all petitions are considered by our director of corporate services and if your petition isn't valid, we’ll contact you to explain why.
It's very easy to raise a petition, as we have a simple form for you to fill out with all the details we need to consider if it's valid or not.
Petitions are heard by our scrutiny and petitions board which is made up of elected members of the council. If your petition is valid, you’ll be invited to attend the board meeting where it is going to be discussed, and you can bring one 'supporter' along with you. Many of the decisions we take in the council are opened up for consultation beforehand.
This means that you have the chance to read about the issue and let us know what you think. Your views then help us to understand what the concerns of local people are, and they influence the decisions that we take.
Consultations are normally open for a set period of time and involve you completing a survey or emailling us with your views. Some of the things we've recently consulted with local residents on are: our strategy for helping carers; our school meals service; the housing needs of ethnic minorities; and timetabling in secondary schools.
Another way we regularly consult with local residents is through our Public Services Panel. The panel is made up of 2,000 people chosen at random from the electoral register and we send a survey to these people which asks them for their views about lots of different things, from community safety and child protection to healthy eating and leisure facilities.
Get involved now!
We're currently looking for two volunteers to represent the views of young people and one volunteer to represent local residents on Renfrewshire Licensing Forum.
The role of the forum is to review the licensing system in Renfrewshire and give advice and recommendations to the licensing board (although this does not include reviewing, offering advice or making recommendations in relation to any particular application or case before the board).
Anyone interested in joining the forum must be at least 16 years old and able to show an interest in the licensing system. Membership is until May 2012 and the forum meets at least four times a year.
If you're interested in applying to join, call the clerk of Renfrewshire Licensing Forum on 0141 840 3588.
