ELECTIONS TO FIND COMMUNITY COUNCILLORS IN LOCAL WARDS
Written by author on October 23, 2015
ELECTIONS will be held in a number of local community councils.
Over recent weeks the people of Dumfries and Galloway were asked to nominate candidates for their local Community Councils.
The level of interest shown now means that Community Councillors for 79 Community Councils have been elected unopposed and there is no need to go to a formal vote for these.
This was because the minimum number of valid nominations has been met and nominations don’t exceed the maximum number of vacancies for each Community Council.
This is really positive and demonstrates a strong interest in local democracy and the willingness of local people to come forward to volunteer and support their own community.
There will be ‘contested’ elections held in the following Community Council areas on Thursday, 22 October 2015:
Annandale and Eskdale: Brydekirk, Canonbie, Johnstone;
Nithsdale: Glencairn, Keir, Loreburn, Torthorwald;
Stewartry: Dalry;
Wigtownshire: Cree Valley (only Newton Stewart ward), Portpatrick and Stranraer.
Information notices are displayed locally to give people details of the venues, polling hours and candidates.
Anyone age 16 years or over, living in the Community Council area and registered to vote in local government elections, can vote for those standing to become Community Councillors in those areas. Registered voters can vote for more than one candidate up to the number of vacancies for that Community Council.
There are 107 potential Community Council areas within the region. When the Community Council elections were last held in 2012, there were only 5 contested elections across the region, so we now have a significant increase in public interest.
In June 2015 there were 19 dissolved (non-active) Community Councils, some of which had been dissolved for several years. There has been sufficient public interest to ensure that two of these Community Councils – Portpatrick and Stranraer – are proceeding to ‘contested’ elections and Lincluden has already re-established via an ‘uncontested’ election.
Lockerbie Community Council has dissolved this time due to insufficient candidate nominations.
The Council’s Leader, Ronnie Nicholson, said: “Community Councils are a strong voice in their communities. We as a Council understand the importance of local priorities and it is encouraging that people have put themselves forward to stand for election to represent our local people and to communicate their views to us and to other agencies in Dumfries and Galloway. The elections should result in the establishment of 88 Community Councils which represents a very significant 82% of our Community Council areas.”
