We’ll give power back to the people
SNP candidates vow to empower communities
SNP council candidates have pledged to make community engagement a top priority if elected at Thursday’s local authority election.
Audrey Doig and Robert Innes, who are standing for Houston, Crosslee and Linwood, claimed that strengthening support for communities can only be achieved by engaging with people.
They further claimed that the Scottish National Party has a strong track record on engaging communities, with the introduction of Local Area Committees, the Greener Renfrewshire campaign and the introduction of the public petitions system.
The Scottish Government has also introduced the Community Empowerment Act which will give community groups a chance to be involved in real decisions that impact their communities, they said.
The Community Empowerment Act aims to gives people the option to transfer derelict land into the hands of the community. It also aims to give residents the chance to have direct control over how public money is spent through participatory budgeting.
Robert Innes said: “I hope to be able to encourage community groups to use the community empowerment act and make real decisions that will improve the area.
“Nobody knows better what they need than the people themselves.
“I think it’s fantastic that residents can have an input on what happens to land and how money is spent in their community. I’m sure many decisions we have seen in the past by out-of-touch politicians could have been avoided if the public had a better input on these big decisions that impact entire communities.”
He added that if he is successful on Thursday he would looking forward to working alongside local community groups to see what can be achieve together through the opportunities the Community Empowerment Act brings.
Audrey Doig added: “To me this is the kind of community empowerment in action that the SNP believes in and that Robert Innes and I wish to promote as part of an SNP led Renfrewshire Council.
“Community empowerment is about taking the community with you, and buying into the concept so that they feel they own the projects.”