Will council enter a new era?

Communities around Perth and Kinross will be given the chance to boost local democracy in the wake of next week’s election.

And a significant overhaul within the council – including the streamlining or reworking of committees – may also be in the pipeline.

This could include a shake-up of common good funds - a hangover of local government reorganisation in 1975.

Questions about the future of the council were being presented to current councillors on Wednesday this week, but will ultimately lie with the future make-up of the local authority after May 4.

They are being posed amid a number of reports concentrating on councils, issued by groups including Audit Scotland and the Scottish Government.

So-called discussion papers prepared for this week’s meeting offered councillors a chance to think about what works well and what could be reconsidered as the local authority steps into a new era from May 5.

But what will change is the relationship between officials at 2 High Street and local communities, with the 2015 Community Empowerment Act requiring a new approach to the involvement in decision making.

That is on course for a draft community plan to become fully fledged in September. It will be consulted on over summer 2017 ahead of it being adopted by the council and its partners.

Within these are locality action plans which will aim to improve each area of Perth and Kinross - which has been split into five zones– ensuring that it works towards including various groups and minimise issues such as inequalities.

As part of its consultation PKC has set up‘story of place’sections within the plans for people to respond to.

Each read like a book of basic facts about the communities, from unemployment to educational attainment.

Issues such as Strathallan and Strathearn and also Highland being among the worst for fuel poverty in Perth and Kinross are noted to help generate responses.

In terms of the future of PKC itself, the committee structure could be moved to renewal with the 10 common good funds - such as Perth, Crieff and Kinross - amalgamated, or included in another committee. Common Good assets, although linked to villages and towns, are owned by the council with the current structure using local members to decide on matters, but there is no requirement for them to exist in this format.

The last review of this type on the decision making structure was concluded in December 2012, seven months after the council elections that year.

Head of democratic services, Gillian Taylor, has prepared the report.

She said:“This paper attempts to set out some of the key issues to be considered in developing political decision-making structures after the local government elections on May 4.”