Susanna sets out to bridge the generation gap

But now Susanna is raring to go and keen to get her message across in the hope of putting Crieff CC back in the public eye.

She told the Herald: “I really want to reach the community and for the community to be involved. I want people to understand that it’s their community council.

“I want to engage with people in their twenties, thirties and forties - not just the same faces that already know about it. A lot of people my age that I grew up with don’t know what the community council is.”

Susanna also wants to encourage more people to support the Hallowe’en and Hogmanay events.

She explained: “If people don’t support things they won’t happen.

“Perth and Kinross Council don’t give us money for these things so we have to raise funds.

“We’d like Crieff to be remembered for annual events and not just Games Day, so that people are coming to Crieff regularly.

“If it carries on the way it has, there will be no community council and then there will be no community events. And that would be a shame. Forget everything else that’s gone on in the past - this is a new slate, a fresh start.”

The former Morrison’s Academy pupil (30) added that anyone wishing to lend a hand at an event or who has ideas they wish to put forward doesn’t need to be a member of the community council to do so.

Issues at the forefront of the community council’s agenda remain Broich Road, a supermarket development for Crieff and the road layout at Strathearn View.

Susanna said: “I really hope Crieff gets some sort of supermarket development. We really need a sustainable shop to suit everybody’s income and we need to have the choice.”

And Susanna is looking forward to working with the newly-elected Perth and Kinross councillors - Rhona Brock, Roz McCall and Stewart Donaldson.

She continued: “The community council is there to bridge the gap between the community and Perth and Kinross Council.

“I really want to establish a good connection with our elected Perth and Kinross councillors. They are very keen to engage with us as well. I want the community council to be seen as the middle man, which is what it should be and for people to come up to me and say, for example, ‘my wheelie bin didn’t get emptied - what can I do about it; or this has happened, who do I speak to?’

“Perth and Kinross councillors are paid to work for the community but I don’t want any negativity. I don’t want people to say ‘they are rubbish at this, they are rubbish at that’. We are starting a new slate. Basically our job is for the community to tell us what they want and then we will engage with the councillors.”

Crieff Community Council meets in Strathearn Community Campus on the first Monday of every month and anyone can attend the meetings.

It is currently experimenting with live streaming of meetings.