We connect and network! Small rural communities such as ours will inevitably face many of the same issues and challenges, so with three villages in such close proximity to each other it makes sense that the Community Council provides a platform as a single-point-of-contact.

Connecting in this way brings our individual communities closer together so that we can share the knowledge, experiences, information and resources that exist in each individual community.

In turn this places us in a better position to jointly initiate projects and/or face up to and overcome whatever challenges confront us. After all there is strength in numbers, and as the old adage states “a problem shared is a problem halved” … [or reduced by 66.6% in our case!]

We find out facts! We may just be part-time volunteers, but our collective life experiences, skills, mindset and professional inquisitiveness enables us to delve into the core of almost every topic that comes our way.

It may be an idea for a new project, fund raising, a local problem, regulations, new legislation or accessing resources but whatever the need, your councillors individually or as a sub-committee can take the time to research the matter and find the information needed to try to bring a project to fruition or resolve an issue.

We can conduct research with local authorities, other community councils, non-government organisations as well as the private and commercial sectors to uncover the information and the guidance we need.

We ask, we listen, we tell! All that we do and strive to achieve as a community council is based upon the precept of actively and continually consulting with residents across our three communities to find out what really matters to you about your particular community.

We have plans for occasional door-to-door visits and an annual online survey, but for the community council to be effective we need your involvement so we would urge you to be proactive and interact with us at every opportunity, whether that be on the website, on social media or at our monthly meetings or one-to-one with a councillor. Remember, if you don’t ask you won’t get!

In turn, we through appropriate use of email newsletters, this website, social media, flyers and posters we will endeavour to keep residents informed of the communities activities.

We apply ourselves - for you! Although the community council itself, does not have access to any specific funding sources [other than our own administrative annual budget from the SBC], we do have the collective knowledge, contacts and experience that allows us to research, identify, solicit and formally apply for funding for specific community led projects.

Community project funding, in various forms is often available from a diverse range of local, regional, and national funding sources. Quite simply if you don’t apply you don’t get!

We make things happen! Facilitation is so much more than just organising social or public events, meetings or campaigns [which we are happy to do]. We can take an idea and try to bring it to life; we can highlight a problem and try to achieve a resolution, where there is no information we can inform, we can distil misinformation into clear and concise facts and where there is no guidance, we can show the way. Our primary facilitation role within our collective community is to establish and maintain a clear focus and purpose for each individual community’s aims or sub-committee’s efforts alongwith the community council’s mandate as a whole. In short, we must ensure that whatever we are working towards; the main thing, is to keep the main thing… the main thing!

We are your voice! Within the realms and function of local government and community activities, there is often a vital need for the views of our communities to be highlighted and represented in various forums, such as at physical or online virtual meetings or with one-to-one discussions with parliamentary representatives or other influencers within local authorities.

That’s where we come in, having garnered the feedback and opinion from the community, we represent these views when and where it matters most…. And we’re not backwards in coming forward when it comes to campaigning!

“Planning is bringing the future into the present so that we can do something about it now” [quote by Alan Lakein].

One important role of the Community Council is to ascertain, review, comment and reflect the views of the community concerning any Planning Applications in our area

By statute, the Scottish Borders Council’s is required to consult a Community Council on planning and licensing applications within its area, if we feel it is appropriate. Our comments may be supportive if an application is likely to enhance the area or benefit the people in it. Alternatively, we may object to SBC’s Planning Department if we feel the opposite is true.

We make informed decisions! When faced with choices liable to affect our community we bring together all of the aforementioned processes of consultation, research, fact finding, experience and logical reasoning to achieve the best practical outcome for the community… on your behalf.

These decisions, as difficult as some may be, will always reflect the wishes of the community and be made in good faith. In reaching decisions we exercise the utmost caution and always act with the best interests of our individual and/or collective communities at heart.

Our decision-making process is completely transparent and conducted within the ethical and professional standards that we have been mandated to adhere to.

It’s all about you… but just sometimes, it’s about us and we try to have fun doing what we do! Local politics can be a ‘dry’ subject, and dealing with serious local topics can often be all consuming.

As passionate as our councillors are about the community and the work, they do takes hard work, time, effort and commitmen for part-time volunteers.

But we enjoy trying to make a difference, so when the time is right, we sometimes like to celebrate our achievements, make light of what we do [see below], and enjoy the social events and activities in our respective villages.