Category Archives: Elections

By-elections for Tiree Community Council

By-elections for Tiree Community Council

There will be a by-election for Tiree Community Council on 2 May.

There are four seats up for grabs. Candidates have to live on Tiree, be in the electoral register and be 16 and over in age.

Please consider putting your name forwards. I’ve got the forms and can help with all the paperwork. You can phone if you want to talk it through.

Nominations have to be in Lochgilphead on 21 March.

Dr John Holliday, secretary | 07786 496 275 | doc.holliday@tireecommunitycouncil.co.uk

By-election to ensure continued operation of TCC

STAND UP FOR TIREE

As we’ve notified previously via An Tirisdeach and social media, unfortunately only three candidates put themselves forward for the normal scheduled election of Tiree Community Council – one less than the minimum required to convene. A second chance to keep this vital layer of democracy and representation going is underway, with a byelection having been called. This is the last call for anyone willing to stand for Tiree Community Council.

Without a council, we would not have been able to lobby for reserved spaces for islanders on next summer’s ferries. Or badger Argyll and Bute Council to get the school’s security lights switched off at night. Or make the case for a new water treatment plant for Tiree to ensure new homes can continue to be connected.

There are five places up for grabs, and an election is highly unlikely. Nominations close on Thursday 3 November. You can get forms from Rona at the Crossapol office or from us:

Dr John Holliday | 220385 | doc.holliday@tireecommunitycouncil.co.uk
Phyl Meyer | phyl@tireecommunitycouncil.co.uk

Coming Up – Elect Her Events

We have received some correspondence with details of a range of online events, encouraging women to participate in politics at all levels. You can find details of these events below:

In September, Elect Her – a non-partisan CIC supporting women on their political journey – are hosting a month-long series of webinars, entitled Her Life in Politics, exploring every role in Scottish politics. Each Tuesday at 7:30-9pm, elected representatives from across the political spectrum will share their journey into politics and experiences since.

On Tuesday 20th 7:30-9pm, the webinar will focus on Community Councillors, hearing from Karen Harcus, Alison Lowe and Elizabeth Brown and with facilitation from former community councillor and chair Lauren Bennie. This webinar is a great opportunity for any woman motivated to create positive change in her community to learn how becoming a community councillor can help put ideas into action, learning from other women’s lived experience and meeting like-minded women along the way.

If you know a fantastic woman who you would like to encourage to become a community councillor, please invite them to this free online event so they can start their political journey today. Full details on the event, including how to book, are available here: https://www.elect-her.org.uk/events-workshops/her-life-as-a-community-councillor

The full webinar programme is as follows:

All webinars are open to women from across Britain, either new or existing members of the Elect Her community, and will be BSL interpreted and include closed captioning.

Should you have any further queries, please contact:

Rosie Trevill: rosie@elect-her.org.uk

Community & Communications Coordinator

(She/her)

Upcoming Community Council Elections 2022

Community Council Elections will take place on the 20th of October 2022.

Nominations will be open from Thursday the 18th of August up to 4pm on Thursday the 18th of September.

You can find the full nomination pack, along with further information, here.

Your current Community Councillors are more than happy to answer any questions you may have about the role or the process of standing for election – we are all reachable by email and can also be contacted via our Facebook page.

Zoom Link – Hustings Event 29th April 2022 7PM

Click on the link below to join in with Friday’s hustings event. We will be starting at 7PM.

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82574905408?pwd=S2ZRWFBUODY0WmZKN1BwQkhFYTdYUT09

Meeting ID: 825 7490 5408

Passcode: 452460

One tap mobile

+441314601196,,82574905408#,,,,*452460# United Kingdom

+442034815237,,82574905408#,,,,*452460# United Kingdom

Dial by your location

+44 131 460 1196 United Kingdom

+44 203 481 5237 United Kingdom

Meeting ID: 825 7490 5408

Passcode: 452460

Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kigAs3ulH

Meeting joining instructions:

Please note: our meetings are recorded for the purpose of minute taking. If you do not wish your camera feed to be recorded, please do not enable your camera. Keeping it off, rather than on but covered over also helps reduce internet load for participants.

When you first join the meeting at the start time – you may find you are in a Waiting Room, please just wait for the meeting to start and you will be admitted automatically.

Join Zoom Meeting online by PC or smart device:  

Guidance on joining the meeting:

You can choose how you view the meeting using the app if joining via the internet – “Gallery view” shows you multiple participants

Please note that by default you will join the meeting muted (i.e. you will not be sending sound out to the rest of the participants) – please leave yourself muted unless you need to speak, and when invited to do so by the chair, and remember to re-mute afterwards. This is needed to ensure that the call is not made very difficult to follow by background noise from multiple people, which can be extremely disruptive to the call.

We suggest that members of the public not enable their camera, unless wishing to be seen when making a contribution to the meeting. This saves bandwidth and reduces the size of the recording for the minutes.

If joining on a PC, tablet or other device, please set your screen name to a recognisable form of your actual name so that other participants know who you are – this is required if you wish to participate via either speaking or using the text chat.

The mute and unmute button is in the lower left, and looks like a microphone, next to the button for switching your webcam on/off.

If you are using a telephone to dial in, the mute and unmute command can be given by typing on your handset: *6

Requesting to speak:

If joining by computer, you can find a button to “Raise your hand” to ask to speak under the “Participants” menu, accessed by pressing the Participants button (looks like a human figure, in the middle of the bottom part of the window). You can also use the chat function to make a comment or to ask to speak on a point.

You can “raise your hand” to ask to speak if phoning in by using the code: *9

As ever if you have questions or if there is anything we can do to help you take part in the meeting accessibly, please let us know by e-mailing phyl@tireecommunitycouncil.co.uk 

Hustings on Tiree

It’s election time!
Tiree Community Council will be holding a virtual hustings on Friday 29 April at 7pm.
Eight of the eleven candidates for our ward in Argyll and Bute Council have told us they will be there, and we hope we will be able to confirm more over the coming week.
This will be an opportunity to ask questions about things you feel are important, although, with so many candidates, time will be limited!
We will post the joining details for the virtual meeting in the next few days.

Boundary Commission Review publishes final proposal for Argyll and Bute Council

The Boundary Commission has this morning published it’s final recommendations for the review of the Argyll and Bute Council ward boundaries.

TCC took part in the public consultations for this last year, including running our own survey to consult with the community – the outcome of which supported a call for a single member ward for Tiree and Coll, with the second most popular option being a two member ward with Coll, Mull and Iona – which is the option in the final proposal.

You can read the news release on the final recommendations here: https://boundaries.scot/sites/default/files/News_Release_100621.pdf

and review the full report on the recommendations relating to Argyll and Bute here: https://boundaries.scot/sites/default/files/Argyll_and_Bute_Final_Report_Low%20Res.pdf

These proposals are now subject to approval by Scottish Parliament, and although it is unlikely could still be amended – however if approved without amendment Tiree will be voting as part of a two councillor ward with Mull, Coll and Iona in next year’s Local Council elections, rather than the current arrangements of a four member ward for Oban South and the Isles.

Survey on Tiree’s elected representation in Argyll + Bute

As has been flagged up at our last two meetings and in an article in An Tirisdeach there is a consultation going on about the electoral boundaries in Argyll + Bute for Local Authority councillors.

The areas of Argyll + Bute which elect councillors (called wards) are currently being reviewed by the organisation responsible for this, the Boundary Commission.

Part of the reason for the review taking place now is that the Islands Bill of 2018 instructed the Commission to look again at the way islands were represented in local government.

Why is this important? Argyll and Bute Council spends £2,200 per head on services that include the school, the old people’s home, rubbish collection, looking after the public toilets and various other important services. Decisions on spending are made by Local Authority councillors that are elected every five years.

At present, we are part of a ward called Oban South and the Isles, which elects four members, and covers Tiree, Coll, Mull, Iona, South Oban and a surrounding area to the south of Oban. Since this arrangement began, no councillor has been elected from Tiree or Coll. There is one councillor elected on Mull, the others from the mainland.

The Boundary Commission have produced initial proposals for Argyll and Bute and want the island’s views on their proposals.

They propose a new islands-only ward that combines Mull, Iona Coll and Tiree, represented by two Argyll and Bute councillors.

An alternative proposal has been made by current and ex-councillors that Tiree and Coll should be in a separate ward of our own represented by our own councillor.

There are pros and cons which have been suggested for these two proposals. These include:

Possible arguments for the four-island option:

Tiree and Coll are so small that they may struggle to recruit someone of sufficient calibre to serve as a councillor. However, Tiree and Coll had their own councillor between 1890 and 2007 with no recorded recruitment problems.

Being part of a four-island block might help forge links between the islands that have many issues in common, and would give us twice us much leverage in the Council chamber.

Possible arguments for a separate ward for Tiree and Coll:

Stronger links to the community: a local councillor would better know their constituents, their constituents would know him or her, and the councillor would know the local issues.

Availability: because Tiree is remote from mainland Argyll, because many councillors are part-time and because they have to attend council business in Lochgilphead every week, Argyll and Bute councillors are only able to visit Tiree a few days in the year. Tiree and Coll are relatively disenfranchised within Argyll and Bute. If councillors were both based on Mull, as they would be likely to be under the first proposal (because Mull has a far greater number of voters), they would have to leave home on Sunday afternoon to get to Tiree the next morning, returning home on Tuesday evening. Proportionate to the population, Tiree could expect one councillor to spend one day a week on the island, which would mean this round trip every week on top of attendance at council HQ in Lochgilphead. This is unlikely to happen.

The added benefit to Mull and the other islands of having two councillors on Mull rather than one, as effectively at present, would be small. The added benefit to Tiree and Coll of having a councillor dedicated to Tiree and Coll would be huge.

A single councillor representing Tiree and Coll would be quite busy enough covering the two islands, which have numerous issues in common that are not experienced (or less so) by the other islands.

The absence of an Argyll and Bute councillor based here has meant that Tiree Community Council is carrying a far greater political burden than other community councils – with just £400 a year to support this work.

We have been gathering views and propose to take a position at our meeting on Dec 9th – and are making one further effort to gather opinions from the community. Please complete this short survey to tell us your thoughts:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/X3H8J5N

By-election Results

We have  received notice from Argyll and Bute Council of the results of the recent by-election and the number of votes received by each candidate was as follows:
BENNETT, Jacqueline – 74
CAMPBELL, Iona M – 240 – ELECTED
CARR, Stewart G – 88 – ELECTED
LARG, Iona M – 74
PATIENCE, John – 214 – ELECTED
REID, Louise J – 261 – ELECTED
There were 302 ballots counted, with 6 rejected, which means a turnout of 58% of those able to vote.
We would like to thank all candidates for putting themselves forward, congratulate those successfully elected and welcome them as members!

By-election contest announced

We have an election!
The Argyll and Bute Returning Officer has notified us that there are six candidates seeking election to the four spaces on the Community Council which are to be filled. Thank you to all six candidates for stepping forward!
The notice from the Returning Officer follows:
NOTICE OF POLL
ELECTION OF COMMUNITY COUNCILLORS FOR BY-ELECTION DAY
5 NOVEMBER 2020
1. A By Election is being held to fill vacant seats in the undernoted Community Council’s.
2. Polling will take place for the election of Community Councillors for the Community Council’s as shown below because the number of validly nominated Candidates exceeds the number of Community Councillors to be elected in that Area.
3. The name and address of each Candidate is as follows:-
BENNETT Jacqueline Schoolhouse, Balemartine, Isle of Tiree
CAMPBELL Iona M 4 Baugh, Isle of Tiree
CARR Stewart G Sanderling, Balephetrish, Isle of Tiree
LARG Iona M The Two Harvests No 2, Balemartine, Isle of Tiree
PATIENCE John Taigh an Altire, Caolis, Isle of Tiree
REID Louise J 11 Sruthan Terrace, Crossapol, Isle of Tiree
1. The persons entitled to vote at these elections are the persons registered in the Register of Electors in force as at 1 September 2020 for the Community Council area but a person whose name is so registered may not vote if the entry in the Register gives as the date on which he/she will attain the age of 16 years a day later than the day of the election.
2. Electors will be sent a Postal Ballot Paper and will require to return this to me by not later than 4.00pm on Thursday 5 November 2020 if their votes are to be counted.
3. Candidate Statements if submitted by them, will be included in the postal pack and available on the Council website http://www.argyll-bute.gov.uk/elections during the election period.
Pippa Milne
Returning Officer
Council Offices
Kilmory
Lochgilphead
Argyll PA31 8RT
September 2020