Second chance for Rogart to form community council

A Sutherland community is being given a second chance to form a community council.

Rogart was one of 16 communities across the Highlands which failed to field enough candidates when elections were held for community councils late October.

The Rogart body was the only one of Sutherland’s 17 councils to have fallen by the wayside in the election process.

But now the local authority is inviting nominations again from those areas where a representative body was not formed.

Nomination papers are being accepted now with the deadline noon on Wednesday, February 26.

After the outcome of the 2019 elections, East Sutherland and Edderton ward councillor Richard Gale expressed his disappointment at the Rogart result and urged local people to consider standing again

He said: “I don’t know why it should be the case that Rogart has not managed to get enough nominations the first time round but I would urge residents to reconsider when nominations reopen.

“What I would say to the people of Rogart is that this is an opportunity to take control of your community council and to make sure that you have the opportunity to influence matters that affect you directly.

“It is also important to recognise that with no community council in place, there is no one to administer a range of funding opportunities which means that local groups and individuals could lose out."

Those wishing to stand as candidate must reside within the community council boundary and must be a registered voter.

The maximum membership of each of the Highland community council’s is determined by the population it serves and varies from 7 to 13 members.

For full details and to download application forms visit ww.highland.gov.uk and use the search term community council elections.

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