Chamber and committees

I am aware that some people might not have heard my question, so I will repeat the last bit of it. Can Rona Mackay tell us how the community council in her area ensures that all the voices in the community are being heard and that it is not the same people around the table all the time? I suppose that the question is about how you ensure wider recognition of every voice in your community.

I will make a wee change of direction. Stretched resources have meant that we all need to work towards efficient government, in all spheres of governance. Do councils have the desire and the scope to work more collectively over regions to deliver services? If so, what needs to change for that to happen?

You made a key point when you talked about the reorganisation of local government in the 1970s. We still see the effects of that now. If we listen to people who do not feel empowered in communities, we find that they hark back to the days of their burgh council or town council, when they had a set of people who met locally in the area and one councillor who went to a wider national body. Given that people still hark back to those days, how do we make sure that the local governance review delivers the community empowerment and the functional and devolved power to local communities that we need?

Thank you.

I thank our witnesses for making the time to come and speak to us today. As you know, a big part of community fiscal empowerment is participatory budgeting, which has been greatly interrupted by the Covid pandemic. Will you give a temperature check on the commitment that 1 per cent of council budgets will be given over to communities for fiscal empowerment on decisions? Does progress stand out in some areas? Do other areas need more support?

Can the minister detail the impact that the Scottish Government’s A77 Maybole bypass improvement scheme, in my constituency, will have on the levels of traffic in Maybole high street when the bypass is soon opened?

I will do a quick mop-up, because my next question was answered in part when Stuart Mackinnon responded to a question from Willie Coffey. I want to give the witnesses an opportunity to explore the matter of some businesses—perhaps larger businesses, as Stuart Mackinnon mentioned—bringing in professional advisers to help them with the MCC appeal process. As Colin Wilkinson rightly pointed out, such businesses have perhaps benefited more during the pandemic than small and medium-sized enterprises, which might have been hit more.

Do the panellists have final thoughts on that aspect? How can we ensure that the small and medium-sized businesses that could not avail themselves of the MCC appeal process get adequate and correct support now? Colin Wilkinson mentioned that in the first place—does he have any thoughts?

Before I ask my questions, I refer everybody to my entry in the register of members’ interests as I am a serving councillor on East Ayrshire Council.

My first question is quite general. We have heard about the fantastic collaborative working between local government and the businesses in their local areas. How effectively has the support for businesses been targeted in response to the pandemic? That question is about both tiers of government, whether it be the UK and Scottish national Governments, or local government, which we have heard quite a lot about today. I direct that question to Stuart Mackinnon to start with.

On a point of order.

I am having connection problems. I would have voted no.

Writing last year to the Local Government and Communities Committee—I am now the deputy convener of the Local Government, Housing and Planning Committee—the president of the Convention of Scottish Local Authorities celebrated incorporation of the European Charter of Local Self-Government into Scots law and noted that she sensed that there was a high degree of support for the bill. That observation proved correct when this Parliament backed the bill unanimously.

Does the cabinet secretary agree that the UK Government’s attack on the act is an attack on the cross-party judgment of both COSLA and the Scottish Parliament as well as on the system of devolved politics in Scotland?