Community Councils

South Ayrshire Community Council Scheme and Handbook

CO-OPTION

F1	-	Filling a Vacancy
F2	-	Specialist Co-option
Appendix F1	-	Sample notice for the filling of Vacancies
Appendix F2	-	Sample Notice for Co-option
Appendix F3	-	Sample Notice for Specialist Vacancy
Appendix F4	-	Sample Notice for Specialist Co-option

A person may be co-opted onto a Community Council for the undernoted reasons.

F1 Filling a Vacancy

F1.1 Community Councils may not have their full complement of members. Community Councils may, therefore, advertise for members of the public to fill these vacancies. Appendix F1 illustrates a draft advert.

F1.2 If a member of the public comes forward to fill a vacancy their name goes before the next Community Council meeting. If the Community Council agrees by a majority to invite the person to fill the vacancy the nomination of the person must be proposed, seconded and minuted.

F1.3 A member of the public filling a vacancy must:-

be over 18 years of age at the day on which they are proposed and either
have his/her name appear on the Register of Local Government Electors for the area of the Community Council, or
reside in the Community Council area or relevant sub area.

A Community Councillor being co-opted in this manner:-

may hold office until the next 31 March and then stand for full membership if he/she so wishes.
counts towards the quorum.
has voting rights.
may hold office, except for Chairperson or Treasurer.
may not serve as a co-optee for longer than eleven months.
may not be co-opted again to fill a vacancy for the next year.

F1.4 In the event of there being more nominations than the number of vacancies, a draw by lot must take place. The Link Officer, or in his/her absence someone other than a full member of the Community Council, should place all the names (written on individual papers, each which should be folded up separately) in a hat and draw out names until the number of vacancies existing have all been filled.

F1.5 The names only of members of the public co-opted must be advertised for a period of at least 21 days. Appendix F2 illustrates a draft notice.

F2 Specialist Co-option

F2.1 Members of the public may be co-opted onto a Community Council for a specific project. Specialist co-optees’ appointments then have to be received and approved by the Community Council. The appointment of a specialist co-optee must be advertised in the same manner as Appendix F1 above. Appendix F4 illustrates a draft notice.

F2.2 Specialist co-optees do not require to reside within the Community Council area. They, therefore do not count towards the calculation of the quorum. They have no voting rights and are not permitted to hold office.