Thursday 8th December 18:30 - 20:30

The December meeting of Eskbank & Newbattle Community Council (ENCC) will be held in the usual venue of the Boardroom (3rd floor) of Edinburgh College (Midlothian Campus) at 6:30 pm on Thursday 8th December (the usual second Thursday of the month).

The meeting is open to all residents of the ward who wish to attend. Agendas and minutes of previous meetings are published on our website. If you wish to raise some matter or make us aware of some issue then if you contact us in advance by email we can try to seek out an informed response before the meeting.

This meeting will start with our AGM. This is when new councillors are elected and those councillors who have served their 3-year term and wish to stand again are re-elected. ENCC has a total of 15 council places allocated, but seldom have all available places been filled by sitting councillors. ENCC is keenly seeking volunteers from the community to put themselves forward for election at this AGM to fill some of the vacant places.

If you have an interest in maintaining and developing your community and wish to take part you can find out more about ENCC at the About Us page (link) of our website, and if you scroll down to the bottom of that page you can download the ENCC Candidate Nomination Form to put yourself forward for election to become a member of ENCC at the AGM (or download the form directly as a PDF or WORD version here). The forms must be returned to Paul Johnson, Midlothian Council's Community Liaison Officer who will officiate at the AGM, one week before the AGM - that is by this Thursday, December 1st. Paul has stated that digital versions of the form sent as an attachment to an email are acceptable, so because of the short notice (and possible postal strikes) we advise that you download the Word version of the form and fill that in and save it as a .doc (or .docx) file to email to him at Paul.Johnson@midlothian.gov.uk as indicated on the form (otherwise print the form out, fill it in and return to him by post at the address given at Penicuik Town Hall).

Candidates must be residents of ENCC ward (as shown on the electoral register) and require two residents as nominees and a witness, all details to be filled in on the form. It does not state that a nominee can not also be the witness, so that might save some effort in assembling your application.

If the number of candidates does not exceed the number of available places (i.e. 15 minus the number of sitting members not up for re-election) there will be no formal election and all candidates will be appointed as community councillors at the AGM. From past experience this is likely.

ENCC anticipates a busy year ahead and urgently needs as full a membership as possible to share the workload and bring a wide representation of our community's views and locations to respond to whatever arises that ENCC needs or wishes to engage with. Please consider joining us.

If you have any questions or comments please contact us at mailbox@eskbanknewbattlecc.org. If you want a copy of the nomination form sent directly to you as an email attachment let us know by reply.